This, on a very superficial level, was one of my concerns. I’ve mentioned previously the boost from trying on heaps of head coverings and actually finding them attractive, feeling I can wear those coverings for an extended period.

Now that I’m meeting people with venous catheters and no hair, it’s amazing how quickly the focus becomes the person, eyes, expression rather than external superficialities. I’ve had these discussions with Muslim Dutch girls and Norwegian cocktail waitresses and Irish engineers, and it all comes down to the eyes and emotion.

But there’s no way to make this pretty !

Hair, makeup, ancillaries… all are wonderful and I’ll relish getting them back, but they’re not the person.

Tonight I get more stem cell stimulation, again at 11pm and 3 pm, then tomorrow we start stem cell harvesting. This could take 1, 2 or 3 days depending how we go go. So far I’ve been lucky, with no joint pain just fatigue and so much sleeping.

Tomorrow we’re hooked up to the machine for 6 hours, and maybe the same the day after, to harvest those stem cells.

No escape for a few days … so photos of last night’s boat trip

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