Shower & A Shave

Saturday, May 14, 2016.  Today was my first full day at home.  It was a great great day.  After having some trouble falling asleep last night, I stared at my wife for a while — realized how lucky I am — and ended up sleeping the best I have in 3 weeks. 

The day went fast, but was packed.  It included hanging out this morning, organizing my newly furnished office with my mother-in-law, figuring out why my new ipad wasn’t getting email (took me one hour to figure out it needed to get hooked up to WIFI), getting to watch my son play baseball outside in the spring sun this afternoon, hanging out at various moments with each of my boys, watching sports, visiting with a bunch of friends, talking diet and nutrition with my father-in-law, and starting to get an appetite back (today’s menu included a bagel with veggie cream cheese and swiss at breakfast, a tuna melt and a few sliders, wings and a slice of pizza tonight).  Cheat day came earlier!  I also got a nice walk around the neighborhood in with Jake and my father-in-law right before dinner.  And I organized my bar and my closet.  Come to think of it, I got a lot done today.   Not sure I remember doing this much around the house since I started practicing law….

But the big event today was my shower.  Actually, it was the “grooming process” before the shower that took the most time.   Think it was 1.25 hours in total.  

I shave my head every single day of the week (and usually once on the weekend).  Cancer has not changed that.  I think the only day I haven’t shaved my head was April 25th.  That was the morning I woke up at White Plains Hospital for a biopsy after getting admitted on Sunday April 24th when a 4 1/2 inch grapefruit showed up in the middle of my chest on a cat scan.  [More to come on that front another time.]  The point is, had I had a razor at White Plains hospital, I would have shaved my head that morning, just as I did every single day at Weill Cornell.  I enjoy it.  It is simply part of my day.  Today, however, was a little different.  

When I got my first chemo treatment, the chemo nurse asked if I had “proactively” shaved my head.  I laughed and told her yes — “ten years ago.”  After she laughed, I asked her if I could ask a serious question.  She said yes.  I then explained to her that I was the type of person that had hair everywhere I didn’t want it, and was wondering whether the hair on my knuckles, ears and back (among other unchoice places) would fall out.  I was dead serious.  She kind of laughed and then started the chemo.  

Well as much I have been shaving my head every day to avoid the ring around my ears that I swore I would never rock (like my grandfather), the hair on the rest of body is in fact coming off.  So I made a decision over the last couple of days and implemented it this morning.  More specifically, I grabbed my Gillette Fusion Proglide Styler/Groomer and went to work.  After tending to my dome, I shaved off the hair on my hands (even my knuckles Chris and Nicole), arms (which will help with the IV’s and blood tests going forward) and my chest.  I just couldn’t do the legs.   Maybe tomorrow.   For those of you that think this is graphic or personal, please don’t be alarmed or concerned:  I did this type of grooming in high school because I thought I would look better at the beach, and I still do some “manscapping” of this nature around our beach vacations.  I know, ridiculous.  Anyway, I kind of like it and Jen at least said she thought it looked good.  And that is all I care about. 

Come to think of it, it was a pretty busy day and I enjoyed every second of it.  Looking forward to waking up tomorrow.