Carol's Alopecia Areata Alopecia Areata has hit close to home, as one of HLT's closest companions begins to lose her hair.

Introducing Carol: October 5, 2001

Out of the same desire that motivated the founder of HairlossTalk.com to create a web site dedicated to helping hair loss sufferers, Carol agreed to put her story up to help other women who may be undergoing the same trials. This account, written from the firsthand experience of HLT's founder, will hopefully document her road to recovery.

Carol's Fight with Alopecia Areata

	Page 1 - Intro & Injections		Page 2 - Month Five thru Seven
	Page 3 - The One Year Mark

Carol began treatment of Orthotricyclene (birth control pill) in an attempt to regulate her monthly cycle. After the first few months, she developed periodic outbreaks of hives. For about a year the hives worsened, and she developed severe migraines as well. Doctors, unhelpful as always, told her it was just due to stress. If your doctor ever tells you that your ailment is due to stress, you should associate that with your doctor being *lazy*, and more often than not, wrong. Eventually, the hives covered her entire body, including arms, legs, neck, and onto her face. It was at this time that I noticed she was also losing her hair.

	The First Weeks
	Click Images to view full size

I suggested that she stop the pill immediately, as it is known to cause hair loss in some women. The day she ceased taking the pill, the hives and the migraines stopped. It has been about 2 weeks, and she hasn't had a recurrence of either since. Unfortunately however, the spot of missing hair on her head is now the size of a golf ball. She's lost nearly all of the hair in this section of her head. Despite my concern, she remains optimistic. She is fortunate enough to be able to cover the spot with her hair, so the trauma is not so bad.

October 14, 2001

We were fortunate enough to have acquired an appointment with Dr. Vera Price in San Francisco even though she had no available appointments until January. Dr. Price is well known to be one of the best physicians for women's hair loss in the country, and she requested that Carol have the following bloodwork done to help establish important information on all the possible contributing factors. The idea is to establish a root cause. Many times this can be identified simply with the appropriate blood tests to reveal any imbalances. If the imbalance is identified and corrected, the most common result is the regrowth of hair.

I had a dermatologist friend write up a request for the following tests, and Carol had them done:

» Hormone levels (DHEAS, Testosterone, Androstenedione, Prolactin, Follicular Stimulating Hormone, and Leutinizing Hormone)
» Serum Iron, Serum Ferritin, TIBC (Total Iron Binding capacity)
» Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH)
» VDRL
» Complete Blood Count (CBC)

The ladies at the clinic told her they would just send her the bill and she could file it with her HMO to get the tests paid for. We have an appointment with Dr. Price on the 18th, and I will be driving her up to San Francisco at that time.

October 18, 2001 - Attack of the HMO

As luck would have it (or should I say, as the terrible medical system would have it), Carol's HMO lost her file (yes, lost her file) for nearly 4 days after we had the bloodwork done. Each time Carol called to get status on the tests, the person answering the phone said her file had been moved to another department and would have to be located. Carol needed a referral in order to see Dr. Price. By the time the 18th had come, and we were about to go to the appointment, her file had just been located. Unfortunately they would not approve the referral. To top things off, they informed Carol that since she had the bloodwork done without their permission, she was going to have to pay the entire bill herself. A wasted trip to San Francisco resulted, but, determined to make the most of it, we had fun tearing up the town anyway. Now to pay off the thousand dollar medical bill. Much thanks to the medical system.

October 25, 2001 - Steroid Injections - Round 1

Armed with over 1 thousand dollars worth of blood test results, and nothing but a bunch of run of the mill HMO general practitioners who had no idea what to do with them... we decided to take matters into our own hands. I purchased some Rogaine for Women, and began applying it to carol's spot, which has now almost doubled in size. She set up an appointment with her doctor to have what is a fairly common method of stimulating hair growth in Alopecia Areata patients: Cortizone Injections.

On the 26th she had the procedure done. Despite what many say, she stated that they were rather painless. Less than a pin prick and not a big deal for her at all. The doctor injected into her scalp from about 7 different places, and the waiting now begins.

November 15, 2001 - First signs of Growth

After nearly 3 weeks of nothing, I checked Carol's bald spot today. There was good news and there was bad news. The bad news was that the spot had fully doubled in size, if not more, since the first set of photos had been taken. The good news was that she is having regrowth of hair all over the spot. It's clear that the darker, healthier hair is growing in the exact areas which the injections occurred. The areas which may have avoided the injections seem to be growing hair as well, but it is unpigmented.

Click the images below to see a high resolution view of what injections can do in just 3 weeks:

	One Month after Injections
	Click Images to view full size

Since the injections seem to be working, we decided to stop the Rogaine for Women and let it do its own thing. Fortunately, she is still able to completely cover the spot with her hair.

February 9, 2002 - Another Spot

Carol's spot had grown exponentially in size while at the same time responding fairly well to the steroid injections. Unfortunately however, I noticed that a new bald spot was forming on the upper right part of her scalp. We took some photos of her from behind and the side to show that she is still fortunate enough to not be "showing" in her every day life, however there is reason for concern due to the new bald spot.

Carol will be continuing steroid injections once per month. We have not started her on Rogaine at this time for a couple reasons. First off, she was willing to stick with just the injections for awhile to see if all her hair could be regrown on that alone. The second reason of course was convenience, and the third reason related to her fear of unwanted side effects like facial hair, or blood pressure changes.

Below we have the most recent photos of Carol, the spot which is growing in, and the new spot we just discovered:

	Regrowth & New Bald Spot
	Click Images to view full size

As you can see, from the back and the side, she is still able to fully cover the spots, however the size of the spot is still very large, and a new one has developed on the upper right portion of her scalp. We will be monitoring this closely and letting you know how it progresses. All the words of encouragement we have received for carol have been very kind, and she wants to thank all of you for supporting her!

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