11.22.2005

Day 5 of Radiation

Only 25 more times to go. So far, I haven't noticed any itching or other irritation. I had an appointment with Dr. Fukushima, the breast specialist I usually see, and a blood test to check for cancer markers. The blood test from 2 weeks ago came out negative. He recommended I get a flu vaccine, so L, who needed his measles vaccination, and I went to the local clinic this afternoon for some shots. His was free as it's required before entering elementary school. Mine was $60 and I have to go back for a second shot in 4 weeks (both shots are included in the $60 price). The family doctor at the clinic down the street is apparently well acquainted with my radio/oncologist, Dr. Takayama, and told me I was in good hands.

Sometime in December, my Dr. Fukushima will introduce me to the chemotherapy specialist but today's general explanation was that I'll be going for a day visit once every 3 or 4 weeks for my chemo cocktail IV. I decided to wait until I met the specialist to ask for more details.

Out of curiosity, I checked the prices on wigs in a local wig shop and was shocked to find that they start at over U.S.$2,000. They look pretty ugly so I thought they'd be about $200 with the usual high prices here. Apparently after-care is all included in the price. Well, I'd rather have a new washer and refrigerator and maybe an I-Pod, so I put the pamphlet in the paper recyle bin and looked on-line for alternatives.

I stopped by the Japanese version of a dollar shop and bought a tape measure to measure around and over (ear to ear and front to back) my head to figure out wig sizes and went ahead and ordered two on line from a very inexpensive U.S. wig supplier (Paula Young) for a total of $69 including airmail international shipping. Most of the wigs they sell are in an average size, which was slightly smaller than the results of measurements over my rather bulky hair, calculating all those centimeters into inches, so I went ahead and ordered the average sized wigs. With 41 years of bad hair days, even a bad wig might look pretty good. We'll be all set for Halloween in any event. Tomorrow is a national holiday so my next minute of radiation will be on Thursday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Kathy, I'm glad you found a good source for wigs. Here it is popular to tie a bandana or scarf around one's head. There are a couple women in my church who wear a sort of turban. They have some beautiful fabric and look very chic.

I'm glad that the radiation hasn't been too bad. How often do you go? Does it have any other side effects? That is great news about the blood work!

Love, lise

Diane. N. said...

Hi Kathy,
Good luck with Thursday's radiation. I'll be thinking of you!

I'm sure that the wigs that you ordered from the US will be much nicer than the ones that you could find here. With the prices being so cheap, you can have a variety of styles to suit your mood!

Diane (from AFWJ)