Healing Correctly

Inspirational song: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Elton John)

The first post-operative physical therapy appointment went well. The therapist praised the two surgeons' work. She said it was much less inflamed with fewer hard spots than she expected out of me. I told her never underestimate the prowess of my immune system. We worked on movement, now that I'm allowed to raise my arms over my head, and all those things normal people do. It is quite reassuring to have someone who deals with breast cancer patients all day go on about how surprisingly well you're doing. I'd been a little unsure, with the crew at the plastic surgeon's office hmming about what they can try next for me, like I was a puzzle.

I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, to the sound of two cats howling at each other in my front yard. For a few minutes, I lay there thinking, how long can this go on? Will the loudest cat eventually get tired and shut up? Will the other get bored and wander off? It was only after a full five minutes of this that my brain started waking up enough for me to think to do an inventory of my own cats. Athena was on the bed with me. Jackie is too fat to jump the fence. When was the last time I'd seen the boys? So I got up, and saw Alfred watching the sidewalk through the picture window in the living room. I peered out in the dark, and there was the culprit, right next to Mr S-P's 4runner. Harvey, howling at the same black cat he fought with a few days ago. I shut the sliding glass door, slipped on shoes, grabbed a squirt bottle full of water, and went outside to deal with it. The black cat noped out as soon as she heard the door open. Harvey ducked under the Toyota. I went around to the street side, and squirted just a little water to persuade him to go back to the sidewalk. From there he was mostly willing to go back inside. Took me more than an hour to fall back asleep after that.

I wanted to ask the physical therapist whether radiation has much of an effect on how hair grows, in the same manner that chemotherapy does. The first six to eight months of hair growth after chemo was super curly and coily, and I want it to stay that way. But since then, my hair is going back to merely wavy. With product and skill, I can make it have a little shape, but it would be awesome if a month's worth of radiation would put the curl back into it. If not that, I will hope it just doesn't make it fall out again. I've been working hard to get this to look like me again.