Vanity and Chemo: Cancer Can't Take My Eyebrows

I expect there are very few people who realize how vain I am. I mention it sometimes — literally, I tell people, “I’m really, really vain” — but for the most part this gets minimal to no reaction. Some people counter with “No, you’re not,” which brings me up short. How would they know? Despite being fairly self-aware where vanity is concerned, I was completely unprepared for my reaction to learning that I’d likely lose my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For days, I kept stopping to look in the mirror. ...