Fearing the shower drain

It's neither shower scenes nor movie psychos that makes me vary of the shower drain. It's the hair int it. Or rather, the amount of hair in the shower drain. Losing hair (Alopecia) was one of the early symptoms I got. Incredibly enough, it was also one of the early symptoms I did not notice. That is, I did notice a few times that it had to be emptied more frequently, but I thought it was because I have blond hair strands, and sometimes you shed a little extra. I even found a reasonable explanation for the thinning of hair at the front of my head.  I blamed it on the hydrocortisone I used on the sunrash, that it burnt the hair away. (Yes, the sunrash also turned out to be a symptom ..) It is only now afterwards when my hair has started to grow back that I can see how much I actually lost.

The reason for losing hair is because the immune system attacks the hair follicles and the hair falls out. Usually the hair loss is temporary and grows back, but sometimes scarring can cause the hair loss to become permanent.

That's why I have become a little  sensitive about the shower drain. So when I'm in the midst of shower this evening notice the water is flooding the bathroom floor, there's only one thing going through my mind; «Its back». The lupus must have woken up again and the rheumatologist will ramp up the dosages again this Friday! With my hair full of conditioner and my head in full crisis mode, I'm frantically splashing around trying to steer the water back towards the drain.

​Finally, I get control of the water masses and inspect the drain, looking for hair. On closer inspection, it turns out that this is more of a job for a plumber than a rheumatologist ..