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Penicillin… could it be an infection?

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On the day of the first cryospray therapy I got the results of the blood tests the doctor had ordered. It turns out that everything came back normal, everything but a throat culture test that revealed the high presence of streptococcus. It is true that my usually healthy self had been fighting a lingering cough for a big part of 2012 and the whole month of January of 2013. It started on March last year (more than a year ago) and it has been going on an off.

Back then I would have cough fits that would keep me awake, something really unusual for me. Still I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it and treated it mostly with over the counter cough syrup and medication that would at least let me sleep. The cough went away after two months or so, but not totally, and then in came back in January. Well, apparently it was due to a sinus infection caused by these bacteria.

I asked the doctor if this could also be the cause of my Alopecia Areata. She said that the lingering infection could have caused stress to my body and contributed to the onset of the Alopecia. That is, she said, on top of any other stress that is present in my life right now.

In any case she prescribed three penicillin injections, one each month. I have already had two and, I don’t know if it is because of that, but the cough is over (for good, it seems); I am also combining that with sinus saline washes.

Probably this won’t cure the Alopecia, but at least it would help me get healthy overall, and that can only be good.

Cryotherapy

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Cryotherapy bottle, like the one used by my doctor. (Photo: Warfieldian)

The following Thursday after the first visit with my dermatologist, Dr. Silvia, I went back to her for my first cryotherapy. It is and odd concept, at least for me. She puts liquid nitrogen in an aerosol device, while pouring it you can see something like a white gas coming out of the containers and if you stand by it you can feel the very cold sensation that such gas gives to your feet and legs. Once the liquid nitrogen is in the can, the doctor sprayed it over my scalp for about 2 or 3 minutes, moving my hair around and making sure that the whole head had been spray with the freezing gas.

The sensation went from refreshing, to good, then cold and, finally, almost painfully freezing. It is really cold, like when you leave an ice over your skin for a long time. I was just hoping that the rest of my hair wouldn’t freeze up and fall down as a result. It didn’t.

The purpose of this therapy, my doctor explained, is to stimulate the follicle. With Alopecia Areata the follicle usually stops producing hair for some time because of an autoimmune reaction (a mistake from you immune cells, basically), and the objective is to keep that follicle alive through stimulation so when the immune attack is over, the follicle would be ready to produce hair again.

I read some studies published on the Internet and they mentioned a success rate of the cryotherapy for Alopecia Areata, they were of less than 50%. So, I think it is worth it to keep it going. So far I have had 5 treatments and no hair has re-grown yet. There are many other things that I am doing in order to stop this disease and get my hair back. I am convinced something has to work.

Human placenta… in my head?!

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The Placental Histotherapy Center, in Havana, Cuba, where the human placenta shampoo and lotion are sold.

Right after the visit with the dermatologist I headed to the PlacentalHistotherapyCenter which is just two blocks away from the Cira García Clinic (where most foreigners in Cuba get medical treatment.)

At the center they required the prescription issued by Dr. Garcia and they gave me a new prescription from the doctor in site so I could buy the Piloactive Placenta Lotion at the pharmacy in site.

The lotion is sold along with a shampoo for 20 dollars per set (200 ml of each). Both products are made with human placenta and they are the result of research done in the island in the 70s primarily to cure vitiligo, another skin disease which main symptom is the discoloration of the skin.

The research was done by Dr. Carlos Miyares Calo, a physician specialist in Gynecology, Obstetrics and Pharmacology, and professor from MedicalSchool of the University of Havana, Cuba, explains the Center’s website. (http://www.histoterapia-placentaria.cu/)

From the mid 1980s people from many countries were coming to Cuba to look for a cure for the vitiligo and the Center was created.

In the 90s the Cuban scientists created other medications made of human placenta to treat other diseases such as psoriasis, osteoporosis and alopecia.

The lotion and the shampoo are said to stimulate hair growth and regeneration, they increase blood circulation to the scalp and regulate the sebaceous secretions. They are also said to improve the protein synthesis that happens normally inside every hair follicle.

On top of all those things neither the shampoo nor the lotion have secondary effects. I am using them now (it has been a month), so far I have seen no results but as my doctor said it is too early for any results… patience!

First visit with dermatologist

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The piloactive lotion, the minoxidil and the cortisone cream… all part of my new rutine.

On Tuesday March 19 I met with my new dermatologist, Dr. Silvia Garcia. This was my first appointment with this very nice woman.

“What brings you here?” she asked, “I have Alopecia Areata,” I said. She examined the spots carefully and then she carefully listened to what I had to say and how I discovered this and how daily activities (such as washing my hair) were driving me crazy.

The main thing, she said, “is to forget about it.” This is pretty much impossible since every time I get out of the shower the largest spot is there, watching me from the bathroom mirror.

But what else I have to do? I asked.

She prescribed a series of tests to rule out any infection or thyroid problem, she also told me that every week I have to massage my head with olive oil and in a way that I feel the scalp skin moving from the skull, she also told me to use the Minoxidil (I happened to have the 2% solution, since I bought it a year ago thinking that my hair was thinning and never used it) and she also prescribed a cortisone cream every night applied directly over the bald spots.

She also told me to use something called Piloactive Placenta Lotion which I have to put over my bald spots every other day. I will do some more research about this lotion for a further entry, but apparently it was invented in Cuba and it is only sold in this island.

On top of that, Dr. Garcia will also give me a weekly cryotherapy. She explained this is a therapy with a spray made out of liquid nitrogen, and I will feel a very cold sensation in my head.

All these, she said, is in order to stimulate the follicles which are not dead but just dormant. The hair most likely will grow back, but also most likely it wont be over night. It may take many months she said… and that is the real challenge for me: patience!

More common than you think

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Me with my full hair… a couple of years ago.

After 10 days since the discovery of the Alopecia Areata, and after being in a truly emotional roller coaster trying to cope with the condition and at the same time keep my anxiety controlled I decided to see a dermatologist.

So far, I have gotten opinions from my brother (the neurologist) and by my friend Carlos (the psychiatrist), but on Tuesday March the 17th I went to the hospital where most of the ex pats go in Havana, it is called Clinica General Cira Garcia. I was there helping a friend who is not fluent in Spanish and needed some translation with her doctor.

After her appointment I asked her physician, Dr. Teresa, if she could recommend a dermatologist for me. “What is your problem,” she asked, “I have Alopecia Areata,” I responded. She stood up from her desk and without even asking permission she started examining my head. “Don’t worry. This is more common than you think,” she said and then she added the same thing I heard so far: it is stress related, stop thinking about it and your hair will eventually grow back.

She gave me the name of Dr. Silvia Garcia. She is my new dermatologist. Two days after I had the first appointment with her.

Terror in the shower!

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As an enthusiast runner for most of my adult life I am used to sweat a lot, and therefore I am also used to take a lot of showers. In the last 14 years I have lived in places with hot, humid, and long summers (Houston and Havana) and during those hot days (after a run or not) I would love to get in the shower and wash my hair or at least get it completely wet to get refreshed.

This has changed in the last month. I still love to take showers as long as my hair is not involved. But washing my hair has become one of the bigger (if not the biggest) trigger of my anxiety.

So, I washed it the Sunday after I discovered the spots and after my trip to the beach (March 10). It went OK. But since then I barely touched my hair. It was Thursday, March 14, when I decided that I needed to wash it again.

I got in the shower I got my hair wet and massaged my head with the shampoo and when I rinsed it I saw hundreds of hair strands ending up in my hands. I just broke down.

But later this is how I try to reason about the subject: if I hadn’t touch my hair in four days (no combing, no styling, no water, no nothing) and then I wash it, wouldn’t that be the perfect opportunity for my hair to shed the natural shed accumulated in four days? I want to believe it is so.

Or maybe it is just the natural shedding amount and I just have lost completely my objectivity.

Or maybe the shedding caused by the Alopecia Aerate hasn’t stopped (I hope this is not the case).

Still, my afternoon was horrible. I called my mom and cried, I called my brother and cried and I cried my eyes out by myself.

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I loved washing my hair!

My brother, the neurologist suggested an antidepressant, Zoloft (which happens not to be readily available in Cuba), and then said that I should have a little bit of clonazepam (a quarter of a pill) to control extreme anxiety states such as this. I will try the clonazepam, and I decided to leave the antidepressant pill for future consideration.

From now on, I will focus on washing my hair three times a week and be brave about it… maybe with the help of a little clonazepam before the shower.

Flowers for my head

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Healing myself with flowersOn March 12, after my massage day, I had an appointment with Carlos, my friend and psychiatrist. I was not supposed be a counseling session, but and evaluation of my emotions according to specific questions design to help determine which was the best mix of healing flowers for me.

As mentioned in a previous posting these flowers, called Bach Flowers, were discovered by a bacteriologist called Edward Bach and are believe to have healing properties, primarily for conditions such as depression, anxiety and stress.

Carlos is my friend, and a very intelligent man, so it was easy to talk to him. We discussed a little how this condition makes me feel: anxious, afraid, insecure, and desperate… among other things. We also talked about my moods in the last few days and then he asked me questions which help him decide that I am a woman that is over controlling, totally impatient, very apprehensive, one that tends to worry to much about her health and that of her loved ones. “I could have told you that in ten seconds,” my husband joked.

Carlos said that those characteristics of my personality were creating extra stress in my body and could be a contributing factor to the alopecia. He also said that the events on my life such as our imminent repatriation to the U.S. and the changes that come with that could be causing stress, along with some other things.

So I have my flowers now, I have been taking 12 drops a day (4 drops 3 times a day) for a whole month and generally I feel much better, less anxious, less afraid. Nevertheless I still have very bad moments most of them triggered by the hair I see falling when I wash it, is it normal? Is it more? Will I get more spots? And then I get anxious again!

Forget exercise… let’s have a massage

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I have never really loved massages. I mean, I like them but I don’t love them. I am way too hyperkinetic to lay down for a whole hour and a half while some masseuse rubs my body.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I like massages, but just for a short time. After a while I usually find it hard to relax and I want to get up and do “something.”

But now with my new alopecia areata condition I have been instructed by my brother (the neurologist) and by my friend (the psychiatrist) that the most important thing for me to do is to relax. So, I have resolved to get a full body massage and RELAX.

Here in Cuba I have a personal trainer, Regina; she a beautiful and very funny woman that at some time belonged to the National Taekwondo team. At some times during my life here in Cuba she has really helped me to tone my body (although her skills always have to fight with my love for high-calorie consumption.)

Anyway… other than being an amazing personal trainer and person, she is also a great masseuse. So, this time, instead of an hour and a half of weight training I asked her to give me a massage not before I told her the reason: I needed to relax because I have bald spots caused, apparently, by stress and anxiety.

It help also that here in Cuba a 1.5 hour massage costs 15 dollars, that contibuted also to my motivation to try it.

So, during the massage I just set my mind in the “relax” mode, talked to her and laughed about her always funny stories. She told me that she could feel tons of accumulated tension in my back and shoulders, and she worked them hard. After an hour an a half I felt relaxed, light, and like nothing bad could ever happen to me. I felt great. Even when my hair grows back I will keep getting massages! I like them now.

Regina and me, a couple of years ago.

Regina and me, a couple of years ago.

Relaxing at the beach

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Sunday March the 10th, the next day after the discovery of the bald
spots I decided to go to the beach. It was a beautiful day and every Sunday a
group of friends go over there. So I figured out that if what I needed was toNothing more ralaxing.
relax there was no better way to do it than sitting by water to contemplate the
waves, enjoy the breeze and talk to my friends.

Sure enough it was really helpful. I first talked to my friend Yolanda and told her about the newly discovered problem. She told me about a friend that has the same thing: alopecia areata. In the case of her friends she has bald spots that come and go constantly depending on her level of stress. It was reassuring to know that those spots “go,” but not so reassuring to know that they may come back.

Then Francesca, another friend at the beach, told me about a friend of hers that also had a bald spot once, a really big one. “What you have is nothing compared to what she had,” Francesca said, and most important “the hair eventually grew back.” I thought at that moment that I would focus all my energy in that: in knowing and believing that my hair will eventually grow back.

And then there was Carlos, another friend that usually goes to the beach on Sundays and who is a psychiatrist (officially MY psychiatrist, now). He told me he has had several patients with the same problem, and that they all eventually recover their hair.

He also told me that he would prepare for me a concoction of Bach Flowers to help me relax. According to Wikipedia, these flower dilutions were developed by a bacteriologist called Edward Bach and are believe to have healing properties, primarily for conditions such as depression, anxiety and stress.

That day, the second day of my life with Alopecia Areata, was good day. I came back from the beach relaxed, optimistic and tanned!

The first day: Discovering the spots

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Two weeks before I discovered the spots.

Two weeks before I discovered the spots.

It was March 9, it is almost going to be a month and I just now find the peace of mind to sit down and write about my experience with Alopecia Areata.

This is the day when I first noticed the bald spots. I know now that the condition most likely appeared time before I made such discovery… maybe a week, maybe two weeks, maybe more. But this was the night when it became a reality to me, a reality that has been very difficult to get out of my head… literally.

I was in the living room talking to Jeff, my husband, just casually chatting of whatever had happened back home in Havana during our vacation in Mexico and the U.S. I was relaxed, enjoying the evening and running my fingers through my hair when… boom! I felt a smooth space in my scalp in a place where everything I should have felt was hair. But no, this spot was clean and smooth.

I ran to the bathroom and used two mirrors to be able to see the back of my head, and sure enough there it was a small bald spot.

I started to touch the rest of my head and… boom again! I felt another, this last one almost in the top of my head in the side of the hairline and bigger than the first one. I didn’t need two mirrors to see this one, it was clearly visible and it looked bad.

I was in panic.

My only experience with baldness like this had been in high school, when one of my classmates started to develop bald patches that quickly turned into total body baldness, I mean as far as I know this friend doesn’t even have nose hairs.

I was very afraid and picturing the worst scenarios possible, it was almost like it was not happening to me, like if I was dreaming.

Jeff, my husband, tried to calm me down and advice to call my brother, a neurologist in Mexico. I did. When he answered the phone I told him in a state of panic that I had discovered two bald spots in my head. “Don’t worry,” he said “it is Alopecia Areata most likely triggered by stress. The most important thing for you to do now is calm down.”

That has been for sure the most difficult challenge in the month since this started: to calm down.