Itchy & Scratchy

It is currently 5:30 AM and the sun has yet to rise in Champaign- Urbana. The same can not be said of me. Hermione woke me up at 4:30 with incessant scratching (the kind that is so intense it makes her whine in pain or annoyance or both--I'm not wholly sure), this after having woke me up at 12:30 with the same routine. This is particularly troubling not only because I was awoken twice, but because Hermione is now on an even stronger medicine, Dr. Dust having decided (after my concerned phone call to him) that the cortisone wasn't working well enough. Not only is she on a stronger medicine--prednisone, to be exact (but more on that below)--but I gave her a "mega" dose (two large doses back to back, one Monday night, one Tuesday morning) in order, per Dr. Dust's instructions, to knock out the scratching. You see why, then, I am so troubled by the fact that she seems to be scratching more than ever. I'm at the point where I'm almost ready to throw up my arms in defeat, since no medicine seems to penetrate the cloud of itchiness that surrounds Hermione's ears (which I think of as akin to how Pigpen gets drawn in Peanuts--with that cloud of dust around him).

That the medicine was prednisone is particularly disheartening. Any of you who have asthma will be familiar with the miracle that is prednisone: a steroid that seems to cure all lung problems, leaving wheezy kids able to run, and jump, and play like they've never even heard the adjective "asthmatic." And so prednisone has always been a wonder drug for me (with the exception of the time I was given too much of it by an incompetent doctor, and had hallucinations about a giant snake as a consequence. In fact, the more I think about it, that hallucination was all about a basilisk, and I should sue Rowling for stealing my idea [or my fear], or at least I should be given a full-ride to Hogwarts. Where is my owl with my Hogwarts letter, by the way? I've been waiting FOREVER). It's failure for my sweet pea puppy dog is thus doubly disheartening, and quite frightening: what medicine lies beyond the prednisone panacea? Or is the solution just a higher dose, in which case does the threat of puppy-dog hallucinations loom large? And what would Hermione hallucinate about? I suspect it would be one of two things: 1. Her mommy packing up her suitcase again or 2. (more honestly, less self-aggrandizingly [which is so not a word]) a giant bunny rabbit intent on vengance for Hermione's "murder" and "attempted murder" of all of our backyard rabbits. Let's hope, for her sake alone, that we never find out.