Hi folks,
I've been perusing the pages here and I've seen little bits of discussion about hair loss after an embolization. Does anyone know about this? Anyone experience this?
Thanks for any thoughts or experiences.
~gaahla
After my first embo i noticed alot of my hair falling out .. they told me it was normal
Ah Thanks for sharing Nay.
Did you have to shave your head?
Was it noticeable to other people, or just to you, like thinning but not going bald?
If you don't mind sharing....
I hope you're feeling well now.
Thanks,
gaahla
my hair was thining out..I had two embos but then after a crani..most of my hair loss was do to the shaving for surgery which really wasn't alot I have alot of hair. As far as hair loss durning my embo it was mostly thining out no where near being bald.
no one noticed anything well i guess the test for that is next week when i go back to work...but it seems like my hair covers everything
In an embo, the surgeon uses x-rays to see what s/he's doing. That's likely to cause temporary hair loss in the area that had the x-ray, and the amount lost should depend on the length of the procedure. My husband's AVM was about 3 cm x 4 cm, and his embo took an unusually long time, so he lost 2 silver-dollar-sized patches of hair. They grew back, and I've never heard of a case where they don't. (The funny thing is that at first, the hair might grow back a little differently...my husband grew back corkscrew curls at first, and then his usual wavy hair came back in. Within a few months, it was just as it had been before. While he had bare spots, he wore a hat to cover up at work.)
I've heard that some people have fun getting a "risky" haircut before the embo, knowing that things will all be growing out for the next few months anyway.
I started noticing hair loss after the embo. It wasn't anything big or anything just a few extra strands on the pillow in the morning and in the shower. After the second embo, it was a little more than a few but not very much and it stopped "falling out" just before the crani a month after the second embo. They didn't shave my head for the crani. They only shaved a strip where the incision was made from just behind my hairline to the right of my hairs center part down to just in front of my right ear in a C-shape. I only seemed to experience hair-loss near the part of the incision closest to the crown of my head. It fell out in clumps but (gross) with scabs attached (*gag*). It was probably the singular most grossest thing about the actual incision. I'm seriously glad I requested dissolvable stitches and absolutely no staples and made an impressively feminine "to-do" about my head being shaved. My hair has NEVER been shorter than my shoulders and was to my butt when I had my stroke. I cut it after a nurse yelled at me because it was too hard for her to wash with hospital soap and if she "didn't have a good conscience to know better" she would have cut my hair right there in the nuero ICU. I would've sued just to irritate her LOL JK. So, I cut it to save everyone trouble. But there is radiation involved with embos and angios but I was pregnant at the time and they said both procedures were safe for the baby, they said it was just bursts of small doses of radiation.
Thanks JH, Kirsti & Nay!
This is very helpful & interesting. I guess I hadn't thought about that there is radiation during the surgery--during the angio too then, obviously, I just wasn't thinking about it.
Well, if my hair falls out, it falls out, ey?
I have bigger problems.
But I suppose after hearing your stories I'm not going to go shave a mohawk right now--I'll wait & see how it goes post-op.
Thanks again! Well wishes to you all!!!
gaahla
Here is an article about hair loss after AVM treatment: