Vamping it up

This chemotherapy lark is a drag. 

I can honestly say I have never felt so bleurgh from an appearance point of view. 

Seriously. 

I am bald.  What little stubble I did have is now falling out - generally in my food.

My eyebrows are abandoning me at an alarming rate as well. 

I have ballooned in size thanks to all the steroids (so the chemotherapy weight loss plan was a complete non starter - I just wish someone had told me that at the beginning).

And then let's not forget - this whole thing started with some man lopping off  my left boob.

Can't say my self perception is at an all time high.

However - as the title suggests, I am trying to liven things up a bit.  Therefore I have started wearing rather vampish nail varnish.  Some people have already commented on it - and the reaction has been quite positive.  I have to admit that the colour is not my usual taste but there is a medical reason - the current drug has the lovely side effect of lifting your fingernails off.  Apparently one way of trying to help prevent this is to wear as dark a nail varnish as you can find to try and block out as much as light as possible as it is thought that the drug reacts with light.  Hence the rather vampish colour!

More seriously though it has occurred to me that I should not moan - I have spent the last eleven days watching the Paralympic Games.  If this has taught me nothing else, I have learnt that however hard I think this year has been, most of the side effects such as hair loss and fluctuating weight are things that will pass.  And however hard I try to find a category in the Paralympics for myself, I have failed to find one for people whose only prosthetic is on their chest!