If I Only Knew: The Diagnosis

As time continued, the hair loss began to inch its way up from the crown of my head to the front of my hair line. There was even a spot in the lower portion of my head where the hair had completely disappeared. After about a month, I decided to see a hair specialist. I had tried product after product but to no avail, the condition grew worse. It seemed that the slightest touch of a finger triggered the outbreak. Unable to wash, condition, and moisturize as usual, my mane was left dry, brittle, and sparse.
To soothe my scalp my mother would take a Q-tip and drain the puss and blood from the bumps. It hurt us both to see my hair in this condition, neither one of us knowing exactly what to say. My mother had taken quite good care of my hair from childhood to teen years, and she had trained me how as well. But as the days rolled by, it became very clear that I was dealing with something more than a little scalp irritation. Medicated shampoo and a little bit of olive oil were no match for this. We felt helpless.
I arrived to the specialist's office nervous and anxious. A part of me felt relieved because diagnosis would soon be revealed. I don't recall the doctor's name, but what I do remember is the expression that formed on his face at the sight of my scalp. I sensed he felt sorry for me and knew there weren't any comforting words that could be said at the moment. Rather than making any futile attempts, he simply began to explain the procedure that would be performed. Different areas of my scalp would be scrapped including the bumps. Once the samples were collected, they would be sent to a lab to be tested for fungal or bacterial infection. I could expect the results in a few days. A huge weight was lifted because in my mind knowing the cause helps one move on to accepting the possible outcome. It was the unknown that was eating at my very being. Most of the time when things happen, all we really want to know is why.
Finally the day had come, the results were in. It seemed like an eternity passed waiting for those results. I was beyond anxious. As I sat down in the office I noticed that the doctor appeared to be a bit baffled, an obvious look of confusion across his face. Fumbling with the papers in front of him, he proceeded to tell me that all the tests came back negative. Nothing was found, no fungus, no bacteria, no trace of a disease. Clueless, he had no diagnosis for me. My heart dropped. There was nothing he could do for me except prescribe antibiotics. That was it.
Left hanging without comfort or assurance of a possible turn around, I went home more devastated than before. Hopeless and just plain disappointed, I had no idea whether or not this present state was the worst I would see or if more hair loss would run its complete course through my tresses. Slowly, painfully, assuredly, time would reveal.............