Hats

I am aware that the title of this blog suggests that we will be writing about more than just my desire to eat as much fat as is humanly possible, so I have been encouraged to write a little something about 'hats'.

I've never been a reluctant hat wearer during my lifetime and certainly haven't been in the last few years, my vast hat collection of hats bearing testament to this fact. However when your head has received a dose of radiation larger than any human being should receive during their lifetime, hats become less a matter of fashion, but one of medical necessity.

Spending the first few months of my partial radiation-imposed baldness in the UK, I made sure that Samantha kept herself busy by knitting me a selection of wooly head warmers, which I appreciated enormously as we did our best to survive the cold English weather.

the ubiquitous choob

However these would simply not be feasible for when we arrived in Texas, so I made what turned out to be the shrewd purchase of a 'choob', a multi-purpose lightweight garment which could be worn in a variety of styles including in a beanie style. Ever-present, stretched down to my forehead to protect the extremes of the radiated area, it provided me with the flexibility to combine it with hats which would otherwise have offered less protection than my head required.

It is weather resistant, designed for outdoor sports, so is also suitable for hanging around the pool or going to the beach. Those in the know appreciate that you can't rely on sunscreen to keep that sensitive skin protected. If you're receiving harsh UV exposure, a small error in sunscreen application can be quite detrimental. Then there's the cocktail of chemicals I would be slathering onto my cancer-afflicted head ...

What is less commonly known is that you are not entirely protected from UV radiation in the car. On a long car ride, it is still important to keep your head covered because, even though you can't sunburn in the car because UV A is blocked, UV B is not, and penetrates the skin deeper than UV A. I suppose, given my projected life expectancy these days, we can hardly blame the doctors for not focussing on long-term radiation effects. However, unwilling as I am to throw the towel in to the ring just yet, I may as well do my best to stack the odds in my favor.