The Biggest Fight of Our Lives {Our Battle Series- Book 1}

Physical Changes

Shay's POV: 

Shay's POV: Avia had been on chemotherapy for about a week and a half now and was beginning to show some physical changes. For example she didn't have as much energy as she used and gets tired a little easier, also her hair was starting to fall out. Colette and I weren't sure about how to approach this with Avia because we aren't sure if she's noticing, I mean now from behind you can see some bald spots. I think Colette and I are going to talk to her privately about it before Colette leaves for Lose Angeles to do a Mom's View shoot. The kids where outside playing and Colette and I were inside making lunch, we decided now would be a good time to talk to Avia about her hair loss because everybody else was busy. I opened the sliding glass door and called out to Avia who was playing on the trampoline with Gavin, Emmi and Brock. She got off the trampoline and came running toward the house, still grinning from ear to ear about what ever had been going on, on the trampoline. I hated that I was about to crush her happiness. What's up she said walking through the door and cleaning her feet off, mom and I wanted to talk to you about something privately for a minute. She went over and sat at stool at the breakfast bar where Colette was standing, I went over grabbed a piece of watermelon and let Colette lead the conversation. Colette started off by asking Avia she remembered that the doctor said that there were going to be some side effects to the chemotherapy. Avia replied back well yeah that's why I get sick every time I come home from the hospital, well yes there's that Colette said but there are going to be some more long term side effects. Ohh like me starting to have trouble in school Avia asked, she must have remembered the doctors talk about that. Yes that is something that could happen, there are some physical changes happening to you if haven't noticed I said. Avia thought for a moment and nodded in agreement before biting into a piece of watermelon, I looked at Colette she gave me the I'll take it from her look be prepared to comfort her look. Avia Colette said with a voice that made Avia look directly into Colette's eyes your starting to go bald she said. Avia's demeanor almost changed entirely, she sighed and asked us what we were going to do about it. I told her that she could wait for it to fall out or she could shave it off, she thought for a moment felt the back of her head. She got up off the bar stool and run up and hugged me, I felt her tears begin to stain my shirt. I picked her up and hugged and told her that everything would be okay in the end. I rubbed her back and let her cry out how she was feeling, the kids who must have noticed Avia hadn't come back yet came inside looking for. They saw Avia crying, but Colette shewed them off before they could say anything. This was something we would talk about separate from Avia, once Avia settled down I placed her on the couch and we talked about what we do about her approaching baldness. She decided that she would shave it off because she didn't want to have to deal with the shedding and wanted it to be over quicker. We decided to do it that afternoon because Colette's flight for LA left early tomorrow morning plus Avia had chemo tomorrow, I decided to call up some family members and see if they would come over and shave their heads so that way Avia wouldn't feel alone. I decided to surprise Avia and Colette with this one because I wanted Avia to see how many people cared about her and I thought it would it touch Colette to see how many people cared about our daughter. Colette told me to get the other kids who were outside because lunch was ready, before I brought them inside I told them about Avia and how she was shaving her head to this afternoon because it was starting to fall out. Both Gavin and Brock said that they wanted to shave their heads as well, Emmi said as much as she loved Avia she didn't want to shave her head because it would be more awkward for. I told her that was okay and Avia wouldn't expect you to shave your head, I let the kids in on my secret and made them swear not to say a word to Colette or Avia, with that I told them that their lunch was ready and they all got off the trampoline. With our guests coming over soon I secretly had to get things ready, so I enlisted the help of Gavin, Emmi and Brock they cleaned up made some signs and managed to sneak some food out of the house and put it on a table so the guests could eat. I called a local sub shop and ordered some subs and then we would off to Costco to get some dessert, it was close but we pulled it off. At around 4 the first of the family arrived it was Carlie with Cooper who agreed to shave his head, then Colette's brother and father came. All the guests that were coming parked at Casey's house so that way Colette wouldn't suspect anything, she was packing for LA and wouldn't notice the people Avia was in her room getting some stuff ready for the hospital tomorrow because she knew it would be harder with four kids. Casey and Kayli were the last to arrive, once they got here I called for Avia and Colette because Kayli was going to be the one to shave Avia's head. Avia came out first and was shocked to see the family there, I explained to her that people were going to shave their heads with her so that way she didn't feel alone. Tears welled up in her eyes as she ran around to all the families and hugged and thanked them, Colette came out a minute later with Daxton was shocked then realized what was going on and began to cry as well. I went over and hugged her and said we have the best family, she was still crying and nodded in agreement, Avia decided to go first because she wanted to get this over with. She got up on the stool we had set up and I got the vlog camera out and began filming, I quickly explained what was going on to the viewers before turning my attention back to Avia. Kayli tired her hair into two pigtail braids and began the process of balding my oldest daughter, she cut off the two pigtails before Avia stopped Kayli and asked if I could finish shaving her head. I handed Kayli the vlog camera and picked up the electric razor before shaving off the rest of her hair, once it was over I gave her a mirror so that was she could see what she looked like. I couldn't tell if she were happy or sad so I took of my Shay Carl hat that I was wearing and placed it on her head, she turned around and looked up at me and smiled. She stood up on the stool and hugged me and said thank you daddy, I picked her up off the chair and said anything princess. I placed Avia on the ground sat down on the stool and said alright shave me, Kayli asked Avia she wanted to shave my head because I shaved hers. She laughed and said yes, Colette ran inside to get a stool because Avia was too short to reach my head. She got up on the stool and shaved my head the best at that she could, once she declared that she was down Kayli came over and fixed it up so it looked like a clean shave. As afternoon turned into evening more people shaved their heads so that my nine year old daughter wouldn't feel so alone, the last person to cut/shave their hair was Colette, I was surprised by this because Colette never cuts her hair anymore then a trim. She said that she was going to cut 12 inches off so that way wigs could be made for little girls like Avia, we asked Avia if she had wanted a wig but she said she didn't because she didn't want to deal with it plus they were itchy so this was in honor of Avia. Once Colette had her hair cut her and Kayli went inside to throw out the hair and figure out how to send Colette's hair. I looked around saw that everybody was having a good time, I smiled thinking that we had turned a difficult thing for Avia to deal into a happy memory for her. I watched her run around with the boys playing soccer without a care in the world, this is how it's supposed to I thought going inside to get the subs. At dinner that night we toasted to the baldness of the family and how good we all looked without hair, everyone ate up and laughed. People kept telling Avia how brave she was and how proud there were of her, she told me she didn't know what to say anymore because her thankyous sounded redundant. After dinner the kids continued to play around but Avia continued to sit at the table watching the other kids play, I knew that meant she was tired as a result of drugs constantly being fed into her system. Even though we were home Avia still had to take a decent amount of pills to help the chemo and radiation that she received at the hospital. I quickly realized that we had forgotten to give the ones she was supposed to eat with dinner, I went over to her and reminded her that she still needed to take her pills. She got up and sighed I knew how much she hated taking those pills, they tasted bad there were about twenty of them. I got her out a can of root beer from the fridge and got out the various pills she needed to take and placed them in front of her. It took about five minutes but Avia eventually finished all her pills and ran outside to go and play with the kids. I wondered if she not taking them when she did caused her to become tired. The night winded down and we said goodbye to family and cleaned up the house, and began to put the kids to bed. I started with Emmi and Brock because they were typically the hardest to get to bed, tonight they decided to make it easy for us by actually cooperating, once I got them to bed I went downstairs to say goodnight to Avia and Gavin the two of them were self-sufficient and didn't need help. I went to Gavin's room first and stopped outside the door when I heard him talking to Avia, he was giving her all of his hats that he didn't really wear anymore because Avia didn't really have any hats and didn't like being without one now that she was bald. I was hiding out and once I heard Avia go to her room I went in to say goodnight, when I walked in she had taken my hat off to give it back to me. Keep it I said placing it on the edge of her bed, she smiled hugged me and said thank you. I kissed her on the forehead and told her to get some rest before moving on to Gavin, I walked into his room and thanked him for giving Avia his old hats. He said it was no problem and he was happy to do it, I smiled at him and hugged him and kissed him before going upstairs to go to bed myself. That night I thought about how lucky I was to have a family that was supportive of us and our kids.

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