Hi April & Brandon, See you next week at the conference!

Hi April
Thanx for the friend request. How are you and Brandon going?
BTW I love your photos...
Susan

Thank you for your prayers. I have been trying to get Chris to talk to someone, but he refuses. He keeps telling me he's fine, but I can see otherwise. I've talked to the youth pastor at church and the entire youth staff is aware of the situation. He relies on me keeping people filled in on things so he doesn't have to say anything about it. He is grateful that I have "cleared the way" at school, securing his right to wear a hat and making sure all of the teachers are aware of why he is wearing one. We were real worried about his starting high school, knowing how mean highschoolers can be, but Chris says no one has teased him. He says everyone has actually been real nice to him. He has heard rumors that people think he has cancer (because he also has no eyebrows or eyelashes), but he doesn't mind, because they're nice to him. He gets lots of "nice hat" comments wherever we go and he seems to really like that. In fact, when we were under the impression that his hair loss was a temporary condition due to the anemia he told me that he decided he was going to continue to wear his fedora even when his hair grew back, it was his new "style". There are times when Chris seems perfectly fine and life is good, but then I get reports from his teachers that he just stares off into space during class and isn't turning in assignments. Some of this is, I'm sure, just normal teenage boy stuff, but he has so much more to deal with I'm not sure how to handle it. I hate to see his future suffer because he isn't able to take control of the situation now. I'll just keep praying and watching for answers as to what to do next.

I wish we were going too. Some boys would be thrilled to walk into a room full of girls, but your son sounds like mine. My son would turn around, walk out of the room and find someplace to hide until I came back. If he were to have his laptop and an internet connection he'd say it was a great day! He spends most of his time alone and playing games on the computer. He wasn't very social before, but now he avoids social interaction whenever he can. Last summer I "made" him go to our church youth group's summer trip to the lake (on orders from his dermatologist, who's more concerned about Chris' emotional health than anything else). He didn't hate me when he got back, but I heard that he never got in the water and usually just sat on the beach not talking to anyone. He wore a ballcap the entire time, even when sleeping. He even woke up early, before his tent-mate, so he could get dressed and change his hat. It just hurts to see him suffering and not having anything that I can do to help. My husband thinks I'm babying him too much by letting him have his space and not demanding too much from him. I just wish I knew what to do to bring back who he was before all of this.

It sounds like your son is just like mine! I tried to get him online too as I thought meeting others going through the same thing would be good for him, but he thinks I'm crazy. He just seems to want to ignore his condition as much as possible. I don't think he's talked to anyone about it and it's been almost a year now since he lost all of his hair. He has just recently started getting white fuzz all over his head and even a couple of dark hairs but he doesn't even seem to be excited about that.

I see from your pictures that your son doesn't wear a hat. I wish my son wasn't so afraid to go out in public without his fedora. He doesn't wear one at home, but will not step foot outside without one. He says he wants to be known as the "kid with the hat", not the "bald kid".

I really wanted to take him to the conference, but his doctors are going to be changing his medication (for another condition) after school is out and we don't know how he'll react and were told to stay close to home. Maybe next year... I'm sure we'll still be dealing with all of this then too.

Cool. You have a son with alopecia. No, I'm not going to the meeting in June.

I would love to be your friend. It seems most everyone has daughters that are struggling. I don't find many other teenage boys. My son is having an especially hard time right now and I'm desperately trying to help him get it all together and finish well in school. He's only got 5 weeks left of school and his grades are slipping. He refuses to admit to anything bothering him, but I can see it.

How is your son coping?

Connie