Imagine that you are at dinner with your family.  Laughing and enjoying yourself.  You go to the bathroom and before returning, you quickly check yourself in the mirror.  You adjust your hair and then it happens!  You see a BALD SPOT on your head.  COMPLETELY BALD!  No stubble, No hair, NOTHING!  You feel the area to find it soft and very smooth.  No sign of any hair at all.  Your shaken and so is your family.  Surely this is some kind of hormonal thing.  To much stress probably.  You make an appointment and go to the Dermatologist.  As soon as he sees you he knows what is wrong.  It is a disease called Alopecia and there is NO KNOWN CURE, NO KNOWN CAUSE, AND YOU MIGHT LOSE EVERY HAIR ON YOUR ENTIRE BODY!  EYEBROWS, EYELASHES, EVERYTHING!

What would you do?  What would you feel?  How would you take it?

That is what happened to me.  I am 26 years old and I have Alopecia Areata.   In a flash my whole world is turned upside down.  And no one knows WHY!  Alopecia Areata causes Bald patches on your head and in the worst cases can leave you completely hairless.  There is a treatment that can help the hair to grow.  There have been some wonderful results with Good Success rates, but there is no guarantee that it will work.  Even if it works it is only in the one area that is being treated.  You can have another Bald Spot on another area.  Many times the hair loss will get much worse before it gets better.  You can get more bald spots at any time with no warning.   The treatments don't always work.

Treatment

My Doctor told me that I MUST follow his every direction.  He is starting AGGRESSIVE TREATMENT.  Which includes:

Nizoral Shampoo

Every other day massaged into my scalp starting at the bald spot and moving to my entire scalp and left for 30 minutes.

Side Effects include: Abnormal hair texture, scalp pustules (pimples), dry skin and itching.  There may also be oiliness and dryness of the hair and scalp.  Rarely there may be some hair loss.

Ketoconazole Cream

(kee-toe-KON-ah-zohl)

Applied twice daily to the area and rubbed in.

Side Effects include:  May cause burning, stinging or redness when first applied to the skin.  This should disappear in a few days as your body adjusts to the medication.

Cortisone Injections

About 40 of them to the bald spot to try and make the hair grow.  Both the needle prick and the slight tingling are usually well tolerated. If new hair growth occurs, it is usually visible within four weeks. Treatment, however, does not prevent new patches from developing.

Side Effects include:  temporary depressions in the skin result from the local injections, but these "dells" usually fill in by themselves.

Ketoconazole 200mg Tablets

(kee-toe-KON-ah-zohl)

Taken orally everyday, with food.  NO alcoholic beverages.

Side Effects include:  diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, menstrual irregularities, impotence, increased sensitivity of eyes to light, breast tenderness or enlargement and headache.

Notify your doctor if you experience: loss of appetite, dark urine, pale stools; yellowing of the eyes or skin; soreness of the mouth/tongue/throat, fatigue.

Signs of a Allergic reaction:  Rash, itching, swelling, dizziness,

trouble breathing.

Ketoconazole can have serious adverse effects on the liver. Symptoms of liver problems include extreme fatigue, nausea and vomiting, dark urine, yellowing of the skin, and pale stools. Taking Ketoconazole while taking statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs), particularly the recently recalled Baycol, may cause rhabdomyolysis, a condition characterized by deterioration of the muscles that may lead to kidney failure and possible death. Patients taking Ketoconazole may also develop hepatitis. In addition, in rare cases Ketoconazole may cause anaphylaxis (shock).

All these Medications I am taking contain Ketoconazole

The Shampoo has 2%,  The Cream is 2%, 

I am taking 200mg in pills a day, even the shots have Ketoconazole.

I don't know what to think about all this and I know I cant use this stuff

for a long period of time.  Go to the links below to find out more.

How does this make me feel?

I feel betrayed by my own body.  Alopecia is like a fungus it spreads.  No one knows how it starts.  There are some theories on why it is triggered.  But no one can really prove anything for sure.  Basically your body is identifying your hair as foreign (something that doesn't belong ) and wants to destroy it.  Why does your body do this?   NO ONE KNOWS!  You CANNOT get it from someone it is not contagious.  You DO NOT know when it will hit you.  There is NO WAY to know if you will have it. ( though it is more likely you will get it if someone in your family has it ) Once you have it there is NO CURE.  Like a thief in the night it strikes you.  One day you wake up and a patch of your hair is gone.  If you catch it in time you can undergo treatment like I said above.  But will this treatment cure you?  NO!  Is the treatment guaranteed to work?  NO!  If it does work can I get it again?  YES!  Will the treatment work a second time?  Maybe, Maybe not who's to say.  

I feel very fortunate that I only have one patch right now.  But I don't know what my future lies.  This treatment could work for me and all my hair will grow back,  It could also just fall right back out.  This treatment might not work and I could stay with this bald spot. Chances are if this treatment doesn't work  My Alopecia will get worse,  I will start to lose many patches of hair, I might or might not be able to cover them with my remaining hair.   My Alopecia might really advance and I could lose every hair on my body.

Some people tell me not to worry that everything will be fine.  It is hard to do that.  I have to face my reality.  Right now it is one spot.  I have to remember that it could get worse.  If it doesn't get worse I can be overjoyed.  But if it does I can be prepared.  I want to be able to handle it,  I don't want to lose my mind if the worst does happen.  Some very sweet and dear friends say that I could always wear a wig.  My mother told me if it gets that bad they would get me the best wig of human hair just like my own.  I don't believe that will be an option for me.  If it is not my own hair I don't want it.  I cannot say for sure, I will only know if it happens to me but I know I have always hated wigs and I doubt if I will wear one. 

Most times I want to scream.  I am Puerto Rican WE ARE KNOWN FOR OUR HAIR!  My hair is part of my identity.  Part of my Culture.  I had hair to my butt when I was younger and then we had it cut.  For the past 15 years I have been growing my hair.  Now it is hitting my lower back.  I don't want to have a patch of hair missing.  I don't want to sit in wait hoping that I don't lose my hair.  I don't want to have to be careful how I style my hair to hid this Bald spot.  I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY HAIR.  It is my beauty, my crowning glory and in one day my life is changed and I could lose it all.

Some may say that I am vain.  IT IS ONLY HAIR!   I would say to them, would you like to wake up and have a big patch of your hair missing?  Would you like to trade places with me?  Would you like to have people looking at you wondering what disease you got? 

Hair loss is a mystery.  If you see someone walking down the street with a scar on their face you know, somehow they got cut.  If you see someone who has been burned or in a wheel chair.  You know they have been in some kind of fire or accident.  But when you see someone with patches of hair missing you don't say.  "OH man they have Alopecia!"  Chances are you will think they have some terminal disease like,  AIDS.  Or maybe that they are under going Chemo.   Maybe they have some weird bugs eating their hair away.  Maybe Ring worm, or some other contagious condition.  They might even be some kind of Drug Abuser.  You wont want to get near that person because you might catch it.   It looks so not normal.

 This is a mental game that is played with your mind.  It hits you so quickly you don't know what is happening.   It changes the way you look so much and so fast that you lose a part of yourself,  You lose your dignity.

How to Cope

I guess this is my way to cope with what is happening to me.  I want others to know about Alopecia.  Approximately two percent of the population will be affected at some point in their lives, that is about 4.5 million people in the United States alone.  It is the second highest form of hair loss.   Please if you have ever lived with the conditions of Alopecia,  if you are Suffering right now from Alopecia, or if you want to support those with Alopecia put this ribbon on your site.  I have created this Ribbon and I want to spread the word. This is a transparent image so it will go with any background you have.  Click the image and you will go to another browser where you can save it.  Link it back to.     http://clik.to/BronxPalace

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Alopecia facts taken from:

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation

Ketoconazole Info from The Injury Board

Links above

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