I've been through so many stages of this disease in the past 12 months.  And each has been harder to accept and deal with than the one before.

First, last summer, I watched my little soul patch be whittled away to nothing.  But it still seemed to be locally confined to my face.  I hated the random patches where whiskers still persisted, and explored permanent removal of lingering hairs and endured hundreds of shots, but the fight was a losing one.

Then, this January, I was…