Alopecia is an autoimmune disease which results in hair loss that has affected over 4.5 million people in the United States. A twenty five year old, outgoing, good looking, loving man is one of the many that is affected by this disease. This man is my older brother Jason. .
At the age of eighteen, Jason was getting ready to attend Providence College in Rhode Island. Like any other teenager going off to college he was excited and anxious. It was a chance for him to move away from home and experience being independent. That for Jason was one of the best things that he could ask for. No more parents nagging and telling him what to do and when to do it. Fortunately for Jay, he was rooming with a friend back home, Brad, a tiny, funny, smart individual who always seemed to know the answer to everything. Rooming with him was going to make things a lot better.
I"ll never forget the day that my parents and I went to Providence to drop off Jason. I get along with my brother pretty well and never thought that I was going to be so upset. I guess he really did mean a lot to me. Saying goodbye to him was one of the hardest things to do.
"Jess, I"ll be home soon. I am not going to change a bit! I"ll see you!", he murmured while embracing me with his skinny arms. .
I"ll never forget those words he said to me because he did in fact change. Three months into college, Jason was noticing patches on his head and that his hair was falling out. He was very concerned and asked my mom about it. My mother told him to keep watching it and to keep track of how much hair he was losing. In her own mind, she knew that it might be something that her younger sister Lee had once suffered from. Alopecia is a genetic disease and there was a high risk that Jason could have those genes of getting this incurable disease. .
Since his hair loss was unfortunately getting worse, Jason decided that he needed to come home and needed a diagnosis for what was happening.
