2019 Trend: Bald Brows

Tomorrow’s the big day. It’ll be my first full day in the office since August. And while my return to work will be short lived (Surgery #1 of 3 is scheduled for February 14th) it doesn’t feel any less of a momentous occasion.

It feels sort of like the first day of school … I packed my lunch (and in my true meal planning fashion, packed all 5 days worth of lunch are pre-packed) and I picked out my outfit (yup, got all 5 days covered here too). But this first day comes with some new pieces of planning that I haven’t quite figured out. What do I do about my bald head? Wear my wig? (nah, I don’t think I could last 9 hours with it on) Wear a hat? (but probably not the slouchy beanies I’ve been rocking for the last 3 months – they aren’t terribly professional) Rock my slightly peach-fuzz covered bald head? (ha! no flipping way, everyone will be able to see my head zits!). And then what about my eyebrows? (or lack thereof). I could draw them in, but then I’ll be paranoid all day that whatever head covering I go with has slouched down and caused them to smear. Or I can leave my hairless face as is, and look forward to the laughs whenever my eyebrow muscles move (caused by confusion, surprise, etc.) but there are no eyebrows to go along with the muscles.

So, no matter what I choose, tomorrow is going to be a different feeling work day. Which is maybe a good thing – that on the outside I’ll look different, because my insides still aren’t back to normal. I may be done with chemo, but unfortunately, I’m not done with the chemo symptoms. I’m still nauseous if I’m not taking anti-nausea meds and two flights of stairs tire me out like I’m hiking the Himalayas. Heck, I’m yawning just thinking about hiking.

On the plus side, work will be a nice mental distraction while I bide my time (and let my body and immune system recover) before surgery. There are only so many “What to bring with you to the hospital” blog posts you need to read before you’re neurotically over prepared. (Side note: should I even bother blogging about what I bring to the hospital when the time comes? It feels like there are about 12 million similar blog posts already out on the inter-webs). And believe it or not, I really do like my job, and the people I work with. So it will be nice to be back, if only for a brief bit.

Unfortunately, I still have no idea what I’m going to cover my head with tomorrow at work.

Fortunately, no matter what I wear, I know my co-workers will be excited to have me back and will kindly hide their faces while they giggle about my naked eyebrow muscles.