I was admitted to the hospital 6 months ago after I was given sulpha-based pills. As it turns out, I was allergic to them. For a few days I felt like I had the flu and couldn’t get out of bed. My body was covered in hives and I couldn’t stop shaking. My boyfriend finally dragged me to the ER and I was admitted for several days as they tried to figure out what was going on. At the time I had no idea and had nothing in the records that I was allergic to. It took a couple days and numerous tests to figure it out. As a result, my white cell count was very low, my liver was damaged, I lost about 10 pounds, and my skin was spotted from the hives.
It took a couple months to start feeling better. I was weak for the first couple of weeks, down to about 100 pounds, very bruised from all of the shots and blood tests, and still feeling nauseous. The doctor signed me out of work for a few more days so I had some time to recover and try to get back on track. Over the next month I saw a dermatologist about my skin and had several more blood tests done to see how my liver and white blood cell levels were. Slowly they were getting better. I was told everything would have to heal itself and would take time. My body had basically been poisoned and had to get back to normal after its tough fight.
Soon I felt I was in the clear – not perfect but almost there. Then my hair started to fall out. It was about 2 months after this hospital visit. It didn’t just start falling out a little where you would barely notice it and contribute it to stress or maybe the California heat – wishful thinking. It started coming out by the handful! I didn’t say anything to anyone right away – I was hoping it would fix itself. I had no idea why it was doing that. I emailed my doctor after about a week and mentioned the problem. She gave me the advice to dilute my shampoo and change to a different hairbrush and see if that was the problem. I knew it wasn’t though – I had many loose hairs and was shedding all day. I made an appointment and saw her in person. She gave me a steroid gel to rub on my scalp saying maybe my scalp was weak and that’s why the hair was coming loose. I used the gel for about a week, and still no change. I was becoming very paranoid and wanted answers. I badgered my doctor to make me an appointment in the dermatology department. The appointment was made and would be in 3 weeks. Naturally, I wasn’t going to wait that long. This is my hair, for goodness sakes! I made repeated calls to that department until I was able to get an appointment that would be in a few days, once someone made a cancellation.
By this time I had told a few people what was going on. My boyfriend had noticed my massive shedding and so I had let him know something was up and I was trying to get answers. He was worried I was going to go bald. I don’t blame him! A few select friends and family members knew as well. They told me yes it was noticeable, but tried to reassure me that you couldn’t “really” tell! Well, I could. Whether it was up or down I could tell. I even had to switch pony-tail scrunchies because the former ones were much too big, even when wrapped several times.
I was ready for my appointment. I had wishful thinking I would walk out with an answer and some kind of medicine or “fix” to this issue. I was scheduled to see a nurse practitioner, and had my doubts the second he walked in the door and said “So you have the hard issue huh? Hair loss!” I showed him a bag of hair I had gathered from the bottom of the shower and he agreed right away that something was definitely wrong. At the rate it was falling out, I would be bald within a month or so. It’s normal to lose about 100 hairs a day. I was losing about 3 to 4 times that much. We went over the medications I take, what kind of stress is in my life, what products I use, etc. I mentioned my hospital visit but he didn’t think that was the cause. He stated that with hair loss there’s not much that can be done. He said I could have a biopsy and see if something was wrong with my scalp. Then he started to talk about wigs and hair-replacement treatments! I was like “I’m 25!” Perhaps I gave him the Look of Death, but he decided to consult a colleague and asked if I minded if she came in the room. Bring her on! I wanted all the help I could get. When she came in the room I gave her the short and sweet version of the hair loss experience, showing her the bag of hair and mentioning the hospital visit. She stopped me right there and asked how long ago it was. I told her about 2 and a half months, and she’s like DING DING! There was the answer.
To summarize, I was told that my body had experienced a system shock. I was given some information about Telogen Effuvium Hair Loss, and it seemed to fit the bill. Basically about 2 months after a body shock, a person can lose up to about 70% of their hair. The hair loss can continue for up to 6 thru 8 months and then gradually stops and the hair cycle returns to normal. There’s no treatment for this – it has to run its course and fix itself. So basically I was told that it was going to be scary, I was going to lose a lot of hair, but it would get back to normal. I was not going to go bald but my hair would get thin. And, there was nothing I could do about it. I was told that for “peace of mind” I could try Rogain or use hair gel vitamins but it wouldn’t really do anything.
Naturally, I wanted my “peace of mind” and went out and spent some nice dough on the Rogain and hair gel and used it for the next month or so. Of course, it really didn’t do anything. In fact, I was more embarrassed than anything. The hair loss was making me very self-conscious. Eventually I started wearing my hair up every day because it looked odd down.
After about 2 months of massively shedding my hair stopped falling out by the handful. Really, there wasn’t enough left to continue at that speed. But it stopped and I was grateful. At this point I had lost about half of my hair. During these couple of months I trimmed the length of my hair several times on my own, basically while it was in a pony-tail. It didn’t look as bad this way – it helped to even it out.
It is now November and so it’s been a couple of months since my hair stopped falling out by the handful. I’m still wearing my hair up everyday and will continue to do this for several more months. The “scary” stage has passed. I’m now in the “waiting” stage. I have lots and lots of new hairs and so the top of my head is looking thicker, but it will take months for these new hairs to get to the length of their longer siblings. If hair only grows about a centimeter a month, I have a long wait to go. This experience has been stressful, irritating, and upsetting. They tell you stress can cause hair loss – well how are you not going to stress during this?! I’m trying to take this in stride because really, these is nothing I can do about it. It’s a tough experience to go thru, especially after you finally think you are in the clear after an awful hospital visit. But like I said, you have to take some things in stride because there is nothing you can do about it but wait.
