I told my dad about the large amount of hair, and that seemed to concern him a lot.

Had a conversation with him tonight about some of the stuff that's going on. My knees have been in pain the past few days. Yesterday I was not able to bend my left knee without screaming. My right elbow joint hurts too...along with some finger joints. There is something going on, and I don't know if it's the MS or if I've suddenly acquired some more letters to add to the alphabet soup of problems that I might be starting to collect. I'm just starting to get really frustrated with everything that's been going on. (there's another issue I'm having that I'm keeping to myself and not telling the parents about. I might tell the doctor about it tomorrow when I call him. It's just an extremely private thing that I'm uncomfortable about talking about)

I've apparently been needing cheering up for a few weeks. My dad told me the other day that I can get a new iPad Mini if I trade in my old one. I don't even have the energy to take it to the Fedex store to have them pack it for me. Going to try to do that tomorrow. Weird thing about that, is that normally I'd have done it already, and I'd have the new one either ordered, or I'd have gone up to the Apple Store by now. I'm not even rushing to do it yet. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to drop off the old Mini tomorrow. I have to wait for Apple to accept it for "recycling", and they'll send me a gift card towards a new one. (my b-day was saturday. My dad will pay the difference on a new iPad)

Erin - Why would you call your neurologist because your hair is falling out? If my I called my neuro and talked to him about hair loss, he would certainly recommend I get in touch with my primary care doctor. Of course, I wouldn't call him for hair loss. I'd be calling my PCP.

Hair loss can be caused by many illness, vitamin deficiencies, trauma, hormones and even mental illnesses. I know it can be quite alarming to start losing clumps of hair. I am going through this myself; however, I know the cause of it and know that eventually it will stop once my body heals more. I do understand your concern and can emphasis.

When you had all your blood work done, did they check your thyroid? Your doctor can run another test for that as well as other blood tests such as your B12. He/she can also run tests to check to see what your hormone levels are. You are now in your 40's and hair loss, joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue, etc. call all be caused by perimenopause and hormonal fluctuations.

I'm calling the neuro for the other stuff. (walking is so bad right now, I can't use a cane. I have to use a walker. I can barely stand. Plus the issue that's really private to me at the moment might get mentioned to him. Everything is so bad, it's ruining my quality of life, and just doing things like showering is a strain) Mentioning the hair loss to him if I can remember to do it.

I'm calling the regular doctor about some of the other stuff too...also mentioning the hair loss to him. Hopefully I'll remember to do that with him. I have been supplementing b12 for the past few months. I'm wondering if doing that is throwing off all the other vitamins in my body. But I want to find out if there's other problems too.

I did have a blood test back in february that was completely normal except for the low b12 (it was 252 in february. It was 400something in early April). Pretty sure that my thyroid was checked in february.

Erin, I don't know what your age is, but a couple of years ago I began losing hair at a much higher rate than my 8-10 normal hairs. I'd guess it was 30-40 hairs per shower/blow-dry. Enough that it was depressing to have to clean out my hairbrush so often and to notice more hair on the floor after blowdrying.

I didn't talk with my doc, but I mentioned it to my hairdresser of 14 years.

She told me that it seemed to be pretty normal in her 20+ years as a beautician that as women age, they tend to lose more and more hair. It made sense. I'm 60 now. Doesn't it seem most "grandmas" have thinner, more brittle, gray or white hair? Often their scalp is fairly visible. It seems that way to me.

So maybe it's one of those aging things, not attributable to shampoo, vitamins, hair coloring, meds or MS, of which I am too familiar.

The better news is that I no longer lose many hairs. It's somewhat thinner, but girl, it still looks pretty good. A little more scalp shows, but that's ok. I (well, my HHA does; I can't lift my arms any more) still color it at home every 5 or 6 weeks and I like my cut.

MsBluIs

Msbluis - Good post! I agree. I have been losing clumps of hair but it only started after being so sick and having emergency surgery. Surgery and illness can bring on hair loss. However, I don't discount hormones as a contributing factor. Although the texture of my hair is fine, I have a ton of it. No one would really notice the hair loss but I do as I watch it fall as I brush it and have to clean my brush far more often that I used to. One of my close friends is going through menopause and she was telling me that clumps of hair were falling out on her. She did say it has slowed down quite a bit the further she gets in menopause years. Her hair is thinner now and she styles it differently now to make it appear fuller. My SIL has the same issue the older she gets and the closer to menopause she gets. It is quite common.

Hormones do effect our hair. When I was pregnant with DD22, my hair changed color from a dark blonde to copper penny red. After I had her it changed to a light brown. As I get older, my hair is getting so curly! I've always had straight hair. To get it to hold a curl was almost impossible. Perming it was out because it was so fine. Now, I have curls that I just don't know what to do with. My hair is crazy!!!

So, I agree that as we get older our hair changes. We also tend to get more muscle aches and pains, joint issues, fatigue, digestive issues, etc. Once any underlying issues have been ruled out, we can just chalk it up to aging.

You look beautiful MsBluls.

I agree! You look fantastic Msbluis!

I turned 45 on saturday.

If the hair falling out means menopause is here. Well, then YAY!

Is there anything that stops leg twitching?


so. annoying. driving. me. nuts.

Not that I know of Erin. It seems to be a random thing with me.
If it's constant with you, you might try Requip for restless leg.