Everything has changed.

I'm writing because writing gives me a space, a space where I have a moment to reflect.  I sit here, four wires attached to the backpack attached to me.  My neck is starting to get sore because I don't want to have to shift these wires around.  Just stay here, pack of electronic cables.  I want to ignore, just for a time, what this means.

Oh, Optune. What does it mean to have this all the time?
What does it mean for who I am?

Sad.  I'm so sad.

I was able to be encouraging with Maybelle.  She's so curious about these changes, and she kept talking about my hair being gone.  She ultimately accepted it, although I woke her up as I was getting out of her bed.  She kissed me and went back to sleep.

Hair, phase 1

April 15, 2016:  Starting where I was and ending up where I am.

My last day with my hair.

Currently not all that curly, but still pretty filled with health.  Can I
embrace my new hair to look like my Dad's?

Things are happening very, very quickly here.  The last time I wrote a week ago, I talked about what I was doing next.  So here's the quick update:  on Friday, April 15, 2016--tomorrow--all my hair will be cut away.  And that's it--they aren't allowed to grow back.  Every couple of days, I'll have to shave it so that no hair can be there to keep my skin and blood from connecting with the Optune (here I'm showing a video of a guy with his Optune).

Oh, my hair.

Check it out!  MY FIRST YEAR AT CHARLESTON!  And Claire was
so cool that she went on a six-hour hair trip with me!  We're both so curled.
We look like cool sisters.  (Still the case.)

Catherine's hair looks different, as does mine.  I love my hair here. I love its
length, and its mild curls.  I love you, too, Catherine!

I have no idea where my Dad and I are (there seem to be
guns in the background!), but here we are:
my Dad makes a classical Lee Piepmeier scowl,
and my curly short hair.

So now I'm agreeing that it has gotten less hair.
I'm recovering from the radiation that took
some of my hair.

Maybelle's hair is straight.  Even when it's short, my hair is curly.  This
is a picture from two weeks ago.  Soon my hair won't look like this.