My doctor says the fatigue is cumulative during the course of treatment, so I may be one pokey boy during December and some of January. One annoying effect of the chemo is that my mouth has become very sensitive, to the point of being almost raw at times. This is because the chemo drugs act on the fast-growing cells in your body, and your mouth is one of those places where there’s a lot of cell turnover. I don’t think I've had a cracker in weeks, and sometimes even bread seems a little harsh. Also, I’ve developed a rash on my legs that initially spread like a California wildfire fueled by Santa Ana winds. I think I’ve brought that under control to some degree, but it’s been an incredible nuisance. One or two nights I’ve actually woken myself up because I was scratching, which is a no-no. But it feels sooooooo good for those few seconds. As you can see from my clever animation, I’m now a bald guy. A lot of my hair fell out after the first chemo session, and then for a few weeks I was left with this wispy, patchy down of grey hair and so I finally chopped it off. I can tell you, it’s a little scary the first time you run a razorblade over your scalp. Just doesn’t feel natural. And then for the first few days every slight breeze reminds you of what you’ve done. The bummer about doing this is that I thought it would be a lot easier not having the hair (my reasoning being that the chemo was going to bring any new growth to a halt anyway) but it turns out this is a fairly high-maintenance look. I get just enough fuzz every couple days that I have to shave anew. Fortunately, the electric razor handles it just fine most of the time but the downside is that I’ve got a lot more acreage to clear each time, so shaving now takes about four times as long as it used to. One more session to go, on December 14th. Think healthy thoughts.