Scabies

Doesn't it sound frightful? Like rabies, but thank goodness it's not! Scabies is a pretty common skin disease, with an estimated 300 million cases occurring worldwide every year! The downside is that it's contagious through skin contact (not airborne) and it's unbearably itchy, especially at night. I don't know why but I can tell you it couldn't be more true. Caused by a microscopic eight-legged creature aka an itch mite (ugh!), "The condition can strike anyone of any race or age, regardless of personal hygiene", in case you suspect we haven't been taking care of Meg properly!
So the poor thing has been very cranky and itchy, and giving us a hard time in the process! She can't sleep at night as the severe itch keeps her up. The lesions on her body, hands and legs are alarming. It looks very raw and unsightly. I hope she doesn't retain the scars...
So getting her to a pediatrician was another story. Basically, be grateful for our medical system in Singapore, with our ubiquitous general practictioners in the heartlands. I could not find Meg a ped as most, if not all of them would not take new patients. We were given the runaround until we finally decided to take her to the Children's Hospital not too far from our place to the emergency dept even though her condition was technically not an emergency. The doc at the A&E could not diagnose her problem and prescribed two types of EXPENSIVE medicines for her. After two days, she didn't seem to improve (well only a little) and we decided we had to take her to the ped. Luckily, we'd found one who'd take us and it was a good move to go to the experts. The doc immediately diagnosed her as having Scabies after consulting another doctor and prescribed a lotion which would kill the mites. The lotion has a stinging effect though, and as we applied it on Meg, she cried and screamed that our neighbours must've thought we were abusing our child! Meg's on the road to recovery now, although the itch will continue for a week or two more, and the blisters should disappear in about a month. Thank goodness she's not in school or we'd have to apologize til we're blue in the face!
At the emergency room of the Children's Hospital of Boston. We were there for more than an hour waiting for treatment. The doctor was very thorough, asking me lots of questions.
Moisturizing doesn't quite help anymore at this stage...the poor girl seems to be visiting the hospital once too often!
I don't have prescription insurance for Meg, so I had to pay for the medicines out of my pocket. I didn't realize the meds here are so expensive. This assortment of meds cost me about usd140 in total! Whoa!