The hair test

MOMMY:

Every day, I find myself running my fingers through Luis' hair and giving it a gentle pull to see what comes out. Ok, so it's not scientific but it gives me some idea of when the hair loss might start. Today was the most surprising yet. With a little tug, I easily pulled out five hairs. I'm dreading the day it starts to come out in clumps. As much as I don't want to, I have found it hard to look at other kids in the hospital who have no hair. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. I guess that makes it hard too, knowing that other people will look at Luis different. I don't want kids to tease him or people to pity him. We were told that it was very likely that he would lose his hair because of the dose of his treatments. It's just a matter of time, I guess.

I look at Luis daily and see how much his appearance has changed since we got here. To a stranger, he's just a little chubby kid who needs to lay off the cheese and hotdogs.

LEFT: Luis at Julien's baptism on May 6, 2012; RIGHT: Luis 5 weeks later after a month of chemotherapy.

Today was the last day of his steroid drug, prednisone, at least for now. This is the drug that is responsible for his insatiable appetite and ridiculous tantrums. I'm not sure how drastically his mood and appetite will change back to normal. That's another question for the doctor.