Today, I was told that my youngest daughter has Alopecia.
If you have never heard of it, or have heard of it but don’t really know what it is, you’re not alone. Alopecia is loss of hair from the head or body, sometimes to the extent of baldness. It’s not very common. The condition affects 0.1%–0.2% of humans, occurring in both males and females, though far more females than males. As an auto immune disorder, there is no known cause and very little treatment options and most are not suitable for children.
Right now, Arianna has alopecia areata. This kind is bald spots or patches, usually just on the scalp. The next type is alopecia areata totalis, which is when you lose all the hair on your scalp, and the most severe kind is alopecia areata universalis, which is when a person loses all body hair– scalp hair, eye lashes, brows, nasal, pubic, etc.
While there is very little, if any, physical pain involved with Alopecia, the psychological effects can be severe.
The worst aspect of this condition is the unpredictability. In many, the hair will come back within a year. Sometimes, the hair never returns. In other cases, it returns and then falls out again.
Only time will tell if Arianna’s hair will grow back and only time will tell if she will stay at her current type– alopecia areata, the least severe. I was sad to learn that episodes of alopecia areata before puberty predispose to recurrent episodes after puberty. Not what a parent wants to hear right now!
I share this on my blog because, although I have known that something has been wrong for weeks, I was not really prepared for this diagnosis today– and in many ways, I am not ready to talk about it just yet. I am a choleric by nature and cholerics jump in, take charge and get done what needs to be done. There is no option for that course of action right now. There is no magic pill, no exercise, no diet that can work miracles. Only God can choose that plan for Arianna.
Until then, she is my baby. My sweet, beautiful baby girl with her big teal eyes, her cute button nose and that totally uninhibited and creatively free spirit. As her mom, I doubt I will ever really notice the bald spots on her precious little head. Others are starting to, and I have been noticing the second glances…I guess that is what’s weighing most heavy on my heart right now.
Still, I am just so deliriously happy that He chose me to be her mom and walk beside, and with her, during this small bump in the road of life. I am trying to choose joy over worry and and peace over anxiety, but it is much easier said than done.
I can’t help but reflect on Job and how he rose above his terrible circumstances. Certainly, a man who had reason to be sad and angry!
“Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head,then fell to the ground and worshiped:
‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.’
Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.”
