Brenda Bowles is a nurse, but she admits that when she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer, one thing that didn't really occur to her was that she would lose her hair. "That only became real to me when I was signing my consent form for the chemo," she says. "As soon as the pharmacist said 'alopecia,’ it hit me."
The prospect was daunting at first. "I had a lot of hair," she says. "I had big hair. And I had to work to get it there." She admits that it was tough when, about two weeks after chemo started, her hair began to fall out in clumps.
Read MoreBowles had her last chemo treatment almost six months ago, and says her hair is growing back. “It’s three different colors now, which is kind of interesting,” she says. “People ask me if I got it highlighted.”
Although she loved the big hair she had before, Bowles is still surprised by some of the conversations she hears in her ovarian cancer support group, where people think about forgoing chemo because they don’t want to lose their hair. “I feel really blessed that I was able to overcome that,” she says. “I just feel that I’m a warrior. That’s what I told myself. I’m alive, and that’s what really matters.”
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