Henna Party!

Part of the reason why I didn't sleep on Sunday night, I think, was because of all the excitement from Sunday evening.  You see, I had a henna party at my house!

I have heard of people - women mostly - who sometimes get tattoos on their head when they become bald from treatment.  So, rather than doing something so permanently, I decided it would be fun to get a henna design on my bald noggin.

I decided on a lotus flower - I want to know more about the symbolism of the lotus flower; I know that in Buddhism, there is an association with enlightenment.  I also liked the idea that its roots are in the mud and muck and yet, here is this beautiful flower rising above it all.  It seems an appropriate symbol or metaphor for someone who has cancer, doesn't it?  That there's something beautiful that can grow out of something ugly.  Or, even the idea that the ugly has a purpose, which is to support the growth of something beautiful.

So, I had a group of friends and family over on Sunday evening and a wonderful henna artist, Kailyn, who owns her own business here in town called Mehndi in the Morning, came over to create designs for all of us.

I changed my profile pic here on the blog to show you what my design looked like on my head - after removing the henna the next day, it's a nice light brown color.  I shows up better with the dark, so I decided to use that image.

Here are the other designs that friends and family chose from our evening - I won't identify the people since I don't have their permission.  I figure I can share their designs with you, though!

The first is my wrist.  The design turned out a nice brown!

We had a great time .  . . and now I'm seriously thinking of getting a tattoo on my head.  I know it'll be there when my hair grows back. And, if I ever lost my hair again, I'd have something there.

At any rate, thank you so much, Kailyn!  The designs are beautiful!  I appreciate your time and effort!

Zimbabwe Festival and Withdrawl Symptoms

I went to the Zimbabwe Festival today with a couple of friends today. Listening to the marimba bands was really kinda cool and I had fun browsing the arts and crafts booths. I bought a $5 pair of abalone and coral earrings, half of a cloth with a pretty floral blue and white pattern on a black background, and a small statuette of a mother carrying her child on her back. The statuette reminded me of Eskimo "umaqqing", which is when moms or older kids carried a baby on their backs under their parkas. It fits nicely in the palm of my hand, almost like a worry stone. I have a turtle necklace that I bought in Hawaii last year with a baby turtle on it's back. I figure the two remind me of one major reason why I continue in my efforts to heal myself from this cancer: my son.

Well, that got kinda heavy! In other news, I felt a bit shaky and had chills with flu-like symptoms with occasional sweats. Thought it was a digestive issue or I caught some kind of flu or ate something wrong yesterday.

I had last taken a 50-mg tramadol pill yesterday at noon. Tramadol is the name of the pain pill I have taken for almost four weeks now. Two weeks ago, I had as many as 6 or 7 pills in one day. But on the last week, I had gradually de erased it as my pain lessened. I think last week, I may have had only 3 or 4 at a time. Then on Thursday, the UW doctor said I could take anti-inflammatories for 72 hours to decrease the inflammation and stop taking the pain pills.

By Friday, I had less pain, so I think I may have only had 1 or 2 pills all day. Then just one on Saturday. I woke up at 3am feeling achey all over and couldn't get comfortable and go back to sleep. I finally took some Tylenol and fell back asleep at 4:30am.

This evening, I still didn't feel right, with muscle aches and chills and a bit of pain in my armpit, so I took a pain pill in the hopes that I could get a good night's sleep. Within an hour, the chills and aches were gone, so I began to suspect that I was going through withdrawals.

Looked up the symptoms of withdrawals and, yep, that's exactly what's going on. So, I could either go cold turkey or gradually wean myself. I am going to opt for the latter because I have some things to do tomorrow, like laundry and a couple of work things, before we head to the Coast on Tuesday. So, my plan is to only take half a pill for two days then quarter of a pill for a. Ouple of days so I can enjoy the Coast without feeling like I have the flu.

Criminy, why didn't the doctors tell me that withdrawls were a possibility? I would've been more careful about how much I took (never more than prescribed) and would've maybe started to wean myself sooner.

Ah well, live and learn. That's all one can do with this disease!