Having Fun with Wigs (guest blogger)

Today we have a guest blogger, with a post about wigs. Some helpful hints and resources here. I have lost my hair in varying degrees 3 times now because of lupus and prednisone combined. Both the disease and prednisone cause hair loss. 

The first time I lost my hair, I just wore hats everywhere and tried (unsuccessfully) to hide from friends and family with cameras. In 2002, thanks entirely to one of my sweetest girliest friends, I got and wore a wig. I spent $40 on it, and it was worth every dime and more. I felt so much better about going out, and going out and seeing friends was really therapeutic for me. 

Though I’m pleased to have my full head of hair again- so full in fact, I don’t think I could cram it all under a wig… I’m now a fan of wigs, when the situation calls for it. As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments and experiences in the comment section.

Now here’s our guest blog:

Having Fun with Wigs

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system attacks its own healthy cells. This disease can lead to several complications, including (but not limited to) joint pain, swelling and sometimes even alopecia (hair loss).

As many medical professionals, such as those in medical billing and coding, know, hair loss can be debilitating to one's self esteem, often leading to dissatisfaction with one's own appearance. However, an extremely viable and often overlooked solution to hair loss is the use of a wig. If worn appropriately, a wig can look like an authentic head of hair, and oftentimes wearing wigs is an easy, hassle-free way of changing one's hairstyle frequently with little time or effort. Once a person grows accustomed to the idea, wearing a wig can become a successful and enjoyable experience.

Finding a Wig Store:

The first step in obtaining a wig is knowing where to go. A plethora of wig Web sites (such as Wilshire Wigs, wigs.com, Wig Warehouse) are available with just the click of a button, offering a wide selection of wigs. Visiting a local wig store, which can easily be found through the phone book or a Google search, allows customers to buy a wig in person.

Choosing a Wig:

Next in the process of obtaining a wig, consider factors such as face shape, skin color, hairstyle preferences. Visiting a brick-and-mortar wig store allows a person to get live help, and perhaps to try on wigs before purchasing them. Comparatively, online wig stores often offer informational tutorials about what types of wigs fit certain types of faces, allowing a person to peruse the selection in the privacy of their own home. Either way, many resources have been made available to clients to help with choosing the right wig.

Wig Cost:

Some wigs can be quite expensive, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars. For the thriftier customer, visiting wig outlet stores or purchasing clearance wigs may be a better option. These are often listed in the "outlet" or "clearance" sections of online wig stores, and sell for as little as $15! Another advantage of buying affordable wigs is that it provides one with the opportunity to buy multiple wigs, such that one's hairstyle can easily be changed at will.

Getting Your Health Insurance to Reimburse You for Your Wig Purchase:

People suffering from lupus-induced alopecia (hair loss) may be eligible for reimbursement by their health insurance company for wigs purchased after their diagnosis (click here to learn more). Research your health insurance company's list of "covered expenses;" there should be a section dedicated to prostheses and prosthetic devices.

Some tips when applying for insurance reimbursement:

- refer to the wig as a "cranial hair prosthesis." It is crucial to avoid the use of the word "wig" when filing a claim for reimbursement, in order to ensure that it is taken seriously and accepted.

- have your physician sign your completed insurance form and fill out a "prescription" for a cranial hair prosthesis, detailing the source of alopecia and accentuating the fact that the purchase of this "device" was for emotional well-being, not for cosmetic purposes.

-Insurance reimbursement policies may vary from state to state, so it is important to be aware of what the policy is for your area before claiming reimbursement. One can also find more information by contacting your insurance company or visiting the company’s Web site.

Some final thoughts:

Once the technicalities of buying a wig are taken care of, the process of choosing and shopping around for a wig, and then wearing it, can be quite enjoyable. One good thing about wigs is that a person need not concern themselves with their own hair. No longer will a person be subject to lamenting their hair's natural grease or frizz or flatness.

If a person wearing a wig is dissatisfied with their hair, the solution is quite simple: remove the wig. This allows one the opportunity to be much more adventurous with their hairstyles than before. A person can try out bangs, short hair, long hair, braids, anything, without the long-term commitment that one would have to suffer if it were their actual hair. Multicolored wigs or wigs with unusual colors (such as fiery red, neon pink or lime green) can be tried out at will, worn to costume parties, dance clubs or even on a day in the park with friends, just for fun. 

Although lupus and alopecia initially induce feelings of dread, sadness and perhaps insecurity, a dreary situation can be turned around by changing one's outlook on their own situation. A loss of one's own hair may invoke feelings of discomfort in one's own skin, but a person also loses the responsibilities and insecurities that result from having a head of hair. One now has the luxury of reinventing their appearance in literally any way they please, and the possibilities are endless!

- Patricia Walling is a web content designer for several health care

related sites. She self-identifies as a perpetual student of medicine,

and can be found most of the time researching anything related to the

field. She lives in Washington, and as a result of the long winter

there is itching for the sun to return so she can run outside and

play 

Therapeutic Heat

Ever get your shoulders and chest all in a wad, and you just can't get comfortable? That's been my experience all too often over the last 20 years. Now and then I get a break from shoulder pain and tightness for days, or weeks at a time, but stress always brings it back.

I've been attempting to achieve more life balance lately (you may have noticed I've been absent from the blogosphere for a few weeks) and that has certainly helped a lot.

But I've also been traveling, and that involves toting heavy bags and other various aggravations, which can bring back some of the upper body pain.

Along my travels I stopped at a friend's house and he had this great thing, a Bed Buddy, which you heat up in the microwave for 2 minutes. It provides moist heat. For me, moist heat is very therapeutic.

And using this thing, which stays warm for a while, means I don't have to worry about falling asleep with the heating pad on and starting a fire. It wraps nicely around the neck, filled with little beads of some sort (clay?). And it comes in various shapes, for different body parts- lower back, lower abdomen (for menstrual discomfort), neck, upper back. Very affordable as well.

I ordered one for myself and it was there when I got back home. Just took it off, in fact.

Glutinous maximus

At my most recent book-signing, during the question-and-answer section of the evening, someone asked me "If you don't eat gluten, what's left to eat?"

I do appreciate her candor, because I wondered the same thing at first. On the other hand, it left me wondering, how much wheat is this woman eating that if you cut out wheat there's nothing left? Talk about a gluten-ous maximus!

Of course it says more about our culture's food habits than any one individual. There is so much wheat in the American diet, it's hard to imagine living without good old regular bread. Sure, man can't live on bread alone, but how does man live without bread at all?

Things have come a long, long way since the first time I went gluten free in 1994. Then, if you wanted some straight up carbs, it was rice cakes, rice cakes, and more rice cakes. Now, I'm pleased to inform you, there are all kind of options in both the grocery store and even in some restaurants. Amy's makes a frozen rice crust pizza that is at many grocery stores. Bob's Red Mill makes a dough mix you can use to cook up your own fresh pizza at home, as well as a bread mix that is really fantastic; Udi's makes delicious GF bagels and bread; I've even seen gluten-free bread crumbs in the grocery store; Uno's Chicago grill serves GF pizza on their menu; PF Chang's has a tasty gluten-free Chinese menu; there are numerous GF bakeries popping up around the country. (find GF restaurants here: http://www.allergyeats.com/ )

I also just learned about a gluten-free expo in October in Dallas, for those feeling adventurous: http://gfafexpo.com/

And here is a very popular gluten-free blog I just found: http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/

That being said, remember that a lot of the healthiest food you can eat is already naturally gluten-free, so don't forget to include in your meals some brown rice, beans, nuts (assuming you don't have nut allergies), fruits and vegetables, even fish in your GF diet. Oh, and rice cakes. :D

One more point that came up at the book signing: no, I do not believe the entire country needs to be gluten-free. In Europe, where there is far more awareness of gluten sensitivity, about 20% of the population is diagnosed with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Here, it is only 1%. So, we probably have about 19% of the population running around undiagnosed, thinking their problems are genetic or random, not realizing they are caused by consuming gluten. So, I do think that anyone with chronic health conditions might want to try being strictly gluten-free for a month and keep a symptom log. If it makes a difference, then consider staying gluten-free.

For those of us already committed to being GF, there's really no need to feel sorry for ourselves because we can't have gluten. There's a substitute for nearly every gluten-laden food out there. On top of that, if we've identified the one ingredient that we can eliminate, and thereby drastically improve our health, we are fortunate. Now get off your glutenous maximus and find yourself some tasty GF food! :)

Carla Ulbrich, The Singing Patient,
is the author of "How Can You *Not* Laugh at a Time Like This?"
Get Carla's Book at Amazon.com
www.thesingingpatient.com

It's Never Lupus? May 10 is World Lupus Day

If I hear "It's never lupus" one more time I'm going to personally track down the writers of House MD and force them to clean my toilets with their tongues. And we have 3 toilets.

I have a few questions for these writers:
Why are you running an anti-awareness campaign? Would you do this for any other equally terrible disease? Would you say "It's never cancer?" or "It's never MS?" or "It's never Parkinson's?"
How about "It's never a heart attack?" No, because if this were a comedy club, you'd be booed off the stage.

Why does anyone think "it's never lupus" is funny? My only guess is that it's because the word "lupus" sounds funny, like dodo bird or cuckoo clock. I wish we could rename the disease to better reflect how awful it is. How about "crapstorm?" No, still too funny.

It's never lupus... Having had lupus for 20 years now, I've had it cause anemia, kidney failure, stroke, hair loss, weight loss, congestive heart failure... oh, I guess none of that ever happened either.

I was watching House MD- the episode where the patient was in Antartica in a lab and had to be examined by House long-distance, over teleconference. While he was brainstorming about all the possible things she could be suffering from, one of the things House guessed was... LUPUS!!! (this coming from Mr "it's never lupus!"). But in order to keep their running "joke" intact, they referred to it as "SLE." (systemic lupus erythmatosis). Nice way to have your cake and eat it too, a-holes.

Because there are 1.5 million people or more in the US alone with lupus, it's just a matter of time before someone on the House MD writing staff (or someone in their family) develops lupus. I don't wish it on them, but the odds are good. Oh wait, I forgot, there's no such thing as lupus.

What a relief then. I'll just stop getting blood tests and chalk up my years of symptoms (and by "symptoms," I mean stroke, kidney failure, congestive heart failure) to hypochondria. Or maybe it was psychosomatic. In which case, if kidney failure is psychosomatic, then everything is. Cancer, MS, all of it.

And the world is flat, and we never landed on the moon.

"It's never lupus?"- it's never funny.

Prednisone

In honor of lupus awareness month, today's topic is the drug almost all of us with lupus are faced with having to take: prednisone.

Or as some of us pred-vets call it, dreadnisone.

It is used for everything- rashes, asthma, sarcoidosis, inflammation of any kind.
If they don't know what to do, throw prednisone at it. And it often works.
The problem is the side effects. And side effects seems like such a dainty word for things like osteoporosis, cataracts, diabetes, hair loss, obesity- is it really just a "side effect" when it can be classified as a disease?

Yes, prednisone saved my life. But if I had stayed on it, I would have ended up with even more health problems.

But what I really want to know is this:
Why, when my cat and I were both on prednisone (he had a flea allergy)- why, I want to know, was his cherry-flavored while mine tasted like Ajax? Discuss amongst yourselves, and sing along to the prednisone song: