Noooooooooooo! I knew having The Devil as my Tarot card-of-the-year would be hard but I didn’t expect it to be THIS challenging. Of all the situations I’ve been confronted with this year I’m now facing the worst of all. I have to give up tea!

Tea is my comfort food. My one and only addiction. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t have slutty sex every weekend (once every now and then would be good though). All I have to cling on to, to get my through the day, are my incredibly milky cups of tea. And now I can have them no more 😦

I’ve developed an auto-immune condition called Alopecia Areata. In a nutshell, I’m going bald. Not in any dramatic overnight way. It starts off as a small hairless spot here and there which then get bigger and bigger and bigger. Actually, I’m being a bit over-dramatic. Sometimes the condition can disappear of its own accord and sometimes it remains stable. However other times (sob) your hair can disappear altogether. Each case is different. But here’s the really scary part: There’s no known cure. There’s treatments you can take but no guarantee they will be effective. Aaaaaaaah!

However, after doing a bit of research I’ve discovered that some people have reversed the condition by changing their diet. Now Doctor Goggle can be dodgy but here’s the thing: Over the last few years I’ve experienced various physical symptoms that suggest my immune system is shot but changing my diet alleviated them to a large extent. It’s just that I haven’t stuck to the plan and definitely haven’t gone the full kahuna i.e. given up dairy.

Now I have no choice. This disease is striking at the heart of me. The one thing I’ve always liked about my appearance is my hair. I may not have been able to give up milk before but I feel like this time I absolutely have to. Fingers crossed I can do it. Otherwise….oh, I can’t even think about otherwise.

That Devil card sure is a doozy to live with.

Have you had to change your diet for health reasons?