Alopecia areata what?
Yes, you heard me. Don't make me say it again. When I was going through nursing aide training, the nurse that was in charge of us made fun of the way I said it and became frustrated by it. Lady you think you're frustrated, try having baldness all over random parts of your body. There are three types, alopecia areata, alopecia areata totalis and alopecia areata universalis. Alopecia universalis is the rarest form of alopecia areata and presents itself as the loss of hair over the entire scalp and body. Alopecia areata totalis presents itself as the loss of hair on the the entire scalp. I have the type that is the most common and presents itself as round, smooth patches of baldness of various sizes. It's actually an autoimmune disease. I have had this for thirty years plus.
One of my siblings who shall remain nameless said it was because I'd pick at the back of my head and out of nervousness would pull my hair out. Only problem with that is, the patch where the hair was removed was perfectly smooth and didn't grow back right away. Oh eventually it does for me. But it takes awhile. Sometimes even years. I explained the condition to my coworkers awhile back because for the first time in 30 odd years of having this, the hair loss appeared in the front of my head. My hair loss has usually been on the back of my head. Underneath at that, which makes it easy to cover. I didn't have to find different scarves to go with my outfit. My doctors have never discussed this with me and if not for the Alopecia Areata Foundation I wouldn't have known very much about it. Seriously, I brought it up to a doctor once, what a waste of time that was, telling me to get over it.
Why am I talking about this now, because even if one person reads this and shares it with someone, people like me, who previously didn't know about their condition or that there were others out there like me, will see this and say 'Oh shit, I'm not alone.' It sucks I am not alone, but it is nice to know I am not alone. And maybe someone reading this will see, they are not alone either.
One of my siblings who shall remain nameless said it was because I'd pick at the back of my head and out of nervousness would pull my hair out. Only problem with that is, the patch where the hair was removed was perfectly smooth and didn't grow back right away. Oh eventually it does for me. But it takes awhile. Sometimes even years. I explained the condition to my coworkers awhile back because for the first time in 30 odd years of having this, the hair loss appeared in the front of my head. My hair loss has usually been on the back of my head. Underneath at that, which makes it easy to cover. I didn't have to find different scarves to go with my outfit. My doctors have never discussed this with me and if not for the Alopecia Areata Foundation I wouldn't have known very much about it. Seriously, I brought it up to a doctor once, what a waste of time that was, telling me to get over it.
Why am I talking about this now, because even if one person reads this and shares it with someone, people like me, who previously didn't know about their condition or that there were others out there like me, will see this and say 'Oh shit, I'm not alone.' It sucks I am not alone, but it is nice to know I am not alone. And maybe someone reading this will see, they are not alone either.
Comments