Hair Loss

Hair Loss. What an unexpected shock this was. I had been in recovery for a couple of months by this stage. I was beginning to feel ok and thought my progress was fantastic. I even managed to travel down on the train to see my family. Whilst at my mums I noticed that I was losing more hair than usual when brushing it. I normally have long, thick hair so was used to the odd strands coming away but this was more than the norm. My sister Emily took a look, checked out my scalp and confirmed that I was losing hair. I was devastated at this early stage of the loss. I returned home, and whilst taking a shower it became apparent that my hair loss was extreme. My body was covered in my hair, the plug hole became blocked with it and the water overflowed the shower tray onto the bathroom floor. Sheer panic set in. I called my partner Chris back from work. He calmed me and cleared the bathroom of handfuls of my locks. The hair loss continued daily. I became afraid to wash it and had panic attacks everytime I did manage to. Off to the doctors I went. My doctor said that this was all to do with the trauma I had experienced. My body was working hard to get me better and my hair unfortunately was not top priority for it hense the loss. I was prescribed Betnovate, which is a steroid you rub into the scalp but this had no effect to be honest. I would say I lost virtually three quarters of my hair. It didnt come out in patches but simply all over, so I now have 'tufts' of new hair growing and what remains of my original hair is extremely thin. BUT it IS growing back which is brilliant news. Nothing prepared me for this though. It is one thing having a low self image due to scarring and having a colostomy but people dont see that unless you show them. Call it Vanity but my hair loss did depress me as it was obvious for the world to see. I felt that I had been through enough and that this was a very cruel side effect to this trauma.