Hair loss after Sepsis

Loss of hair after severe trauma or surgery is due to the endocrine effects and stress response.

Have no fear. The hair loss is temporary.

The hair loss appears just as your has, at about the 3 month mark post stress, as the lifespan of a hair follicle is about 4 weeks.

Your hair will rebound. The hair loss is temporary as a response to the endocrine stress response.

Post Edited ((Seashell)) : 1/29/2017 3:03:03 PM (GMT-7)

Tiki:
I share with you a common thread of having survived a severe intestinal perforation with sepsis.

Susie is correct in pointing out that you are embarking on a dual pathway of healing, encompassing both emotional and physical healing.

As you proudly mention, you have always been a woman of health and vigor, who valued physical activity and exercise as a foundation of wellness. That is, until surgery to remove an endometrial cyst and tumor that went terribly awry. From reading your post, my sense is that you are in unfamiliar waters in feeling and processing the waves of emotions that accompany a serious and life-altering illness/accident.

Five years ago, I sustained a severe intestinal perforation owing to long-term use of coritcosteroids that thinned the tissue integrity of my GI tract. The entire length of my large intestine "unzipped," spewing digestive food contents and coercive digestive enzymes into the otherwise pristine abdominal cavity. I was given a 5% chance of survival.

I survived, by grace of God/Higher Power and the combined skills of a team of amazing medical providers.

I would be remiss if I remarked that the subsequent recovery was simple and straightforward. It was not. The recovery was a long and grueling process, not for the faint of heart. Recovery was not a steady upward trajectory of improvement but rather an undulating process punctuated by a series of set-backs and small victories. Progress was measured in weeks rather than in days.

I was hospitalized for an initial 56 days, with two subsequent admissions due to complications tacking on an additional 16 days. Final length of stay: 72 days. Staggering.

In the first hour after the dramatic failure of my intestinal tract, in the emergency room, I experienced a near death experience. I was neither here on earth nor elsewhere in Heaven. I was in the spiritual in-between. I am an Episcopalian by baptism and faith and consider myself gently spiritual. I would not be someone who would normally be believing of a near death experience. The experience was real and has had a profound influence on my prism through which I now view and live life.

For me, the emotional healing of my mental and spiritual self had a longer time frame than the physical healing of my body's tissues and surgical scares. I think you can expect the same. That your emotional healing, adapting, and coping will extend well beyond the physical healing of your surgical scars. PTSD can be part of a serious illness with prolonged hospital stay and ICU course.

I agree that counseling can be immensely helpful. You would not think of trying to heal your surgical wounds without the care of your medical team. The same logic applies to your emotional wellbeing. I encourage you to consider working in partnership with a psychologist, social worker, case manager, or other mental health professional to address your emotional needs and pathway for total body healing.

A profound illness/accident/injury can oft serve as a valuable "pause" or "re-set" button, giving one the allowance to slow down from the hectic pace of everyday life and to adopt a more measured and reflective stance. Use this opportunity to an inward study of yourself and your core values and to how your are living your life. Are there changes that you would like to make? How do you want to live your life, given this new opportunity to do so? How do you want to make a difference in the immediate world around you? How do you want to experience the key relationships in your life with family and friends?

Bottom Line: Use this unfortunate happenstance and unexpected health crisis of the endometrial surgery and intestinal deficit to leverage the benefit of a "pause" or "reset" button. Spend time in quiet reflection of your own life and how you want to define your life moving forward.

To wit . . .

I am hoping that your preoccupation with your hair is a temporary coping mechanism and not something that will carry forward as a primary concern and awarding of sense of self. You have come through too great of a threat to your in surviving systemic sepsis to become narrowly focused on the appearance of your hair.

Yes . . . hair is an important part of how we identify with self. We look in a mirror and see a reflection. When we look in a mirror we have an expectation of what we will see, an expectation born through years of keeping to a certain style and cut of hair. We expect to see the same self image when we look into a mirror. Hair is more than a tuff of keratin and cuticle that sits atop our head and scalp.

But hair is only one aspect of how you portray yourself to others. Only one aspect. Your personality, your wit, your intellect, your emotional connection-ability with others, your use of language and articulation, your eye contact, your body language . . . all interact to make you the "you" that others come to know.

My most sincere of advice: Always be genuine to yourself and to others.

Hair falls to the wayside of importance.

Final For Your Information tid bit: The phrase "telogen efflovium" is the clinical identifier for hair loss due to severe/sustained stress. You can Google "telogen efflovium" to learn more as to why the body's stress response and release of stress hormones (cortisol, norepinephrine) causes hair follicles to go into a resting/hybernation phase.

Sincere best wishes in your continued recovery,
- Karen -

Tiki:
Your hair loss is due to the stress response and release of stress hormones due to the severity of your surgery/sepsis experience. The stress hormones (cortisol, epinephrine) cause the hair follicles to go into a resting phase . . . the result is hair loss which is most pronounced in the months following the actual illness/surgery as the hair follicles once again become active and growing.

Your expression of tears is likely a release of emotions larger in magnitude than processing the loss of your hair. Your tears likely are representative of the enormity of all that you have been through psychologically in the lengthy hospitalization and multiple surgeries and protracted recovery.

Find ways to process and express feelings that you are needing to process. For me, getting outside and resuming my daily walking was an integral part of my emotional recovery. Listening to the sounds of my breath, the methodical rhythm of my feet taking steps against the ground cover, the sights of nature in abundance around me . . . walking was an integral aide to my emotional recovery.

I encourage you to connect with a hobby or avocation or interest or volunteer engagement that will give you a medium for emotional processing and recovery.

For thought . . . You were fortunate in not needing a temporary stoma and ostomy to divert your intestinal tract while your intestinal anastamosis healed. How would you have reacted to a stoma on your abdomen and the need to adapt to an ostomy pouch?

I pose the question of a stoma as a means to redefine your hair loss to be less all-consuming.

Point Being: What you are experiencing is less about your hair and a whole lot more about psychological trauma and recovery.

Use your unexpected surgery/recovery as a means to take a pause to slow the immediate world around you so that you can take time for quiet reflection and inventory of your life. Take time to explore what is most important to you in life and in life's relationships. We each have but this one life.

- Karen -

Missrunning, we have not heard from the original poster since the above date. However, please read the response above from Seashell, there is some good info in them. Not sure if Seashell touched on this or not but every time I have had surgery, the anesthesia also caused hair loss.

Take care.

My daughter had Peritonitis with sepsis Jan 20-Feb 8, and is just now seeing hair loss. As a mom I am freaking out, becuase there is no reason yet on why she got peritonitis in the first place. So any new health sign and I am feeling worried again. Seeing this helps.. but I need to know one thing.. is it just thinning hair or is it 'bald' or what is happening???
Thanks everyone.

Thank you Karen, it's definitely coming out as you described, mostly showering, brushing, etc. She's handling it much better than I am. Always worried. ❤ I really appreciate your time and information. Joanie

Thank you Marie,
Gosh, my daughters experience was very similar to yours, only not as bad. I am so happy you are alive and getting through that terrible experience. She had septic shock, wash outs, abscesses, Picc Line. Here we are in September, and her hair has grown in about an inch. So its very thick at the scalp and super thin everywhere else. She is only 15 so hair is pretty important, as I guess it is to everyone!. We have good days and bad days. She was anemic after the hospital, so yes protein was super important for her and we did start Biotin and Iron.. ours is 10k per day for Biotin (2 pills). Her existing longer hairs is very course.
Thank you for your story, and here is to hoping for good hair this time next year.
Joanie

This is a pretty old thread so you’d get more responses if you start a new thread introducing yourself. There are a few of us who have had this problem. I had what was supposed to be a simple surgery which became a nightmare. Spent the first week of June through July 26th in the icu with a trach. Was transferred to another hospital to wean off the trach, and was then sent to inpatient rehab. I couldn’t even sit up in bed. My son counted 109 days for the whole mess.

My hair began falling out like mad when I returned home. It pretty much all fell out. I kept thinking it’s bound to stop at one point, but I guess my hair didn’t get the memo. I actually ordered hats on sites for cancer patients. Now it’s Jan and my hair is basically the same length as my son’s, but it is growing back thicker than what I had before. It’s also decided to be curly, which is a change. So-I’d say from September to probably November it fell out, and now I have healthy hair growth. I guess it’s more flattering to say I have a pixie cut. I tried using expensive shampoos and hair treatments, but was told the damage was already done and the unhealthy hair just needed to go.

Here’s another fun surprise-even my nails were affected. It’s almost like tiny speed bumps on each one. I was told it’s due to the healthy nails growing behind the nails damaged by the sepsis. I also had what I nicknamed,lizard skin, which was the damaged skin peeling away. Both the nails and the skin happened a few months out. Septic shock affects your system all they way down to a cellular level. It just takes time for your body to bounce back from such an extreme event.

I’m so sorry that such a common procedure resulted in your nightmare. It must’ve been so scary and completely unexpected. I admit, I cried many times as my hair became thinner and thinner, but it does grow back. I think of it as a side effect to what occurred over those months, but it’s a side effect that is much better than the alternative.

Seashell will probably see this post and respond. She may have additional info to share.

I am not sure if I am doing this right new to this type of thing. I was admitted to the hospital on Christmas Eve with pneumonia and the flu the pneumonia turned septic I was in the hospital until New Year's Eve. Missed all of the fun. Oh well I am still here. That's what counts but about a month and a half ago I started loosing my hair. I have read so much on this and everything says I won't go bald. I am going crazy because my hair is so thin and it still comes out in gobs. How long does this hair loss last and when will it start growing back? Thanks.

Thank you very much I will read that post.