After school I took both kids to the pediatrician again. Quinn was there last Monday (allergies) and Gage was there 3 weeks ago (scalp-eating rash) and we happened to get the same doctor. I went through my sob story about how we can’t get anywhere in treatment terms meanwhile my son’s hair is falling out and my daughter looks like she is a clown-in-training. The schools are sending home notes (today) about ringworm like we don’t know they have it (kind of) and they are calling us (today) like we should be surprised they (maybe) have it.

I KNOW THEY HAVE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS AN AWFUL LOT LIKE RINGWORM, except for the spots that don’t have rings around them, for starters, like the fist size, scaly patch on Gage’s head.

I gave the doc the transplant clinic number to page one of the nurses (I love them) so we could get an answer about giving him/them an oral med to combat this scalp-eating rash. Turns out that if Gage goes on it he’ll have to go into the clinic a bunch of times for lab draws to monitor the prograf levels. Enough said. We’ll try more treatment with a prescription topical ointment.

This all just made me cry, right there in front of the doctor, who sympathetically handed me some tissue. I rambled something about how it’s all just too much sometimes and how it’s never just a simple rash and a med, 8 people have to get involved to make a decision and it takes time to do all of this, which leaves my son’s head more bald by the hour, and well, it just went on from there. Because nothing says you have it together like sobbing at the pediatrician’s office for a common childhood rash (and an uncommon scalp-eating rash!).

Stressed much?

I’m just not willing to get Gage on drugs that cause him more lab draws unless it is completely necessary because he is hating the needle right now, with the passion of a wild boy with no impulse control. Because besides sobbing at the kid’s doc’s office there’s hardly anything more fun than of convincing Gage to hold out his arm!

More fun to be had as the pharmacist told me that insurance doesn’t cover the $112 tube of ointment. And then the only tube they had was torn. And then the other three pharmacies didn’t have it either.

Perfect.

And…my head and face are kind of feeling itchy.