Finally, a nurse came into the room. She made small talk and I remember feeling like the room was spinning. She could see that I was very upset and she said some comforting words as she prepared a tray that had some gauze, some needles and other things I can't quite remember. She took some information from me and left the room.

 

Next a female doctor came into the room. She introduced herself and reviewed my notes. She then examined my scalp. We talked about what happened and a little about my history of hair loss. She cut right to the chase. She let me know that I had something called Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia. She explained that it is also known as scarring alopecia and that it is a rare form of alopecia and occurs in patients of color meaning of African, Latino and other ethnic descent. She let me know that she could clearly see the evidence because the tell-tail sign was the balding pattern at the very crown or top of my head and the balding pattern spreading outward from the center. She also said she saw evidence that I had another form of alopecia called Alopecia Areata. Yes, that's right. Not only did I have a rare disease, I had two forms of the disease.  Although she felt confident in her observation, she said that I would have to have a biopsy done to analyze the scalp tissue to confirm.

 

She brought in another Dr. and he is my doctor to this day. She had him confirm her findings. They both agreed that a biopsy was in order. They performed the biopsy right then and there. The results would come back in a few days. In the meantime, it was explained to me that they felt my hair loss was permanent. I was devasted. Again, I asked if there was anything else I could do to grow the hair back. It was explained to me that with scarring alopecia, the scar tissue grows inside the hair follicle, therefore the hair can no longer grow out of that follicle causing the permanent hair loss. But what about the bleeding and pus, the scaling, the itching, the burning? They recommended steroid injections directly into the scalp. It was explained that this would calm down the progression of the disease and relieve the symptoms. It wasn't a cure and I would need to periodically have more injections. 

 

Check out my video above. It's me visiting my doctor and him explaining what the injections will do.