 Part I of Tricia's blog |
 Part II of Tricia's blog |
 Part III of Tricia's blog |
 Part IV of Tricia's blog |
 Part V of Tricia's blog |
 Part VI of Tricia's blog |
 Part VII of Tricia's blog |
 Tricia Andron-One Year Later HOT by Hair's How first had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Tricia through Michael Albor of Michael Albor's The Loft Salon & Day Spa in Boston. Here, we reflect on Tricia's first chemo session and when she, her husband, Lee and crew of friends ceremoniously headed to The Loft Salon & Day Spa to support Tricia as she shaved her hair. One year later, Albor reflects on his journey with Tricia-from the perspective of her hairdresser. "As a hairdresser, you feel like you're helping other people, but they end up helping you," says Michael Albor. He says that Tricia has handled the whole experience with optimism and grace. "She brightens up the entire salon when she comes in. She was sensitive in the beginning, but through the support of her husband Lee and friends, she has embraced it all." To match her spirit, Albor created a radiant platinum blond color for Tricia. "She's definitely found that platinum blonds have more fun!" Stay tuned. HOT will soon be posting updates from Tricia on where this courageous, optimistic woman is-exactly one year later. |
 Part VIII of Tricia's blog |
I'm not sure if you were aware, but October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I am so glad it's over! Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate the effort, fundraising and awareness to support breast cancer, but it was sort of like being pregnant - all of a sudden everyone around you is pregnant or has a baby and you can't escape it. It's been a month of having the spotlight on an issue that I am still coming to grips with.
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| Tricia and Elissa in Nantucket |
Tudown service at the hotel in Nantucket almost put me over the edge. Elissa is a true friend - after the first night of 'pink ribbon' chocolates on our pillows, she had a word with the front desk and asked them to skip the pink ribbon bit the following night. I love chocolate as much as the next girl, but the last thing I wanted on my girls' weekend getaway was yet another cancer reminder. I imagined the housekeeper creeping into our cottage with her pink ribbon chocolates, taking special care to set them out, because don't you know? The guest in this room has breast cancer!
Our girls' weekend away was fabulous, but even so, I found myself struggling with material to write about. We took walks on the beach, bike rides, drank plenty of wine and ate our faces off. Not exactly great blog material, who wants to hear about a perfect weekend anyway? As far as how I was feeling and treatment... blah..blah..blah! Cancer sucks…blah..blah..blah! Nothing I wrote felt interesting or the least bit entertaining and my malaise only grew.
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| Tricia, Elissa and friend | The Lighthouse in Nantucket |
A Trip to ER?
Nothing a trip to the ER can't fix because with cancer, even a migraine is more exciting. My timing for unwanted, exciting events is stellar and the migraine hit me like a brick wall a week after I got home while I was home alone with Grace and Lee was in Europe for a conference. I used to get migraines regularly, but haven't had one since I was pregnant, much less had one come on so quickly and so violently. Within minutes of the headache coming on, I was throwing up in the bathroom. Neither pregnancy, chemotherapy or bad hangovers have made me vomit, but a migraine will have me praying to the 'porcelain god' in no time. When you have cancer, you're encouraged to call the oncologist to report every sniffle, so I phoned the hospital thinking I would be told to take some migraine medicine and get some sleep.
"I'd like you to go to the ER. Did you hit your head today?" the on-call doctor asked.
"Uh, no. It's just a migraine. But it's on the opposite side of my head from my usual migraines and I'm throwing up. How serious are you about this ER thing? Because I'm home alone with my 17 month old daughter and my husband is in Europe."
"Uh, pretty serious. Because of chemotherapy and your compromised immune system, I'd like to get you checked out and rule anything out, like hemorrhaging. You sure you didn't hit your head today?"
My brain bleeding inteally? Well, that didn't sound good. So I decided to follow doctor's orders and with a herculean effort yet again from my friends, found someone to watch Grace while another friend drove me to the ER.
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| Best friends | Tricia and Lee enjoy Halloween with Grace |
In Sickness and In Health
By the time we arrived I was glad that I had gone because my headache was violent. I was processed quickly and brought into a small dark coer room that was perfect for shielding my eyes, which were very sensitive to the light. I was told that the room doubled as a "psych" room because of the small size and lack of windows. After settling in and realizing the only TV station was set to a WWE "Raw," I assessed this was more likely the reason it was referred to as a "psych room." As the nurse administered morphine for the headache pain, I fell asleep wondering about female wrestlers and staged catfights.
After a CT Scan and Spinal Tap that left me crying for Lee, it was determined that my migraine was in fact, just a migraine. I was released from the ER at 2 a.m., an hour after cabs have stopped running in the suburbs and again, called in a favor from a neighbor who came out in her pajamas to pick me up.
The following day I was sore from the Spinal Tap, but headache-free and happy to be home. I was thankful for everyone that had jumped into action to help me while Lee was away. But more than anything, I found myself missing Lee and appreciating all that he does for me. If anyone truly understands what I am going through and has seen my illness firsthand, it's Lee. At the same time, he juggles work commitments, takes care of Gracie while I'm too sick and helps to keep our household running. He loves me and tells me I'm beautiful even when I have no hair and have been lying on the couch for three days.
I could hardly imagine five years ago when we first met, all that we would go through together so quickly. In that time Lee and I met, moved in together, changed jobs (me once, him twice), got married, bought a house, had a baby, wrote a book (Lee), and got cancer (me). I don't think either of us anticipated that our wedding vows, "through sickness and health" would be put to the test until we were much, much older.
Sometimes it takes a solo trip to the ER to make you really appreciate the people who are always there to hold your hand.
| Part I of Tricia's blog |
| Part II of Tricia's blog |
| Part III of Tricia's blog |
| Part IV of Tricia's blog |
| Part V of Tricia's blog |
| Part VI of Tricia's blog |
| Part VII of Tricia's blog |
| Tricia Andron-One Year Later HOT by Hair's How first had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Tricia through Michael Albor of Michael Albor's The Loft Salon & Day Spa in Boston. Here, we reflect on Tricia's first chemo session and when she, her husband, Lee and crew of friends ceremoniously headed to The Loft Salon & Day Spa to support Tricia as she shaved her hair. One year later, Albor reflects on his journey with Tricia-from the perspective of her hairdresser. "As a hairdresser, you feel like you're helping other people, but they end up helping you," says Michael Albor. He says that Tricia has handled the whole experience with optimism and grace. "She brightens up the entire salon when she comes in. She was sensitive in the beginning, but through the support of her husband Lee and friends, she has embraced it all." To match her spirit, Albor created a radiant platinum blond color for Tricia. "She's definitely found that platinum blonds have more fun!" Stay tuned. HOT will soon be posting updates from Tricia on where this courageous, optimistic woman is-exactly one year later. |
| Part VIII of Tricia's blog |
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