I was 14 years old when I was first diagnosed with Alopecia Areata. It started when I was putting my hair into pigtails and when I went to check the part was even at the back, there was a smooth, round patch about the size of the palm of my hand that was completely bald. WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON? I think I screamed out to my mum in tears and off to the doctor we went, referred to a dermatologist and diagnosed with Alopecia Areata.
My wonderful dermatologist then proceeded to suggest I have regular cortisone injections to help reduce inflammation in my hair follicles and I rolled up my sleeve ready for the shot... little did I know that these injections needed to be a little more localised. So every 4 weeks for 12 years I went and had these injections and that kept my hair growing and kept the patches from getting bigger... and then... I moved to London.
London is where things took a turn. After waiting more than 8 months to get into a dermatologists office, she decided the patches were too large to have injections so she put me on oral steroids for 5 weeks and I continued to do this for 5 rounds. Well my face blew up, I was easily putting away 4000 calories a day and my mindset was telling me to either go to a rave or crawl into a dark room. It was definitely not a treatment plan I enjoyed. During each course of steroids my hair would grow back, then the medication stopped and my hair that had grown back would fall out, plus a little bit more... it was like a yoyo diet. So I'm feeling like shit and my hair is progressively getting worse.
Next up we tried UV therapy. I would sit completely wrapped up in protective clothing and a face shield, and 2 to 3 times a week I would sit in a solarium for a couple of minutes. I did this for 6 months and it didn't make any difference. My hair continued to fall and by this stage seeing myself in the mirror every day broke my confidence and I realised I was done. I asked my best friend Jade to help me shave my head. It felt like I had regained some form of control.
So then my dermatologist suggested we try Methotrexate. This nasty piece of work is called a DMARD, a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug. An immunosuppression drug that is also used as a chemotherapy agent and also used for abortions... so I'm sure you can imagine there are some pretty nasty side effects. I stuck it out for 1 year and I would not wish it on anybody. My period stopped completely at one point and when I discussed this with the doctor, I decided I would much rather have no hair than have some medication make a decision about my fertility, so I came off that and begged my doctor to let me go back to the steroid injections that I'd had so much success with.
We continued with these injections however unfortunately I could only get in every 3 months or so to see my dermatologist so they were rather useless. After months of this I decided I wanted to move back to Australia. London winters were getting harder and I was missing my family and my nephews.
After nearly 4 years in London I was back in Australia, back to my wonderful dermatologist and we were doing my injections every 2 weeks... mind you all the hair I had left was the 50c size piece at the crown. My hair grew back, ad fell out again.
So 19 years of trying everything under the sun, I moved to the Gold Coast and came across a medical trial with a new medication. This medication is in final stages of trials for alopecia with minimal side effects. I have been on the trial for 4 months now... where my scalp was shiny and bald at the beginning of the trial, I now have dark patches growing all over my head, and the patches of hair just keep getting bigger. So fingers crossed this is the treatment that is going to work for me.
So there you have it, a not so brief history of the treatments I have attempted for nearly 2 decades. And the one thing that I always try to be clear on, where a treatment may work for one person, it may not work for another.
Until next time.
Chloe
xxx
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