It's just what WOULD happen!

zsazsa1
zsazsa1 Member Posts: 568 Member
in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1

A minor but poorly-timed indignity that some of you might be able to relate to.

I have just completed 6 rounds of Carbo/Taxol/Herceptin.  I am completely bald, with barely perceptible eyebrows, and I think no eyelashes.  Despite having felt so sick during chemo, I actually GAINED a bit, just as my oncologist said I would, probably because I had lost ten pounds before diagnosis, and because I eat whatever seems possible to calm my stomach.  My truly loving, supportive, wonderful husband does tease me, and so does my son.  It's just easier to laugh our way through all this, than to cry our way through it.

So, guess what just arrived?  My driver's license renewal!  I have to go have my picture taken for my license within the next 45 days! I'm not a vain person, but my hair was one of my best features.  I have a wig, and I'll wear it, but it's not the same, and doesn't help with lashes and eyebrows.  Now I'm a pale white, pudgy, smooth, hairless thing, and my husband made a playfully teasing remark about whales, reminiscent of when I was hugely pregnant.  And then he started singing a tune that any of us who raised kids since the mid 1980s will recall:

"Baby Beluga at the DMV...."

I was rolling in the aisles, it was so funny.  He consoled me that I could always have the picture retaken after my eyebrows and eyelashes have grown back in.

Comments

  • derMaus
    derMaus Member Posts: 558 Member
    #2
    Ask for a medical extension.

    Ask for a medical extension. It's worth a try...

  • BluebirdOne
    BluebirdOne Member Posts: 656 Member
    #3
    ZsaZsa

    LaughingLaughingLaughingLaughingLaughing

    These emojis are made for us, no hair, eyebrows or lashes. 

  • Lulu7582
    Lulu7582 Member Posts: 112 Member
    #4
    Haha

    Oh my gosh yes I totally understand...I felt like Uncle Fester! Google an image you will see what I mean!! 

    I say wear the wig and paint your eyebrows on and put eyeliner for your lashes. It's surprising how a little bit of make up can make us feel and look half way ok. Otherwise try the medical extension like derMaus suggested. 

    All the best xo

  • ConnieSW
    ConnieSW Member Posts: 1,688 Member
    #5
    Lulu7582 said:

    Haha

    Oh my gosh yes I totally understand...I felt like Uncle Fester! Google an image you will see what I mean!! 

    I say wear the wig and paint your eyebrows on and put eyeliner for your lashes. It's surprising how a little bit of make up can make us feel and look half way ok. Otherwise try the medical extension like derMaus suggested. 

    All the best xo

    Oh, well,

    driver's license photos are almost always hideous. 

  • LisaPizza
    LisaPizza Member Posts: 358 Member
    #6
    Just imagine the looks you

    Just imagine the looks you would get later (after recovering), if you took the picture hairless!

  • cmb
    cmb Member Posts: 1,001 Member
    #7

    Most states allow you to replace your driver's license pretty easily. I lost track of mine (later found it had fallen between the seats in my car). But when it was first lost, I just went to the driver's license office with my paperwork from when it was issued before. They issued me a new one without any problem. I believe I had to pay a small fee of $5.00 or so.

     

  • Tamlen
    Tamlen Member Posts: 343 Member
    edited March 2019 #8
    I agree...."lose" it later and replace it!

    Gosh, I looked like Gollum when chemo was done. I am both so sorry you have to do the renewal at this particular moment and chuckling at your humor about it. Good grief!

  • janaes
    janaes Member Posts: 799 Member
    #9
    Im so sorry you have to do

    Im so sorry you have to do the divers licence thing. I think i would have done it with my wig.

    I lost my drivers lisence when my hair was still pretty short.  I had to get a new picture.  I still have the same liecence and whenever i go to the bank to show it to them it doesnt look like me now because me hair is down to my shoulders. They dont say any thing but i wonder what i would say if they did.

    It definetly reminds me of having cancer when i have to pull it out..  Oh well though

    Maybe they can use your old picture

  • Donna Faye
    Donna Faye Member Posts: 427 Member
    #10
    Lancome

    Zsazsa, go to the nearest Lancome counter and tell them to do you a  makeup job for the pic! Tell them a Lancome makeup artist's mom sent you! Wear the wig and it will be your BEST pic ever!!!!Cool

  • BluebirdOne
    BluebirdOne Member Posts: 656 Member
    #11
    LisaPizza said:

    Just imagine the looks you

    Just imagine the looks you would get later (after recovering), if you took the picture hairless!

    I have flown and offered my driver's license

    which shows my dark brown shoulder length hair, like in my photo, and then look at my 1/2 inch long silver hair, and wave me by. No one has challenged me that I don't look anything like my photo anymore. 

  • BluebirdOne
    BluebirdOne Member Posts: 656 Member
    #12
    Donna Faye said:

    Lancome

    Zsazsa, go to the nearest Lancome counter and tell them to do you a  makeup job for the pic! Tell them a Lancome makeup artist's mom sent you! Wear the wig and it will be your BEST pic ever!!!!Cool

    Donna

    What a fabulous idea! She will look incredible. 

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #13
    My son's first drivers license photo

    My son had non-hodgkins leukemia when he was 15, had radiation, and it came back.  So he started chemo, lost all his hair and finally got to get his very first drivers license at 16.  And he was smiling (or as much as they will let you) completely bald.  I know it's not the same for guys as it is for gals, but I bet you look (as my doctor told me) "chemo beautiful".  If your wig makes you feel comfortable, then wear it, but don't ever feel you aren't beautiful just because you lost your hair.  Consider yourself a chemo warrior and look at camera and be fearless!  

  • ConnieSW
    ConnieSW Member Posts: 1,688 Member
    edited March 2019 #14
    BluebirdOne said:

    Donna

    What a fabulous idea! She will look incredible. 

    That's exactly

    what she should do. 

  • pinky104
    pinky104 Member Posts: 574 Member
    #15
    I can empathize with you

    I can empathize with you, because mine is also due to expire this year.   I might be good and bald by then, or my hair might be in that kinky, curly, just coming back in, strange color stage (I'm due for a new license in October).  Everybody tells me I look better in my wig than my real hair, thinking I've gotten a new hairdo and praising the change I've made.  When I tell them it's a wig because I have cancer, they look so embarassed.  It's fun to see them try to pull their feet out of their mouths.  

  • MAbound
    MAbound Member Posts: 1,168 Member
    edited March 2019 #16
    pinky104 said:

    I can empathize with you

    I can empathize with you, because mine is also due to expire this year.   I might be good and bald by then, or my hair might be in that kinky, curly, just coming back in, strange color stage (I'm due for a new license in October).  Everybody tells me I look better in my wig than my real hair, thinking I've gotten a new hairdo and praising the change I've made.  When I tell them it's a wig because I have cancer, they look so embarassed.  It's fun to see them try to pull their feet out of their mouths.  

    At least you know you picked

    At least you know you picked a really good wig! Wink

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