Don't Drink the Belleville Water

I received the following update from my sister Roni yesterday. It's so powerfully written, I asked if she'd mind being my "guest blogger" today. She's agreed, so I'm taking today off! Roni wrote:

"So, I'm like 7 days out of chemo. You already know that.

Aside from some mouth sores, and being very tired yesterday, I feel okay. I walked to the Habitat For Humanity Store - maybe 3/4 km. away and back. I was pleased with myself.

The strange part however was that I was the last person to use the bathtub yesterday...and when I got out, all I did was let the water drain. Last night I asked (my daughter) Makenzie if she wanted me to make her a bath (cuz she came home from rugby with proof that she does everything with zeal.) I go into the bathroom, pull back the shower curtain and go to rinse the tub when lo and behold, I see whole chunks of short grey and black hair. I immediately call Makenzie in and she immediately starts to rub my back - saying, WOW! Mom, that's weird. I say, do you think that's me? (Our cat) Sam was in the tub y'know....and he has short grey hair too y'know.

Unfortunately, she was convinced it was me which was really freaky. So I finished rinsing the tub and watched my hair slide down the drain. But that's not the really weird thing. The really weird thing was that as I watched my hair slip into the drain, I actually thought to myself, there goes the cancer.

Then in occurred to me that since all that cancer goes into our sewer system, I should steer clear of the Belleville water.

Freaky, eh?

Today the hair on my scalp hurts - almost as if I have a migraine under my skin and I can feel the hair letting go. I slept in a doo rag and checked it and it was almost as if I had gotten a haircut in my sleep - perfectly even strands, all the same width and length. So now I'm thinking I'm on a bad acid trip or something and pretty soon the shiny lights are going to get me. (Wait, that might be the radiation - I go for the consult October 17th in Kingston.)

So it also occurs to me, did my brothers feel this way when they lost their hair?

Curious.

R