I hadn't realized so much time had passed since we were first struggling to understand and cope with Shannon's hair loss. It's interesting how people adapt and cope with changes in their lives, to the point you forget it was ever any other way.

Shannon's hair started falling out the summer before her 6th grade year, and was completely gone by Thanksgiving. It was a scary and confusing time - trying to figure out what was wrong, getting to the specialist, arguing with him when he tried to go down the wrong track. Trying different treatments, deciding when to stop trying treatments (aka what constitutes "too far" for my daughter). Finally deciding that all we really can do is wait and see, and try to recover as normal of a life as possible.

We're going on 4 years now with this condition. Shannon still holds out hope that her hair will come back someday, but has also adjusted to having a different kind of hair. It's been a long road, both of us learning a lot along the way.

Alopecia World was the only social network or active support I could find when this all started, and Shannon and I both benefited from the fabulous people here. I had an opportunity to talk to parents dealing with the same shock, lack of information, confusing information, guilt, and the overriding question - How do I give my child the best I can with this? Shannon had an opportunity to talk to other pre-teens dealing with it and I think it helped her develo the positive attitude she has today. Both of us have dropped off the site here as we each came to some sort of peace with the situation, and gained the knowledge we needed.

Shannon turns 15 this weekend, and is an honors student active in choir, basketball, softball, and she plays the viola. She was accepted into a great engineering prep program at her high school, as her goal is to become an aeronautical or aerospace engineer. Most of her peers are unaware of her alopecia, the ones she's shared with are mostly supportive. Her alopecia is just part of who she is.

I wanted to post to show my appreciation for Alopecia World, and also to let those who are just starting this process know that it *does* get better.