The Story of Tyler's Hair

We noticed a little over a week ago that he had a big bald spot on the front left side, near his hairline.  Since I've always kept his hair long, it sort of covered it a bit and made it not as noticeable but you could tell it was there. Naturally I was worried because I didn't know why it had happened and to us it seemed to have happened suddenly. Almost like one day it wasn't there and the next day it was.

So we took him to our pediatrician and she told us she thought it could be 2 things. The first was trichotillimania, which is where people twirl or pull their hair so much that it creates bald spots.  This was definitely something I thought it could be because Tyler has done this since he was a baby.  He used to twirl my hair when he was nursing and has always twirled his for comfort when he's watching tv or before he falls asleep.  The problem though, is usually you see a lot of broken hairs in the bald area and with Tyler, the area was completely smooth at the time.

So the other option was that it was a condition called alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disorder where the bodies white blood cells mistakenly attack the hair follicles and make the hair fall out.  It does not mean permanent hair loss and no one really knows why it happens, but in extreme cases, some people can lose all of their hair from this.  She personally thought it could be this and sent us to a pediatric dermatologist who specializes in it and could help us treat it.

After meeting with him, he thought it was alopecia areata as well.  We could have done a biopsy to be sure, but since Ty is only 2 we decided against it for now.  They would have had to numb the area with a shot and then pull out a hair cell to examine and then stitch it back up with a few stitches.  Sounds like a traumatic experience for a 2 year old, who is already nervous around doctors.

The treatments for alopecia are to have steroid injections into the spots to help the hair come out of the dormant stage it's in or to use steroid creams, and even those don't always work.  After talking with him we decided to just wait a few months to see what happens naturally.  Sometimes the hair just grows back all on it's own, which is what I am hoping for. I can see the hair follicles in the spot now, but they are not growing and if they do grow back it will happen very slowly.

I've never even heard of this condition before, but the derm said it was fairly common and he see's at least a patient a week about it. Everyone's case is different though so it's hard to compare if it will just happen this once or if it will be a lifelong battle. The right front side of Ty's hair is starting to thin a bit now too and I'm just hoping a patch isn't forming there, but we'll just have to see.

So for now, Tyler kind of looks like a little old man with a receding hairline!  I know it's just hair and it maybe seems silly to worry about it, but I do.  I really don't think you can help it when you're a mom.  I am just hoping that it doesn't progress and that more bald spots appear.  Only time will tell, but for now we are just staying hopeful and having faith that it will grow back.  I am trying to be positive and I am grateful he's not losing his hair from something much worse like cancer.  He's a healthy little boy otherwise, so we are counting our blessings. It's just hard to watch happen and to be patient.

One good thing is that Tyler loves wearing hats lately, which is surprising to us because that is SO against his personality.  He is usually a pretty stubborn kid and wants nothing to do with anything we want him to do!  So that helps a bit when we are out and about and luckily his hair is longer so we can cover it up for now.  We'll go back in a few months to see if it's gotten worse, better or stayed the same.

Luckily a 2 year old boy doesn't care about his hair at all... it's just been really hard on his mommy :(

A Dental Discovery

Both of the boys have had awful colds and double ear infections this week so there's not really much to blog about over here unless you want to hear about all my methods of forcing antibiotics down their throats and drops in their ears! :) We have mostly just been hanging home trying to get them better. Soo, I'll share Brayden's latest dental discovery, since I'm sure you are all dying to know! I finally took Brayden in for his first dental visit earlier this week. He was a little nervous about it and I honestly had a hard time telling him the dentist was fun because truly I hate and dread going to the dentist more than anything! I was a little nervous about it too because at this age, when there's a problem with the teeth its all on the mom! And I will admit that I have forgotten to sometimes water down the juice, or brush his teeth twice a day, and we do let him get sprite when we go out to eat. Oh and I guess he was supposed to go to the dentist a lot sooner. Apparently they see kids at 15 months to put flouride on their teeth! Ah, I never knew! I just always thought I would wait until he was older because what toddler is going to sit still in a dentist chair with their mouth open...BB never would have!

Anyways, I took him to a kids only dentist that my aunt had recommended and I must admit, it was great. I seriously wish I could go there! They had a big play area in the waiting room and when we went to the back they let Brayden pick a movie to watch and then put it on a little flat screen that they pulled down right above him as they cleaned his teeth. They let him try out all of the dental tools before they used them on him and he left with 4 stickers and a little dog, which he currently is playing with more than his christmas toys. I will admit, I had to gag when they offered him the choices of toothpaste and out of all of them he chose cookie dough! I don't even want to imagine what cookie dough toothpaste tastes like! Gross.

So after cleaning his teeth, they took him away to try and see if he would cooperate for some x-rays. When the hygenist brought him back, she was all excited and said the dentist had something really cool to tell me. Now cool is not really a word that I have ever heard a dentist use. I was pretty sure if Brayden had some cavities or something that they wouldn't refer to them as "cool" so I wasn't sure what they were going to say. The dentist walked in and told me that Brayden has an extra baby tooth on top which is why on his right side he has a tooth that is sticking out more then the others. I had always just thought he didn't have enough room in his mouth for all of his baby teeth so he would for sure be getting braces. I never even noticed he had an extra tooth up there...I think there was a time he was getting so many in at once that I just lost track. So we'll see if he has an extra permanent one too when those start to come in.

So, its not really a big deal, just kind of "cool" like the dentist said. Seriously all I could think about while she was going on and on (and on) about this is how sad that he had to push an extra tooth through his gums when he was little! Poor baby!!! Maybe its because Ty is teething SO bad right now and he is miserable! Haha, so that was our dental discovery this week. That and apparently I am a horrible mom for not flossing my childs teeth daily which is something I haven't even mastered for myself yet. I guess we need to make this a 2010 goal or something.

And here is a picture of Tyler real quick. He LOVES to climb into everything right now and its all fun and games until he trys to get out. I was taking some pictures of him in this red bucket that he had climbed into when it suddenly just tipped over. I thought he was going to start to scream but he just laid there with his little lip sticking out. It was so sad and yet so cute at the same time because it was like he was trying so hard to be tough!

Tubes in, Adnoids out

BB and mommy watchin cartoons before surgery

Today we took Brayden to the hospital for his surgery. He needed tubes in his ears and his adnoids removed. Basically the poor kid has had non stop ear infections since before Christmas! Brayden did so well and was so brave... I think I was worse than him. It was hard to see him being put to sleep with iv's in his arm. We were able to come home right after which was nice. The doctor said that he had to use an adult syringe to get out all of the infection and blood built up in his ears and with all that he had been going around with about 40% hearing loss... like he had cotton balls in his ears. So maybe now he'll acutally listen when I call him! :) j/k His adnoids were also larger than they should have been so its good those are gone too. Gosh I am just so grateful for modern medicine! And I'm also grateful we were just at the hospital for tubes today. I can't imagine being there for a child with cancer or something like that. I feel very blessed to have a healthy boy!! We sure love him!

Brayden took baby simba as his comfort toy for surgery and we found simba dressed just like him after. We had such great nurses.... So cute!!

*Also, THANK YOU Stacy and Ellie for bringing over the balloon, card, and book for BB. It was so thoughtful and it made our day!! :)

Health Update

So I just found out yesterday that I have Graves disease. After about a million tests it seems like, I'm just glad they actually found something. And it sounds pretty manageable so I'm happy about that. I had no idea what it was when the doctor told me but basically it has to do with my thyroid being overactive. They're not sure if thats whats causing all my joint pain but hopefully once all my levels are back to normal it will just go away. I guess from here I'll find out if I need surgery to remove my thyroid or if I can go the easier way and take some radioactive iodine pills that will kill it off. I'm hoping for the second one cause surgery just scares me!! After that I'll just have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life to make up for what a normal thryoid should be doing. I'm just excited to have the hope of starting to feel better soon. It's been a long time since I've had energy and felt normal! So thats the health update
http://www.4woman.gov/faq/graves.htm