Kali's hair loss

This week... where do I start. Glitches, misrepresentation, forgotten promises and added hoops to jump through and the list goes on. Nicki and I can't keep up. If you are looking for us at the event, we will be the ones lying in the fetal position by the Dilly bars, melted chocolate on our faces and in our hair....

I suppose it's normal to feel the squeeze one week before an event of this magnitude.

And perhaps, it's normal for all H- E double hockey sticks to break loose one week before.

Thats been my experience anyways....

I'm just not going to get into it.

I'd rather talk about Kali. After all she is what has inspired this insanity and I'll be sure to thank her again for that.

Back in 2002, Oct 31 - I was Halloween shopping for a witch hat (with witch hair). Found one and placed it on Kali's head to model as I pushed her around in the cart.

Shortly after, I noticed I had selected a defective wig so exchanged it for another. Moments later, that one too was noticed to be falling apart.

As I removed the hat from Kalis head, a feeling of dread filled me. Hit me square in the chest like I had swallowed a brick. The wig was intact. It was her hair that was letting go from the root in chunks.

It was difficult to contain my state of panic for her sake, I just wanted to cry. I didn't want her to know. I remembered what this did to her self esteem the first time. She withdrew so much that she perceived every smile as a form of ridicule. She could not be in the vicinity of a mirror.

Kali had most beautiful blond locks the first time they fell. Eventually they grew back to the same length as when she first lost them.

I called Gord, my hands shaking as I tried to dial and told him she was loosing her hair again.

It was hard to handle this hairloss because we were so unprepared. Just for clarification, hairloss precedes the ulcers, the bone pain, mouth sores, vomiting, etc. It really is more about hair. This just left her broken.

Kali was on the tail end of her treatment, we did not expect it to go out with a bang. Our daughter was very sick for 2 months to follow. Her Christmas that year was so painful that there was no way to comfort her. We literally wore out our rocking chair and our knees in desperate attempts to take the edge off of her pain. That memory (among many others) is burned in forever. The only good news was that her hair only dropped out around her crown and could be mostly hidden if she left it down. We thanked God for that.

This hair loss gave Gord an idea. I have to give him credit, he was always good at taking a bad situation and turning it into a positive. This became an immediate response to the preparation of the first St.Valentine's Day Hair Massacre. The next day Gord announced the date (Feb 14th) and this incredible name he chose for his event. It was to be held at Canada post on 149 st.

I proudly supported this, but had no intention of shaving .... at the time. I was chicken.

So, it was all his fault (hence the lying in the fetal position...).

I have shaved 4 times and glad I did. Gord had shaved 7, soon to be 8. Kyrsti 5 times, Kali and FRED twice. I may have officially retired from shaving because as I have said in earlier posts, my daughter Meagan now owns my hair (it's a stylist thing....), and Kali has asked me to keep it, although she is working on a sweet hair donation for next year. That will be one prize wig I would imagine.

We know a growing number of children (and adults) that were once traumatized by the loss of their locks and found their way to the clippers. THAT is brave, and absolutely breathtaking. Every year you will see some of them in our videos on our website. They are not singled out because it's important for them to feel normal again, but they are there.

Kali, thank you for sharing your journey with us. To all survivors, you are our inspiration. God Bless you all.