The Goiter....

The MMR
Finn received his first MMR immunization 6 weeks ago and within 24 hours had a giant mump on his neck. His lymph node is so swollen he looks like Quasimodo after swallowing a golf ball. We promptly took him to a pediatric urgent care where we came home with absolutely no helpful diagnosis ("it's a reaction to the immunization") but we did come home with a vile case of the rota virus. We followed up with a pediatrician only to receive the same non-diagnosis "it's a mild reaction to the MMR". Flash forward 3 weeks and Finn still has a giant goiter. We returned to the pediatrician and Finn was placed on a diarrhea causing antibiotic that did nothing for the lump. We were also referred to the ENT specialist which is where we went this morning.

The ENT:
After waiting 2 1/2 weeks to be seen (and told we were lucky to get in that quickly) we finally arrived at the office this morning. I had, of course, diligently filled out the 7 pages of paperwork they had mailed to me so that our visit would not be unnecessarily prolonged. I turned in the 3 page medical history documenting Finn's tobacco, alcohol, and recreational drug use, as well as a complete history of every medical condition known to man. I tell the nurse, "we were unsure if we should check depression and claustrophobia, because it's really only mild and we didn't know if this meant 'clinical'." The nurse returns a look completely devoid of humor and replies, "you can go over that in depth with your doctor".
"He's 13 months old," I mutter, "bad joke,.. he's not claustrophobic... I'll just sit down...now."
I spend an hour in the waiting room begging Jackson to just "please sit down and watch the cartoon" while engaging in a WWE match with Finn fit for pay-per-view. Suddenly, a small girl enters my personal space .... and then invades it. Before I know what is going on this bowl-cut, pinched-faced, child is on my lap without a sound. Okay.....where's her mom? I'm sure any moment her mother will tell her that it's completely inappropriate to climb on strangers....... I look about the waiting room. Silence. I spend the next ten minutes reading to my children and my new adoptee wondering if someone will see if I push her.
When we finally see the doctor she enters wearing a full-blown surgical mask, and one of those old school headbands with the metal circle. I still have no idea what she looks like. She examines Finn for less than 10 minutes and sends us on our way with ANOTHER prescription for ANOTHER antibiotic (oh gee, I hope this one causes diarrhea) and tells us if he's not better in another 10 days we'll do a CT scan.
I can't believe I waited 2 1/2 weeks for this. And my son still has a giant Goiter. The other children will call him "mumpy" and he'll never have any friends.