You Grow Some, You Lose Some

Everyone knows this must be a little diatribe from me on my ever changing hair. I saw my new dermatologist today and I must say he was honest.
Refreshingly honest yet traumatic to have it put so honestly.

I had read it all before but my dr. in VA and I just dived into treatment and didn't go into the details of the disease. My dr. here is an older gentleman and after we talked for a few minutes about my history thus far he said that what I term "chasing the bald spots around my head" is the nature of the disease and there is no cure. There is no way to pinpoint the trigger that began all this. It is not caused by stress, but stress aggravates the problem causing more bald patches. The foam I was using at first he basically called useless and said it was mostly to make me feel like I was doing something proactive(a D word). The injections are simply a stop gap to shorten the period of baldness before hair regrows. Without injections the hair will regrow but could take up to a year. With injections the disease short circuits and hair regrowth begins within 2-3 months. It was nice to be treated like a patient instead of like a cash register for the dr. to ring up a sale every month.
Currently when you look at me you can't tell there is a problem (except one area in the back that doesn't seem to want to grow back). My hair loss has slowed for the moment; he was impressed that more did not come out when he pulled. The injections are painful (they seem a little distressed when I cry while getting them; what do other people do I wonder? is my tolerance for pain really so low?). What we heavily figured in was that the treatment in this case seemed to be worse than the disease especially considering the treatment is not a cure.

So today was my last treatment for 2 months. We are taking a break and reassessing then. No shots for 2 months should lower my stress level tremendously.

love and hugs and remember: a bad hair day is better than a no hair day, but a no hair day is better than no day at all.
B