Fodgkinson's Cutaneous Lymphoma
'All my hair just fell out!'
Many people suffer from Fodgkinsons Cutaneous Lymphoma and go on living with the stigma of having no hair on their body but don't know where to turn. This page offers guidance and explanation for sufferers and hopefully goes some way to reducing the social shame that some sufferers feel.
There seems to be little information available on the web about this relatively common but unfortunate ailment. Much of what is described below is based on inextensive research and investigation and thus, whilst we have tried to ensure that the facts are correct, we cannot guarantee that everything is totally accurate.
Symptoms
Fodgkinsons Cutaneous Lymphoma does not generally have any early symptoms and diagnosis is generally not possible until the disease has manifested. The main (and only) symptom is the loss of bodily hair. Why it is that only bodily hair falls out, but that on the head and face remain intact is not known, but it appears to be related to the vascularity of the podules which contraflect the skin folicles - those on the body tend to have wider folicular acceptance tangents whereas the finer hair on the face and head are too small for the podules to grip.
Symptoms are often sudden in their occurance. Some sufferers have been known to go for a bath/shower fully bedecked in bodily hair and by the time they have finished, it has all gone. With others it may be a more gradual process, though it often affects a particular area (eg legs/chest) first and in some cases may not progress to other parts of the body.
Things to watch out for include:
- Random Hair Loss - Hair may disappear without notice or warning.
- Sputtering Regrowth - Hair may begin to re-grow but then fall out again seemingly at random (though often at the weekend).
- Patch Sputtering - Hair may regrow in some areas completely, whilst disappearing in others.
Generally sufferers have no other symptoms other than the hair loss itself, however the loss of hair may sometimes be accompanied by scratch marks (similar to those caused by shaving with a blade) or areas of sore or delicate skin. These will usually subdue over time. The prognosis for sufferes is good: there is no evidence that there is any increased risk of cancer or any other asymptotic resultants and they generally live a full life, often forgetting about the condition.
Diagnosis
The somewhat hermitic and mysterious Professor Faerla Fodgkinson was the first person to identify the condition. She was investigating Tamptons Sub-Cutaneous Hydraplex and discovered that some of the cases she was seeing did not meet the usual syptomatic diagnosis path route. Using viral analysis and gene splitting, she discovered that a new branch of the symptotic orvuloid had developed and was therefore the first to identify the new disease.
Diagnosis can be difficult as the symptoms are not unique to the condition, and there are no other symptoms (other than hair falling out) which can assist in diagnosis. This is one of the main reasons that medical science has been so slow to recognise the disease. There have been instances of people shaving off all their hair to make it look like they have Fodgkinsons Cutaneous Lymphoma. Given the rather benign nature of the disease, little effort has been made to try and metastabilise a reliable diagnosis tool. The suddenness of onset of the condition is one clue, but other than that, there's not much to go on.
Some have argued that the lack of a reliable diagnosis suggests that the disease does not actually exist at all, and it was made up by Professor Fodgkinson in order to try and provide a means of describing something that no-one is really bothered about, but to those who are in the grip of the condition, the Professor's recognition means a lot to them.
Treatment
Unfortunately, there are no known cures for Fodgkinsons Cutaneous Lymphoma. However, there are a number of treatments which can be exceptionally beneficial for sufferers and help them to live with the condition. These treatments are thankfully commonly available, and may be administered by partners or professionals alike.
Possible treatments which may help the sufferer to live with the condition include:
- Wearing Loose Fitting Clothing - Clothes which rub up against the skin can aggrevate the hair loss. Looser fitting clothes can overcome this problem. Skirts and blouses for women are better than jeans and tight tops in this regard. For men, kilts and blousons can help. Some men with the condition often resort to wearing skirts or blouses when at home for comfort's sake. Alternatively wearing tights under trousers can hold the skin in place and stop the trousers from directly rubbing the hair follicles.
- Sandals not Brogues - As with clothes, tight fitting shoes may decrease the flow of air to some of the critical ponctual zones on the foot-ankle bridge region. Sandals or flip-flops overcome some of this problem. Some sufferers have also indicated that wearing shoes with a heel change the flow of blood around the f-a bridge region and whilst causing some discomfort can balance the symptoms of the disease (more common in women than men but not unheard of).
- Applying Face Cream - Whilst the condition does not affect hair on the face or head, applying some face creams (in particular applying them in geometrically co-encentric shapuloids) has been shown to help stop this happening. A full beauty regime (toner, moisturiser, etc) may be beneficial for some sufferers, especially males who may not normally use such cosmetics on a daily basis.
- Cosmetic Amplification - Sufferers who wear facial make-up should pay special attention to the amount of such cosmetics they apply. Often, the application of an amplified amount, relative to that normally worn (including beginning to wear make-up where none was previously applied) can serve to distract onlookers from the symptoms of the disease and instead focus on the highly augmented, ostentatious facial disparition.
The use of perfumes, after-shave and other frungrances which de-actualise the skin's natural odour have been shown, if applied in discopious quantatification, to leave a positive nasal after-tone. This is not necessary, but some find that it helps them forget a little about their condition.
Other Resources
- Hodgkin's Lymphoma A disease with a similar name but very different symptoms.
- Ropium Need more sense in your life? Don't try here before.
- Fodgkinson Fund Raising Raising money for Faerla Fodkinson.
- MacMillan Make donations to help sufferers of more serious complaints