Yes...it is what it is...you will get more used to the idea...and think, the treatment that is causing hair loss is saving your life and allowing you to attend your daughter's wedding! I did shave it...left about a quarter inch "buzz cut" which was easier to deal with falling out then the long strands. I am approaching my final treatment, March 9th is #6, same set up as yours 6 spread out 3 weeks apart. The treatments themselves are fine especially with a port, I know everyone is different, but generally the first few days after treatment I am ok energy-wise(because of the steroids) but get acid reflux from it(which I take Pepcid for for the 4-5 days and then generally it goes away), during that time I also take stool softners(sorry if that is too much information but I would have wanted someone to tell me this as the first round I didn't and I was literally up all night one night with the worst stomach pains of my life). Once the first week is over your stomach generally goes in the reverse, it isn't too bad but you may have to make immodium for a day or two. Once I am about mid-cycle I start feeling pretty good, the only side effect then is loss of taste buds/metallic taste in your mouth, nothing you can really do for that but I notice that is affects savory food more than sweet, so I am heavier on the sweets then. Pretty much up until the next treatment I feel completely normal and if I didn't know I had chemo, you'd never know. I see you added me to your team, please let me know if you have other questions, I am happy to answer any. I wish I had found someone with my exact chemo earlier than I did since it would have helped with the first few rounds with questions. I am also having surgery after I am done...but I had a complication from my port, it created a blood clot for which I am on blood thinners now, so although my plan was originally to go right to a double mastectomy with reconstruction, I am now going to have a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy at the beginning of April. From there I will continue the blood thinner for as long as I need them(likely 6 months) which puts me around August to have the double mastectomy, but I do want to have it for peace of mind even if it delayed. It SUCKS that I have to do this now that I am adjusted to the idea it's not terrible, I can at least enjoy the spring and summer and hopefully have this whole nightmare and the final Herceptin treatments all done before the start of next year. You will get through it...it's a long road but it's a small sacrifice to be cured!!

I've been on Gemzar since July and by mid August, my hair had begun to thin.i was leaving for Las Vegas for a week and didn't want to deal with it getting worse while I was there. I found out from a friend who had been on it that thinning is usually the worst that it gets and I should have waited on shaving it. Maybe so. I talked with my chemo nurse before I shaved it and she said that since I lost my hair from chemo in 2008 that the hair follicles never quite recover and I would probably be more prone to hair loss with any chemo I take. This is the third time I have shaved my head (once after radiation to my skull in 2013) and it's just something I have come to accept. I have some cute caps I wear when I go out, even though sometimes I just leave it in the car. You will know when the time is right to do anything to your hair. Try not to think about the wigs for your daughter's wedding as being a reminder of your cancer, but as a reminder of the strength and courage you have had to deal with something so bad and to be able to be there for her special day.

Mine started coming out after the first treatment, had my head shaved right away to avoid the mess.

I would wait in cutting your hair. You will know when its time to do something different with it. My hair began to fall out slowly...I was hopeful to keep it but I ended up cutting it. My scalp became very painful anytime my hair was moved. Felt so much better once to was shaved.

@A MyBCTeam Member awww thanks hun - feel free to just write me directly too if there is anything I can answer for you. I am just barely ahead of you but I tend to ask a lot of questions lol. We seem to have a similar diagnosis as far as the HER2 positive and all but I am stage IV which means the breast cancer has moved out of the breast and they found some in my lung. That puts surgery and radiation off the table and I will probably be on meds the rest of my life. Hopefully these 6 chemo sessions will kill the cancer that's there and I can stay on maintenance. My doctor said to think of it like having a disease like diabetes where there is no cure but you just maintain it the rest of your life. What chemo do they have you on? I'm on Docetaxel, herceptin and perjeta at this point.

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