We Waited For It

So it finally happened. And on Christmas day too. On the night of Christmas Eve Rohan went to sleep with a full head of hair and the night of Christmas day he went to sleep with almost no hair! We had been told that the medications would cause his hair to fall out - not that it was necessary. The head with a few remaining wisps of hair is the iconic image of the disease. Nonetheless, nobody had mentioned that it could ALL fall out within the span of 24 hours or so.


So how did he handle it? Christmas morning his back kept itching because of all the hair on his shirt. I took that to tell him - "Rohan let's change your shirt. It's itching because your hair is all over your shirt." "Not it's not," he says. We went upstairs and I showed him his shirt and pillow. Then I took a deep breath and said, "Your hair's falling out but it's not big deal. Hair grows back." He voiced his concern by asking, "What if it doesn't grow back?" I assured him it would, and we went downstairs to open presents. I guess it was a small blessing that it was Christmas day because there was so much to distract him.

Later in the day I mentioned how he would be like Caillou, his favorite cartoon character who happens to be bald. "Yeah! I'm gonna be like Caillou," he yelled with excitement. I was happy he was taking it so well. There was one more moment of doubt on his part. In the evening when he was watching with Caillou with my sister he said, "You know masi, Caillou's hair never grows back." What a time for him to become logical! Anyway, she reassured him that his hair would grow back, and we have not heard anything about it since. AMAZING...to lose all your hair in one day and take it in stride. We could all learn something from these kids.



Especially me. Even though we had been expecting his hair to fall out, I was quietly inconsolable. I put up a brave front for Rohan, but when I was alone I could not stop crying. I told myself it was silly, that it was just hair, that I had known this would happen since the first day, that I had seen other kids in the hospital go through it. None of it worked. The tears woud not stop flowing. As I washed the sheets and pillowcases and picked up a few clumps of hair from the carpet, I cried and cried. For what exactly or why I can't articulate.



The next day we were all fine and back on track.