Lifecruiser

Those of you that haven’t read it before, might benefit from reading earlier posts about this matter before reading this, click on Category Health and read.

I know some of you wonder how it is with my going-bald thing. Me too ;-)

I think that MAYBE, but I’m not sure, the hair loss have decreased some. I think that it isn’t that many hair falling off now, but on the other side: I don’t have so many left to lose either!!!

And why can’t I lose hair on the rest of the body instead where I don’t want them? I have a few hairs keep growing out on my big toes, ONE thick one just in front of my right ear (!), some on my chin and don’t mention the bikini line - and they never fall off. *very disappointed*

My days goes by eating a lot of food stuff containing iron and C-vitamin. The C-vitamin help the body to suck up the iron better. Normally I eat rather much of this stuff anyway, but now I’m totally guzzle in this stuff. The steaks, liverpâté, parsley, spinach, broccoli, dried apricoty, shrimps, fruits and cashewnuts among a lot of other stuff is practically flooding up to my ears by now.

Oh, and I do hope that I’m not going to be hairy as a gorilla when all my hairs start growing back from eating all this iron stuff ;-)

Now I REALLY can call myself a food monster, but I’m not sure I’m that hungry any more. It’s quite tough work to get in all these stuff all the time… Pheeew!

Then I have to eat really strong iron pills every day, I should take two a day, but that’s almost impossible since they make the stomach go rollercoasting and sometimes even make me nauseous. I’ll have to keep a balance there, so I manage to take one almost every day. There is some others that I can buy without prescription to try out if they are easier for me, so we’ll se how it goes with that.

Don’t read this small printed if you’re sensitive:
And yes, my poo is still black and will continue to be as long as I eat the iron pills *lol*

Doc wasn’t interested in seeing me before the stomach investigation is done, the gastroskopi and that’s planned to the 12th of June. I have to wait so long because they are going to put me to sleep while doing it and their line for that is long. I can be grateful that they could squeeze me in before the summer. That’s how long line there is for any examination in this country nowadays.

I think I hope they won’t find any internal bleeding at least. On the other hand, I hope they find something, because there must be some reason for me having this lack of iron. You don’t get lack of iron if you eat normally and don’t bleed or having hormone issues. Sure the fact of loosing weight both during our US trip and South America trip is contributing to this, but is probably not the only cause of it.

I want some explanation for it or I’m going to feel very uncertain about this. How do I know if I’m well or not? These iron pills get my iron levels back yes, but if there is some other problem I may get back the lack of iron again and since it took me so long to understand that I was ill last time, how will I know it in time this time?

You see, I’m the type that’s up going or shuffling forward until I’m almost dead. Somehow my brain just don’t want to realize or admit that I’m actually ill. It’s insane. On top of that I have my cronical back pain I’m living with and I get pretty tired of that too, so how do I know whats what?

The clinic don’t want to do blood test if they don’t find it necessary and they have not the same definition of what’s necessary as I have… It’s always about money, but they won’t let me pay for the test myself either. *sigh*

I want my hair and my energy back. I don’t want to lose more of it. I want my travel life back.

Yours sincerely Baldie Hawn

Those sweet memories! I am so dreaming about having a lot of hair as on this picture of me when I was young…. I’ve always had a lot of hair, until recently as you know.

Doc called me today to tell me that I have anemia and lack of iron. They don’t know what’s caused it. It can be the infection I had in Paraguay with the loose of weight I had, but it also can be internal bleeding in the digestive tract. That’s why I also have to going through a further investigation where they goes down in my stomach and upper part of the colon to take samples. (Gastroskopi in Swedish).

They have to put me to sleep to do that, because there is NO WAY I’m doing that awake! So I guess I have to wait in the line for a while to get that investigation done.

I’ve now started a treatment with iron pills, we’ll see how it goes, since it’s easy to react on the pills. I also have to leave a sample of my..hm…sorry I have to say it - don’t picture it *lol*… feces, so they can look after blood in it. So now you know what I’m doing for the moment *laughing*. So now I’m not only have poked around in my dogs poo but my own too…

I’ve also looked up all food that contains the most amount of iron and C-vitamines, so now I will eat a lot of all that stuff. This hungry monster don’t have any problems with that :-) Did you know that you have to eat 2 liter of parsley to get the same amount of iron as in ONE beef? So it will be a lot of beefs here from now on!

I guess the hair loss will continue for a while and it will take some time (6-12 months) to get the hair back, so I’m still not quite myself on that part.

No one has come up with any cool nickname for me, not one suggestion, shame on you folks ;-)

What about:

1. Baldie Hawn
2. Bald Pitt
3. Moonraker
4. Iron woman
5. ………….

Hey everybody, keep the suggestions coming!!!

I’ve been quite busy lately, doing a research about my hair loss problems.

First of all, I diagnosed myself, so I know what desease I have: Alopecia, also known as Diffuse Hair Loss. (I wouldn’t call it diffuse hair loss though, it’s more like Massive Hair loss! ) That was the easy part of it.

Then we come to the question of what caused it… and that’s where I get stuck for the moment. There is a lot of things that can cause it, so I had to read a lot about it and sort out the things that don’t fit my situation.

I came up with some possible or alternative causes in my case, that I can’t sort out - yet:

1. Severe infection. I had that when we were in Paraguay-Brazil. The hair loss often starts 2-4 months after the infection, which corresponds to this actual time factor.

2. Diet.I lost 3 kilos when we were in the U.S. and then further more 6 kilos in Paraguay-Brazil, that’s 9 kilos all together within 2 months, which I haven’t been able to get back yet. That’s a lot on my body! Nutritional deficiencies - maybe lack of certain vitamines, iron, minerals etc. I do eat Multi-vitamines every day, but maybe that’s not enough after this.

3. Side effects of medicines.I’m taking two medicines (not every day) that both of them can cause hair loss in rare cases. I really have to take them. The only strange thing is why it appears now and not earlier in that case.

4. Physical or mental stress. I’m crazy, need I say more ;-) Seriously, I’ve been under a lot of stress the last year, not only because of my back pain, but a lot of other things around us too. Pneumonia, appendix surgery, different familymembers and friends having a lot of big problems, the month in U.S was very problematic, illness in Paraguay and Brazil, total car break down… Let’s just stop there and say that it has been one thing after another, because I could go on and on. I don’t think that I have been that upset that it would have caused hair loss, but hey what do I know?

5. Thyroid disease. My sister got it. I have some of the sympthoms, but they are rather common so it’s hard to tell. My chronical back pain is doing it more difficult for me to decide what is what.

Planned measures so far:
1. Go to doc, take blood tests to see what’s missing
2. Take nutrition complements
3. Go to the hairdresser for advice

There is a medicine (without prescription) to use against the hair loss, Rogaine, but I’m not so fond of medicines, so I’ll don’t think I can persuade myself to do it… It’s applied to the scalp, so it sounds like a mess to me. If it continues maybe I’ll get desperate enough?

NOTE: One important fact that made me very happy was that the hair loss is NOT permanent and the hair can grow out again, but it can take about 6-12 months before it does.

Secret whisper: Maybe I can cancel the order of the cool wig now ;-)

I’m going bald…

For a time now I’ve been loosing a lot of hair. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot! Big wads of hair is coming lose all the time, especially when I’m washing my hair. Imagine the feeling when you’re holding your whole hand FULL of hair suddenly. It’s a big lump, not separate hairs. You haven’t been dragging in the hair, it’s just there when you’re washing it. Every time you’ve been washing it for a long while. I’m not sure for how long.

I’m not exaggerating. It’s really scary.

Mr Lifecruiser has seen a very hairy back of me lately… I’m worse than a monkey, despite the fact that I don’t eat bananas, want to pick lices in Mr Lifecruisers fur and don’t feel an urge to swing in the trees. It’s hair coming lose all the time and it’s stuck on my sweater.

First I didn’t think much about it, because there are always periods in your life when you lose more hair than usual. I’m used to it, since I almost always have had a rather long hair. You always lose some hair. But this, I’ve never seen something like this, it’s like I had false hair that come lose. When I put a ribbon in my hair, the same one that I’ve always been using, there is a hole, it woun’t stay there, because there isn’t much hair left. I can say that it must be at least HALF of my hair amount that has come lose, it feels like I only have a third of it left….

So, first it was my back that went bad, then my brain shrinked and I was wondering what next? Well, I guess I have the answer on that one now: my hair is gone too!

Mr Lifecruiser and I’m very much alike and he don’t have much hair - must I always imitate him in everything…?

My hair has always been my greatest pride, so this is tough on me, but I’m sure going to try to find out why, even though I don’t have any confidence in doctors anymore. I’ve met too many bad ones so far. It can be many reasons for loosing hair, so I’m not guessing at this point, we’ll see what they say and do, what examinations they want to do. Probably nothing as my experience with them are, but you’ll never know, maybe they’ll surprise me this time?

I have the most wonderful life with Mr Lifecruiser anyway, so what if I lose ALL my hair? Who cares, as long as we’re together?

What’s HAIR comparing to LIFE? Nothing!

I will get some really cool nickname instead, anyone having some suggestions…?

I think I found one of the reasons for why my brain isn’t working properly… Yes, I know that I’ve been crazy since I was born ;-) but on top of that it has stopped working as it used to do.

Accordning to an article over at My Back Pain people with chronic back pain brains may age up to 20 times faster than normal. It actually shrinks the brain by 11%. Specifically the gray matter, which is responsible for memory and information processing. MRI brain images and other tests were showing that chronic back pain patients lost about 5%-11% of gray matter a year - about the same as 10 to 20 years or normal aging. In addition, the more years someone has chronic back pain, the more brain loss they suffered.

Oh, boy, am I in big big trouble now… maybe I don’t even have any brain left soon? I’m starting to fall apart peice for peice here, first the back, now the brain, WHAT is to follow….?

Another article on that blog are also saying that chronic pain often presents sufferers with a real “catch 22″ dilemma. If they talk about their pain, they risk being perceived and labeled as hypochondriacs, or even worse, fakers or malingerers. On the other hand, if they hide their pain, others don’t believe the pain is significant. It is enough to tax the patience of the most stoic person….

How well don’t I know that. *shaking it off like water on a goose*

Yeeeahhh, I got the happy plague, so I don’t care!

Secret whisper: Any one having any spare parts to offer?