Fuzzy (A Poem for My Amazing Daughter)

I remember when your hair was long
Golden waves, bangs falling across your eyes
Sometimes it stuck to your sweaty forehead,
to the peanut butter smeared on your cheeks

Then came the leukemia

Three chemo treatments later
Your hair started thinning
Loose strands of dark sunshine clung to your shirts
To your pillow
The couch
The rugs
To your car seat
To my shirts
Wherever you rested your head

After radiation it fell out in clumps
I was scared to brush it
The bald spot grew
You threw handfuls of hair at your brother and laughed
I put away all your barrettes and bows and headbands
The bald spot grew
Your eyebrows disappeared
Half of your eyelashes washed away

Six more months of chemo
Nine hospital stays
Twenty long strands of blonde hair held on
to the back of your perfectly shaped head
She's so beautiful, everyone commented,
as if your hair had hidden your true beauty before

I pressed my cheek against your warm smooth head
Kissed your bare scalp over and over again
and waited
and watched the itchy bumps give way to new hair

Your treatments are easier now
I can't stop rubbing your fuzzy soft head
Appreciating the quarter inch of blonde
blessings
Our new life

6/15/10

Five-year-old Audrey has started Maintenance now, the final phase of treatment for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Maintenance will continue until January 2012. She takes chemo pills at home and has monthly chemo treatments at clinic-much, MUCH easier than before. Her hair keeps growing. She can go back to school this fall, and she's free to go out in public without a mask!

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. You can follow Audrey's progress at CarePages: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/roth377. To see more pictures of a radiant, happy Audrey taken in the last two weeks, check out my dad's slideshow here.