Anyone else suffering from both auto immune diseases?  If so, I would like to hear your story.  Trying to find a common thread as to which disease started first for you.  And if the RA medicine helped, hurt, or possible triggered your AA.  They need to do more studies on these diseases, the drugs and the affects.

I have posted my "story" before, but here it is again.

When I was 15, I lost a lot of hair at the nape of my neck.  Cannot remember if it thinned out anywhere else, but I never had any other patches other than the back of my neck.  Had to cut my hair super short.  My mother took me to the family physician and he had no clue what it was.  I remember being off of school for half a year.  I tried to get a wig, but unfortunately 30 years ago, wigs were not so appealing and just didn't work for me.  My hair slowly grew on its own and within a year it looked back to "normal".  

I married and after my 2nd child (my son) at the age of 26 I developed RA.  Soon after that I was at the beauty shop and my hairdresser noticed a small bald patch on the top of my head.  He said nothing to worry about, so I didn't because it was very small and it was covered.  My RA became worse with each year and eventually I was put on Enbrel (10 years), Humira (5 years) and most recently Orencia.  I had to keep changing RA medications because they simply stopped working.  After taking the Orencia, I felt good and because working out a lot.  I felt so good that I decided to get off of the it.  About 5 months later I had another huge flare that would not go away, so I started taking the Orencia again.  My husband noticed 2 bald patches on the back of my head.  I wasn't too worried, but did research on the Orencia and found it could cause hair loss.  My new hair dresser said it looks like Alopecia.  I did not know anything about Alopecia, so I googled it.  Wow....what an aha moment for me!  This was definitely what I had experienced at the age of 15.  Now my question is: "Did starting and stopping the Orencia cause my immune system to freak out", or "Was it the Orencia itself that caused the Alopecia"?  Or "Did the Orencia cause some hair loss and stress at work caused the Alopecia"?  That is the million dollar question.  It has been about 2 1/2 years since my first bald patch and I have lost so much hair.  I am still able to cover the patches, but the thinning is so worrisome.

I have now started on  Xeljanz (been 1 week) which was prescribed by my RA doctor.  I feel this time around for me with AA it is much different than when I was 15.  Maybe because I only had 1 autoimmune disease and now I am battling 2?