I woke up Sunday morning at 5am to the feeling of hair in my face. If you recall, I had my hair cut really short, so there was no way that it could be in my face and still attached to my head. To me that was the signal that it was time to shave my head – ready or not – the time had come. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I watched a movie, then slept a bit longer. When I got up, I actually checked my pillowcase and there was no hair – there was a single hair stuck in my eye mask. That is what I felt, but I had already made my decision. It was time.

I had noticed that my hair was thinning. Every time I brushed it or washed it, I saw a few more of the longer hairs. I find it interesting that people talk about it coming out in chunks. That hasn’t been my experience, either last time or this time – perhaps that is in part because I shaved my head before most of it came out. Either way, I knew that when I ran my fingers through my hair that there was less and less of it.

It was a sunny day, so we decided to setup the clippers out in the middle of the common green (the area between buildings). We didn’t make any announcements, we just set it up. I sat in my camping rocking chair with an old sheet wrapped around me and Scott too the clippers to my head. Initially he started with a 2 but when I felt my hair, it felt too long, so I had him shave it to a one. Of course, he had to do the mohawk type photo along the way.

In solidarity, Scott had me shave his head with a zero – which is shorter than he normally has it.

Then one of my neighbours decided that in her 80 years, she had never had a buzz cut and asked me to do hers too. I shaved hers to with number 2. I think the three of us look great.

We tried to get a family photo with Scott, Cali, and I – but of course Cali just wanted to check out our new haircuts with her tongue.

Today I felt great. I started the day with a swim. A couple of days ago when I was doing my VR boxing I realized that I really missed my boxing classes. I missed the people at Dave’s multisport and all the laughter that goes along with the Monday/Friday stress relief class. I sent them an email and asked about going back – given that I’m in chemo. I was encouraged to come back and give it a try.

As I stepped into the studio, I gave a wave to Dave. He came over to welcome me back and I was holding back tears. This wasn’t just getting back to an exercise class, it was going to back to something I loved that I haven’t been able to do since this spring (I had an injury before the cancer diagnosis). I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it.

I’m so happy to report that I had a great class. I didn’t over do it (at least I don’t think I did, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow). I hope that I will feel well enough to go to Friday’s class – then I’ll be off for at least 3 classes as I physically won’t be well enough and at one point my platelets will be too low for the physical impact of boxing. But, when my body starts to rebound after the next cycle, I hope to get back for another couple of classes. There is a sense of ‘normalcy’ to be able to go, but also, it is something that I love doing and thinking that I’d never get back was making me sad. I’m glad I decided to reach out and try it.