My Evening Routine Often Includes Tears

Creative Commons Attribution: Pumbaa80

Tonight’s cry is brought to you by castor oil. Yes, you read that right. A tube of organic castor oil.

I belong to a couple of breast cancer forums and have learned that many women report applying castor oil to their eyelashes and brows at night to help support regrowth.

Mine are definitely thinning out so I thought, what the hell. I bought some and decided to incorporate into my evening self-care routine.

More current routine looks something like this:

Take evening nightcap of an antihistamine to help with sleep.

Take a gummy if needed.

For the love of my bowels, I take an Imodium if I don’t wish to have a spectacular July 4 celebration, triggered by the first sip of coffee. And the rocket’s red glare….

I tell my Buddha belly that it’s beautiful but assure my body I will rid myself of the extra 14 pounds I’ve gained during treatment. But secretly, I harbor a fierce dislike for my new body profile.

Then I massage scars with Bio oil. Little circles, strokes, maybe a little cupping. Spots of the 18” or so of scar are widening so I am on active keloid patrol and prevention.

Whisper sweet nothings to my scars. Yeah. I know it’s weird. But after years of speaking smack to my…