Pepper was acting a little strangely the past few weeks. She’d be in the kitchen and settle down in front of the dishwasher, whether it was running or not, and simply stare at it. I figured something maybe wrong and would play with her and give her extra attention, but she’d still just plop down right next to the dishwasher.

A few days ago she moved from the kitchen to the bathroom and would stare at the radiator against the wall. Jeff figured she was hunting something — but what could it be? I’m home all the time and hadn’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. There were no signs that anything was out of place or different. Until last night…

Pepper was at her usual post in the bathroom, Jeff was working out in another room and I was in the bedroom on fb of course. Then I noticed Pepper came into the bedroom, playing with something. I though she might’ve found a rubber band or pen and was patting that around. When I looked to see what it was, Pepper had pushed it under a pair of jeans that I left on the floor. I picked up the jeans and was SHOCKED it was a mouse!

Pretty cool that she was able to do that, especially since neither Jeff or I heard or saw anything that signaled we had a rodent in our apartment. Also, I’m very glad we got it away from Pepper before she got a chance to tear it up. The mouse was fully intact and we proceeded to put it in tupperware to throw out. Glad to report that since catching the mouse, Pepper hasn’t been huddled next to the dishwasher or radiator.

As Lupus patients know, alopecia or hair loss is a common symptom. It comes and goes with flares. Losing my hair was actually one of the first symptoms I had before I was diagnosed.

Back in high school (a good 10 years ago!), I’d notice my hair would fall out more often than the “normal” 50-100 strands a day and began to get concerned. So much so I brought it up to my doctor who then told me there was nothing to worry about and that I should stop stressing. This would reduce my hair loss and regrow it in no time!

Well, amid the garden-variety high school teenage angst and drama I was able to breathe a sigh of relief when my hair did, in fact begin to grow back. Did I change anything about my life to speed it along?  Nope. I figured it was just a fluke and that was it. Until other key lupus symptoms started up, but that’s another blog post!

This post is about my current struggle with lupus: alopecia! Around the same time last year, I noticed my hair began falling out again. It was noticeable, but could easily be hair sprayed in place to hide the thinning areas. After a couple months of using Nioxin as my mom had suggested, baby hairs began growing. By early October my hair was a few different lengths — my regular hair (about 14 inches) and the newly growing hair (about 3 inches).

Everything was good until April of this year rolled around. The same spots that suffered hair loss last year were thinning out again! I figured it was stress that was the culprit! Living in Jersey with no job and no friends was really exacerbating my depression, too. Of course, because I had danced this dance before, I knew what to do. I switched out my regular shampoo and conditioner for Nioxin and tried my hardest to keep a calm attitude about the ups and downs of my current situation. No too long after, baby hairs grew in — but even more hair began falling out! The Nioxin and my scalp couldn’t keep up with the hair loss!

I had read that triamcinolone shots directly into the scalp helped reduce hair loss and encouraged hair regrowth. Since I had a healthy supply of triamcinolone cream from last year’s winter hands, I began slathering the steroid cream on my scalp in hopes of having the same effect as the shot would.

Currently my routine is to wash my hair every other day with the Nioxin system 2, use the scalp treatment and on days I don’t wash my hair, apply the triamcinolone cream directly to the scalp.

Below are pictures of my head, left side, right side, an increasing part and finally the way I style it to cover the spots. I put all my hair up in a bun and use a hair clamp these awesome black hair combs to pull my longer side burns up to cover the bald spots.

It’s too early to tell, but we’ll see how this all works out…

So it was the big day, Jeff’s presentation was one of the last ones of the conference. He had various meetings with his team and needed to practice one last time before show time.

I had some free time to myself and gave myself a mani/pedi then wandered the hotel for a bit before my hair appointment at a salon inside the hotel.

Ta-da! Simple. but much needed. Of course,  I wrote a Yelp review of the place and gave them 4 stars for an excellent experience!

After his presentation was done we decided to keep it low-key since we had to be up early the next morning to catch our flight to Charleston. We had a 3 course dinner at Stones Throw and slept like babies!

Next stop, Jess and Stewart’s Wedding in SC!

We got to Charleston safe and sound. Upon letting Stewart know we had made it, off we went to the rehearsal (since Jeff was one of the groomsmen) at Boone Hall Plantation. We did the meet and greet with the families and got to spend sometime with our West coast friends.

After the hustle and bustle a few hours after landing, we were able to check in to our room at the Wild Dunes not far from the 2 beach houses that everyone else was staying at in Isle of Palms. The resort itself was very big and had a lot of open space. We reserved a 1 bedroom villa right next to the ocean! It was beautiful! Again, we had to be up early the next morning for the wedding, so an early night it was.

~ Wedding highlights ~

So, all in all it was a whirlwind adventure that we would’ve done again in a heartbeat. Jeff got to speak on behalf of the company, I got my first trip to DC, we got to go to Charleston for a beautiful wedding and to catch up with old friends! It’ll be good to be home though, I’m sure Pepper misses us. Part 3 coming up — our adventures trying to get back to Newark…!!!