A Nasty Situation

Soooo this may get a little gross, sorry. Just a forewarning.

About six months after Jon and I got married I felt a little bit of left over glue stuck to my head (Monica did my hair for the wedding and glued in hair extensions so she could do more with my hair and it looked beautiful!). I had tried so hard to wash all the glue out with shampoo for days following the wedding but it was so hard to get out! Frustrated that some was still attached to my head six months after the fact, I quickly picked at it until it came off. Throughout the week I would be running my hand through my hair and find yet another spot, and then the next time another! Each time I would pick the glue off. The most frustrating part was the fact that the glue would suddenly reappear in spots that I had already picked off. What in the world was going on?!? At first I thought maybe just some glue and stayed stuck on, but eventually I began to realize I had probably caused a scab when I picked off the glue the first time and wasn't allowing these scabs to heal over. So I left them alone hoping they would disappear.

They didn't... From my habit of constantly checking my hair I soon began to notice these weird scab-like things spreading along the back of my head. Jon examined them for me and guessed that I probably had some genetic condition his dad and brother had. Apparently there was no cure for it, the condition would just gradually fade away and come back as it pleased. This was not a very outlook for me especially when I soon found out that my mom appeared to have something similar to it.

I would have been fine if my condition was similar to theirs, but it wasn't. It wasn't some little dandruff like flakes on my scalp. They were huge, hard and thick. The best way I can think to describe it, which is what I often imagined was happening was that the skin on my scalp was hardening and flaking off in huge chunks, leaving behind the flesh of my head underneath it. I thought this because I could feel the giant flakes and tried to explore under them but they were so hard and hurt to bend back even a little I could never really feel what was underneath. And it hurt to touch them, bend them back.

After showers my hair would stick to the softness of them and I would have to decrust it from the thick flakes as it dried to prevent the back of my head from looking like I was balding or some disgusting creature. I don't think people ever noticed thankfully but if you even touched the back of my head you would have felt those sharp things. It also made doing my hair fairly difficult. I'd want to put it half up with some bobby pins but they prevented me from sliding them in without feeling like I was ripping my scalp off. So I'd usually just stick with my hair down or in a pony tail. I was grateful for one thing though, the condition I had never spread to my entire scalp, just a circle right at the back. That was just one good thought I had as this tore down my self confidence a bit.

I was just so self conscious about it. My mother in law offered to braid my hair for me once, when it was in the earlier stages of growing, since I was having some difficulty (surprise surprise I still haven't perfected that art on myself =P). I let her do it feeling that she wouldn't run into any of the spots, but low and behold she did. All I could think of was how grossed out she must have been, but too polite to say anything she kept going bless her heart. Also in the earlier stages I got my hair cut and the whole time I just wondered how grossed out the lady must have been and the story she would tell to her coworkers later about it. Needless to say I haven't gotten a hair cut since, especially since it got worse.

Finally after dealing with this for a couple months I finally found the time to set up a general doctor's appointment with the UofA Campus Health. I was embarrassed to have to show the doctor my ugly head and was terrified at the same time it would be what Jon thought and there wouldn't be any treatment. But lo and behold it wasn't!!! I was SOOO happy!!!! I wouldn't have to live as some gross creature feared by all my whole life! He gave me a steroid ointment to rub in my head once a day and shampoo to rub in before showering. Jon was so wonderful to put the ointment on my head every night, I know it wasn't the prettiest thing he's seen from me but he offered and never complained about helping me out with that every night. In fact he offered the very first time! I was so grateful.

 After the first two days of the treatment there was little improvement but then the third and fourth day it was HUGE improvement. The only down side with this improvement was a seemed to be losing a TON of hair. At the beginning of the third day I thought not much of it as I pulled some flakes that had detached off and they took a bit of hair with them. But then when I showered, globs of hair came off on my hands when I was washing my hair. Then it happened again the fourth day and I was afraid by the end I would have a big bald spot where I had been applying the ointment. I always wondered how cancer patients dealt with losing their hair and never thought I could handle it, this proved that fact I believe. I was beginning to become devastated again, but luckily after the fourth day the dramatic loss of hair stopped.

Now after a week of pony tails to hide the greasy ointment spot on my head that wouldn't wash out I have my scalp back!!! Its an amazing feeling to run my fingers through my hair again and not feel that nasty crusty stuff! I'm gradually washing out the ointment and soon I'll be able to wear my hair down conscious free! I am sooo grateful that there was a treatment for what I had and that it actually worked! I'm also extremely thankful to all Jon did in helping me with everything through this especially put on the ointment every night.

Hope it wasn't too gross, I just had to get out everything I've been through with this and writing it in my journal would have taken forever.