I’ve discovered a wonderful support group of friends.  You know deep down they’re there all the time and it really doesn’t take much of a crisis for them all to rally round.  G and I sat and chatted not long after the cancer was confirmed and decided my hair had to go.  Not completely – its demise would come in its own time, maybe three weeks into the chemo – but as its days were definitely numbered, it would be easiest to start with it short.  Smaller handfuls when it goes, you see.  And maybe less of a shock.  So the girls came round with the tools of the trade and cut my hair by good humoured committee.  I now have a stylish new look which shows off all my earrings; it’s just a shame it’s not going to last too long.

The next job was to choose a replacement and T and I duly went to the wig shop, NHS prescription in hand.  Now this was fun.  I got to try on lots of different hairstyles in any colour I wanted.  I have to confess I did discard some of the suggestions I’d had from helpful sisters: “How about red?”  (this one’s got red hair) or “You could have an Afro”.  Why?  But it was much easier than we expected and I’ll make the final choice next week.  It won’t be red.  Or grey.  But if we’d thought more about it, I might have chosen the wig first and then got my hair cut to match.  Ho hum.

It did set me thinking about some of the positive sides to all this.  The rest of this is really for the ladies…

• No more smear tests.  Now that has to be a bonus.
• I can skip the monthly visit to the Feminine hygiene section in the pharmacy from now on.  Another bonus.
• I’ll have an excuse to wear hats, scarves, big earrings.  Did I need an excuse?
• No body hair?  No need to wax!  Not that I’ve ever contemplated waxing but, you know, I might have done.
• No body hair?  It might take seconds off my swim sprint times.  If only I were allowed to swim.
• If I can’t swim, I’ll just have to get out on my bike.  I’ve been promising myself to work on my cycling for the last couple of years.  Now’s my chance!  Time to borrow a turbo trainer maybe.

And I suspect my priorities might change as life goes down an unexpected path.  We’ll have to wait and see on that score.