(I’ll put the P.S. up here: In falcon news, the female was sound asleep brooding their four eggs when her mate decided he wanted some nighttime duty too and woke her up to kick her off. This video is for every one of us who is not naturally cheerful at being unexpectedly woken up in the middle of the night. She was mad!)

—

Weird chunks of raised itchy scalp. Memories of a hairdresser from when I was pregnant with my second and long before I’d ever heard of lupus feeling those dried lumps in her hands and asking me gingerly, Did you know you have bald spots?

I had the baby, the hair grew back in, and it was all a weird one-time thing.

Till this year. I knew this time not to scratch at it because it would just pull any hair out with it and after the basal cell surgery took a round inch-plus off the top there awhile ago, let’s hang onto what we’ve got. Gradually it settled down. Last week there was the last of one lump, today I didn’t really feel anything up there. But it was my six-month dermatology check anyway, so I mentioned it.

When did it start?

Around the time of Trump’s inauguration.

She guffawed.

But it was true, and at some point I’d wondered if my angst over the destruction of the rule of law was manifesting itself on top of my head after it spread from one spot to three when the political news was particularly grievous.

Naming a reason for it–or just random chance, or maybe doing better at staying out of the sun–something made it calm down and go away, which is wonderful. May it stay away another 40 years.

Best way to cure something is to make an appointment to get it seen.