Losing Hair

HI Everyone

Did anyone else start losing their hair after surgery?  Being a woman this is a little distressing.  Just thought someone might have some insight. 

Thanks

Sue

anytime your body goes through something stressful, surgery, extreme sickness, pregnancy, even periods of extremely high stress your body takes the nutrients its not getting from your hair and your nails, so when your hair goes through its growth cycles, the cycle where it should have been growing to replace the new hair can be affected by that, and then it also has damaged the hair thats already there, so you will lose hair and not grow as much back at the same time.
Your nails may show pits or lines totally random, but historians can look at the nails of a someone who was mummfied or perseved with their nails intact and see evidence of illness or injury, yeah i know ya'll dont care, just some of my useless knowledge.
Anyway, its normal that your hair is falling out, esp if you were on certain meds also. Some vitamins can help, but mainly its just time.
By the time i had surgery i was down to about 1/3 the amount of hair i had before i got sick, luckily i have thick hair so it wasnt that bad. Now, 2 years post surgery i am up to about 3/4 and its still growing thicker.
I know how scary it is, but it will stop and it will grow back, its just slow.

Ditto on Summerstorm's response. about three weeks after I got home, so a month after surgery, my hair started coming out. I freaked when I started looking like a radiation survivor. In the shower I'd end up with mats of hair in my hands. EEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK!

I called my dermatologist, pretty much in hysterics. By that time the part on the center of my hair was about an inch wide with a few strands here and there (or so I remember a quarter of a century later!). He calmed me down and pointed out his wife (another doc) and her glorious lush hair. And told me she had lost it during a miscarriage, med boards and it thinned way out during the pregnancy of their son. He reassured me that the vast majority of the time it grows back, sometimes fuller! I didn't get that but I got a few more waves than I had in my perfectly straight hair.

Oh, I did cut the hair down to boy length while it was thin, just made it less stressful not having a handful of nothing!

Hang in there, we DO understand your reaction!

HI thanks for the responses, I loved all the information Summerstorm, my nails as well have the divits that you mentioned.  I think I will see my Doctor about B12, he did say I would likely need this, and I am being more diligent about my vitamins.  It is nice to know other's have lost and it has grown back, I didnt have a whole lot to begin with so I need it all.

Sue

UC six years, ileostomy feb 09.  No more meds!

You can also buy sublingual B12 in the liquid form at the grocery or drug store. It has 1.2 mg (1,200 mcg) of B12 in it, which is a lot - 20,000% of the daily requirement!  

Interesting you should post this as I am going through the same thing. I had my first surgery in March and just two weeks ago my hair began seriously falling out- in clumps. I have never had this problem before not even when I had thyroid problems.

I did some research and asked the docs- they say it is totally stress related and that when there is extreme stress this could happen and it usually happens in about 2-3 months of stress related incident.

I forgot the name of the disorder- there is no cure- but I am going to try biotin and see my primary for more info or suggestions?

Unfortunately it will fall out...I also cut mine "shorter" so I didn't see as much in my hand/brush:( You may need B-12 shots if you've had your ileum removed. Your doc will do blood work to check your levels and I LOVE my chewable vits!!!!