However Many Hats

Here’s something to know about me… if there is just a tiny little chance of something happening, especially if it’s medical, odds are good that it’s going to happen to me. One of the very rare side effects of the blood thinner Heparin is hair loss. Due to the enormous about of IV medication I’ve taken over the years to combat the serious infections in my right leg, I’m frequently using Heparin especially when I have a PICC line in my arm as I currently do as I wait to have a new chest port put in.

I’m going to veer to the side for a moment for those of you who are not as medically knowledgeable as I sadly happen to be. A PICC line is, by definition, a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. It is long, small, flexible tube that is inserted into a peripheral vein in the upper arm snakes up the vein until the catheter tip is in a large vein in the chest near the heart. It is used to obtain IV access in patients who need long term drug therapy. They are also used for patients, such as myself, whose veins have had enough of the constant IVs. At this point I swear my veins see a needles coming and you can almost hear them scream "NOOO I WON'T DO IT! I WON'T GIVE UP ANY BLOOD! I WON’T GIVE YOU ACCESS!" as they run and hide!.

I’ve lost my hair somewhere between 5-7 times over the last 10 years because of Heparin about a month ago it all fell out once again.

There’s a challenge going around social media called 100 Happy Days where you are supposed to post a picture every day of someone or something that made you happy that day. When my hair fell out I posted a status to Facebook joking that instead of 100 Happy Days I would do the However Many Hats challenge with a different hat every day until I ran out of them and I’d start with my own fairly large collection. Suddenly, people were asking for my address so that they could send me hats for this challenge and since then hats have slowly been coming in from all over including my high school. As of today, I’m on hat 26 with many more to go.

It’s been incredible to say the least. I know that so many people want to do something to help me with my health battles between my MS and my 50+ surgeries on my leg for infections and as one person said, “FINALLY! There’s something I can do for you!” Every time a new hat arrives it puts a big smile on my face and I remember that I’m truly blessed. Yes, I have a chronic, progressive, debilitating neurological disease and yes for the last 10 years I’ve been in the fight for my life against infections in my right leg that continue even after the amputation. So then how can I say that I’m blessed you might be tempted to ask?  I am blessed because I have an incredible support system of family and friends who have been there for me every step of the way. They jumped on my Hat Challenge immediately to let me know they care and they are there even if they live across the country or even in another country.  How many people can say that? I know too many seriously ill people who don’t have a support system. They don’t have the family and friends that I do and it makes me sad but it also reminds me how lucky I am for mine and to never take that for granted. Through my family and friends doing things like the Hat Challenge I know that even on my darker days I’m not alone and you have no idea how much that means. People tell me they feel helpless when it all hits the fan for me but please know that being there for me with a text, a call, an email, a comment helps me a great deal.

I love words and I’m always writing and yet I cannot find the words to fully and adequately express how much I appreciate everything that everyone has done and continues to do to try to make this medical hell a little better and brighter.

So for now I will say Thank You and even though that is just two little words they filled to the brim with my love and thanks.