I have hair on my head!

Mostly.

There’s a solid amount of fuzz up top, and the sides and back annoyed me enough that I went to a barber shop to get a trim. I challenge any Jarhead to a better high and tight. The hair is a mixture of dark brown and gray, and my four prominent cowlicks are on full display. We’ll see if it curls.

As warned, the eyelashes are itchy as hell, but they are growing back beautifully! I’m convinced they are thicker than before cancer, but after staring at 7 eyelashes the past few months, my judgement may be skewed.

I finally had to shave my legs, bikini area and armpits. I certainly didn’t miss having to do that. There’s a fine layer of hair in addition to the thicker follicles, so the razor kept getting clogged. But, I managed to come away unscathed! I thought for sure I’d nick myself after 5 months without shaving.

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I had a breast MRI today. My first MRI ever, to which the tech commented it was quite the one to start with. You lay face down, like a massage table, but there’s holes where your boobs are and they hang there.

I’ll let you visualize that for a moment.

I was surprisingly comfortable and could have easily drifted off… less the LOUD NOISES of the machine. (They make you wear earplugs and headphones, as the machine can reach as many as 100 decibels.)

This is the first step of many for the eventual double mastectomy. My doctor assures me this process will be significantly easier than the ovarian cancer treatment because (duh) there’s no cancer that we have to deal with. Still, by the time I go through the surgery, I suspect the suffering of chemo will be a faint memory. It’s why women have more than one kid. Our bodies are crazy, miraculous, and sometimes devious things.

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Full-time work is going fantastically well! I love the work I do and the organization I work for — not just our mission, but my colleagues as well. Their support during my time off was above and beyond. I really can’t express how much they did for me and how incredibly accommodating they were.

There have been quite a few changes and staff hired during my time off, so I’m transitioning as quickly as I can (without overwhelming myself). I’ll be in New York at the end of the month to meet the rest of the team, and in LA this week for an event, so it’s definitely full steam ahead.

Again, I love it. I know how lucky I am to feel that way, too!

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That’s all for now. Hope all of you are enjoying the summer season. I’ll pop in now and again for an update or observation. xoxo