It was at the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2022, when at 9 years of age Anna Paula Preciado began to notice that her eyebrows were falling out. Two months later, they had already fallen out completely, while her hair began to fall out in pieces.
“When I wanted to braid her, I realized that she had spaces on her head hairless. They were small wheels in the shape of a penny (cent)”, says her mother Ana Antonia Losoya, who practically ran with her daughter to the doctor, anguished to know what was happening with her little girl.
To make a donation for Anna Paula, visit the site:https://gf.me/v/c/v84r/help-a-yr-old-girl-with-hair-lose -treatment
“After doing blood tests and a biopsy, the dermatologist diagnosed him with alopecia areata; and she explained to me that there were two types of alopecia, areata and universal.”
Alopecia areata, the doctor explained, is a autoimmune disorder causing patchy and unpredictable hair loss; and that it can evolve into alopecia universalis.
“At first, I thought her hair was falling out due to anxiety. My daughter has always been very anxious and nervous”.
Almost two years later, seeing no progress and her daughter’s hair continuing to fall out in clumps, Ana says that she questioned the doctor annoyed.
“I told him that the girl was getting worse; and that instead of helping her, she was harming her because it turned out that she now had alopecia universalis. He told me that he was not God to perform miracles. I asked him to do what he could. What if she was her daughter! I told him very frustrated”.
The only thing the doctor did every time we went to the doctor’s office was to increase the number of pills her daughter took.
Anna ended up asking for the medical records and spoke to the MediCal offices so that they assign her to another doctor, an expert in alopecia.
And that was where she began her viacrucis.
“They have sent me to one and another doctor who refer me to others, but nothing happens. I finally found a doctor in the city of Irving who is an expert in alopecia, but with the bad luck that she does not accept MediCal.”
When asking how much the consultation charged to see if she could pay out of pocket, they told her that it charged $500 per consultation plus medications. In addition, the closest appointment was until August.
“It was at that moment that I decided to open an account to collect funds on the GoFundMe site to pay for my daughter’s treatments”, says Anna.
Adds that alopecia has been a traumatic event in their lives .
“I managed to get her a psychologist to receive therapy, and I will prepare her to defend herself against teasing and accusations”.
Anna Paula says with her little voice As a child, there are days when she feels very sad, but there are moments when she is happy.
“The psychologist has helped me a lot”, she talks.
“So far, the children have not bullied me, but I cover my head with a hat when I go to school; and my mom just bought me a wig”.
Ana, her mother, says that she feels helpless when she sees that she cannot help her daughter with her hair loss, especially since she earns her living as a stylist.
“I wish they could treat her at the Children’s Hospital, but MediCal places many limitations on me to access doctors, and the processes are very slow to change doctors; or to be able to look for other alternatives.”
she says that while she spends time, she is very worried that her daughter will start to be teased at school.
“Children are very cruel. And sometimes, people don’t say anything to you, but with the way they stare at you, they say everything.”
Ana and her daughter Anna Paula live in the city of Long Beach . Ana is an immigrant from Sonora, Mexico, and her daughter was born in the United States
she acknowledges that she is concerned about the emotional impact that alopecia can have on her daughter in the long term .
“I have tried to spend more time with her. We go for a walk together and we spend more time so that she feels affection and that she is not alone in this”.
This mother asked for the support of the community so that she assist with donations for your daughter’s expensive treatments.
“I ask you to put yourself in my place, to give me a hand.”
It is said that people are not aware of alopecia; and they try to minimize it with comments like ‘it’s only hair that you’re losing’.
“You can put a wig, they tell me. I tell them that they don’t understand because it’s not their daughter who suffers from alopecia; and besides, she is a girl who is one step away from adolescence”.
Ana says that her daughter Anna Paula has lost the 35% of your hair.
To make a donation for Anna Paula, visit the site:https://gf.me/v/c/v84r /help-a-11yr-old-girl-with-hair-lose-treatment