January 1, 2014 - **Day 1**

The Start of New Journey

       So here goes nothing and everything. I figured out about a week ago that Akhilah’s Alopecia was flaring up again. Needless to say I was devastated. After almost a year of positive growth, I began to notice in December that her hair was thinner than what it was in November – and a lot of the fuzz she had was gone. I began to panic. All I could think of were the images of her with total hair loss; no hair, no eyebrows and no eye lashes. 

2012

     That was so devastating for the both of us and I vowed that if her hair ever came back I would do everything I could do to keep it. So now, here I am. January 1 – the start of a new year and new journey. One that will involve countless trials and tribulations, but I know that in the end it will be worth it. My mother always told me to trust my instincts, especially when it came to my children – so I’m doing just that. When Akhliah was first diagnosed with Alopecia I thought it came from her diet and stress. She developed a small patch on the right side of her scalp around November of 2011. At first I thought it was ringworm and the doctor prescribed me some type of miconazole that we used all the way up until February. The spot never showed signs of regrowth, even with the ointment we used. In January 2012, she started a Head Start program, and in February her hair began to shed like crazy. When I took her to a pediatric dermatologist, (that is good but conventional), he told me that she had Alopecia Areata; an auto-immune disease and, for all intents and purposes, is uncontrollable. We could only HOPE to calm it down by administering steroids to her scalp :-/ This never set right with me, so I stopped using the steroids after about three months of seeing no improvement. Finally, in February of 2013, we saw signs of growth. First it was fuzz, then a few eyebrows and then a few eyelashes. We were ecstatic!! From there everything seemed to fall into place. That was until December.

September 2013

September 2013

September 2013

September 2013

September 2013

July 2013

July 2013

July 2013

October 2013

January 1

January 1

January 1

January 1

January 1

January 1

January 1

      So here I am. Disappointed but not defeated and ready to try and tackle this head on. I hate to use my daughter as a guinea pig, but the fact is the doctors don’t know much and won’t try much. They say it’s not stress related, or diet related, or related to anything accept genes– and even that doesn’t always explain it. My gut is telling me that it’s diet and stress related – more diet than stress. Today we started a gluten free diet and within the next week I am going to start giving her probiotics. Although I might not be perfect in my implementation and strategy just yet I am going to give this a shot and see it through for the entire year. In addition, I plan on introducing essentials oils as topical therapy (and for her stress) as opposed to the steroids. From everything that I’ve looked up, I decided on rosemary, thyme, cedarwood, jojoba, sage, peppermint, lavender, olive, and possibly coconut milk and aloe vera. Rogaine will also be a part of the regimen – this will be used the most consistently because it obviously has provided results in re-growing hair. Finally I am going to try a few tactics to increase the blood circulation to her scalp – using gingko biloba, Echinacea, a hot rag on her head during baths, apple cider vinegar, aloe vera and a few rounds of her lying inverted on the couch (I'll explainw why on my "Product We Use" page. I know it sounds like a lot, but I believe in due time all of these things will help to stimulate her hair growth and turn off whatever trigger that’s causing her Alopecia. I hope you join me on this journey and that it helps you in your own. Welcome to Akhilah’s Alopecia Adventure!

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Breakfast:

• Eggs – Scrambled with butter salt and pepper
• Pork Bacon
• Grits w/butter & sugar

     I said it wouldn't be perfect, lol. But I’m trying. Our fridge is a little low right now – and I have A LOT of products that are NOT gluten-free. So I am working with what we have. I haven’t decided to eliminate dairy yet because I am trying to pinpoint what the triggers are. I’ll explain later on in the blog why I didn't get rid of dairy :-D


Snacks:

• Jello w/fruit(canned)
• Banana

Dinner:

• Pan Seared Chicken (seared in butter – I’m out of olive oil, but when buy it that will be what I use exclusively). Cooked in Lawry’s seasoning salt, pepper, cumin, ginger and minced garlic
• A veggie medley with tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers. Mixed with sea salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, ginger paste, basil, parsley, and light ranch. 

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       She also did two five minute sessions of lying inverted on the couch as well as massaging and brushing her hair and scalp with Groganics-DHT Blocker System. It is a daily topical treatment that is made from petrolatum, (which I’m not a fan of), mineral oil, menthol, camphor, saw palmetto, camomille extract, and violet #2. When she took a bath I put a warm-hot rag on her head twice for five minutes at a time.

     So here it goes everyone. I am trying this because the doctors can’t give me any answers and there is not a blog online that I can find that really documents a person’s day by day, week by week, regimen in battling this frustrating disease – and if it does it costs money(that I don’t have right now). So in the meantime just call me Dr. Mom and wish US luck. Until the next post - Peace and Blessings to all :-)