Rapunzel, Rapunzel, How Does Your Hair Grow?

My hair as I used to wear it. May 22, 2011

Its former length, at the same time.

Friday, June 3, 2011 we cut off the braid for Locks of Love, before my first chemo treatment.


It was this length for two weeks around my first treatment.

After my hair started falling out, we shaved my head on June 18th. This picture was taken Sunday, the next day.

In July, my head had painful sores on it.

Completely bald, late July.

Sunburned forehead from the holes of the straw hat I was wearing. Little prickle hairs.

September 22nd--last chemo chocolate cake celebration!

September 26th, still a baldy! Eyebrows and eye lashes pretty much gone at the end of treatments.

My hair started coming in very fine and gray. October 10th

October 10th, with Beth's freshly washed hair in comparison!

Thanksgiving week hairdo...


Side-by-side hair-growth comparison: November 12th, December 10th, January 11th, and January 24th. Also shows my eyebrows and eye lashes coming back in.

I am hoping the brown will "overpower" the gray sometime, but I'll be happy with whatever I get back!

Jeffrey's health

Hi,
I wanted to let people know who aren't on Facebook (Hi, Aunt Joyce!) what has been going on with Jeffrey the past few days. He's had a cold type thing that was hanging on, and then Friday and over the weekend, had not felt well at all: fever, chills, achy, nauseated, when he went up the four flights of stairs, his heart hurt; when he breathed deeply, his heart hurt. He went to the school nurse early Monday morning, and she was afraid maybe mono was returning, which he had in 2009 after his Haiti mission trip. She wanted him to see a doctor. When he called for appointment, the doctor was booked up until February, and the office personnel told him to go to the ER.

So one of the kind GBS people took him to the ER at Christ Hospital. He had a lot of blood work, UA, EKG, chest x-ray done and lots of waiting. He had an IV and was given medicine for nausea, which helped that, and allowed him to get some sleep. (He's been sleep deprived from too much studying.) They were particularly concerned about the heart pain, so did an echocardiogram and CT scan. Apparently they were considering a possibility of blood clot, but ruled that out and decided on pericarditis for the diagnosis. The pericardia is the sac around the heart; it was inflamed. He got IV steroid twice yesterday and was admitted late last night to the cardiac floor, with telemetry monitoring and IV fluids. He was feeling better already late last night.

Today he saw the cardiologist who confirmed the diagnosis. He was released from the hospital with prescriptions for non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs. One he will be on for 90 days, and the other for two weeks.

Several things we are thankful for: that he was properly diagnosed, that the nurse was concerned enough to send him for further help, for the various GBS staff who stayed with Jeffrey--someone was always with him, even overnight!, for the two "big" cousins who live in Cincinnati who are close family for Jeffrey since we can't be there, for all the people who prayed for him, for the fact that he is allowed to be on our insurance, for this not being something worse, that he didn't have to stay longer, and that God was there with him, even though we could not be!


Uncle Jeff and Micah Albertson at Christmas time 2011. Happy 3rd birthday to Micah this week!