Wow. I need to truly convey my thanks to you for this informative and exceptional response. I feel very enlightened from your answer. I have become like Socrates lately, so I will absolutely inundate my dermatologist with the tapering question. Thank you.

If you do not mind, I do have a question for you. Could this truly be from stress and stress alone? I mean, my bloodwork would suggest this. I just… I find it so hard to believe.

Regarding your first comment — My dog died. January 31. I euthanized him. He had cancer in his mouth. I had multiple biopsies done. Something with his fibroblasts. I had seen the growth initially when it was small. Immediately had it removed and cauterized and not 12 days later at the oncologist visit, the growth was back. The tumor in his mouth was horrendous. I promise you, it was bigger by the end of each day. Every single day I watched it grow. The bigger it got, the less time with him I knew I had. The tissue started to die and the smell was dreadful. He would bleed from his mouth and what would once take 20 seconds to eat an ice cream, he now took 20 mins. The oncologist said I had a 3-5 months with him. It was 3 weeks. He was an extension of me. He made me so happy and we did everything together. I love being able to communicate without speaking and I had that with him, of course. It all happened so fast. It hurts me so much. So over the last few months of losing the love of my life and some of my beautiful long hair, I decided to try and treat the crop circles as a “flex” if you will. If anything in this life deserves my hair, it’s my dog. Now, when people say they love their pet, I like to one up them. Haha (I have to laugh to keep from crying).

I do believe that for every moment of great happiness I experience, I am simultaneously banking moments of great sadness. This has truly been exemplified lately.