I Thought I Would Join Up Before I Got Drafted

I got some very good advice from another cancer survivor. He said it was much better to grab the bull by the horns and shave your own head before you find yourself standing in the shower with a handful of hair.

My philosophy about this disease from the beginning has been: Forward! My model has been Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance. A sailing ship can't back up. It can only, you guessed it, move forward.

So with that in mind, I asked one of my terrific nurses, Caroline, to bring out the clippers and shave the noggin.

Well, it seems that may have been premature. Here I sit with a head covered in fuzz and no sign of further depiliation.

Live & learn.

The bald scalp does make the steel staples look fierce. Someone remarked the other day that the staples are just outside the hairline. So I will have some scars to brag on down the line. I'm sure my surgeons did what was medically necessary but I can't help but think of the line from M*A*S*H (the movie)

Voice 1: Does anyone know if this is an officer or an enlisted man?
McIntyre: An enlisted man.
Voice 1: Make the stitches big.

Ah, vanity.

I have never been overly-proud of my looks. I have often considered myself the "BEFORE" picture or the picture in the Post Office. But let me tell you with the head shaved and the badass scar, I am definitely the guy you don't want to see behind you at night at the ATM.