I couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post because the subject matter only makes me think inappropriately. You never think it'll happen to your children. You never think it'll happen to you. You spend years watching other children & families suffer through it and pray it doesn't happen to you. Phew... another day unscathed. Not this time. This time we got hit and we got hit bad. This time we are the family suffering through the ordeal. This time.... we have lice.
I noticed that Juliet was itching her head a few days ago... Friday or Saturday. I didn't react to it.. because who wants to admit to themselves that it might be lice? But I did take note of it and thought it stood out as abnormal. The next day... I noticed that I too was itching my head unusually. Still... no reaction. Finally on Sunday night after a dip in the hot tub I recalled the itching and decided that while getting Juliet ready for bed I might as well check her head. F*$%. Saying that she had lice is an understatement. She had a frickin' colony. An infestation. She didn't have lice in her hair, she had hair in her lice.
You never really know what to do in this situation. My husband & Sam were still in the hut tub so I went & told them to get out because we had some work to do. Then I turned to the internet for answers. Of course I knew that I had to go by lice shampoo, but turning to Google is just a normal reaction. And a hopeless one at that. There really isn't much info. I mean there are home remedies, holistic remedies, toxic remedies & organic remedies but it all comes down to the same thing... the same answer that you DON'T want to hear. Treat with lice shampoo to kill the lice, but nothing kills the eggs. No matter what you do, hours of "nit" picking lie in your near future.
We decided that the first thing to do would be to check everyone's head, get some lice shampoo & strip the bedrooms of linen, clothes, stuffed animals etc. My husband's head is shaved bald so he was no worry, but we discovered a couple of lice in BOTH mine & Sam's hair. Awesome. So off my husband went to the pharmacy while I gathered anything that could possibly be infected and brought it down to the laundry room for loads & loads of laundry and dryer time for anything that can't be washed. Luckily, lice cannot live off the human head for longer than 24 hours and any egg needs to feed immediately upon hatching. So I declared the basement off limits for a few days to make sure that anything that might have fallen off a head would die off in a few days and then I could go clean the whole room without worry. I didn't want to have to worry about the basement when I had the entire upstairs & main floor to deal with.
When my husband came home we decided that Juliet needed treatment first because she was the lord of the lice. Then we'd treat Sam & just shave his head... and then I'd treat myself last. Lucky for us my good friend Ashley came over to help. Thanks Ash. We treated Juliet and sat down to start the fun while my husband took care of Sam's treatment. Ridiculousness.
The amount of lice & nits (eggs) coming out of Juliet's hair was astonishing. Ashley had never seen anything like it even after suffering through the same ordeal with her own boys. Juliet's shoulder length hair was no help. We spent over an hour combing her hair until bedtime was 3 hours ago and Juliet just couldn't go on. And while shaving Sam's head was the way to go, I have to admit that when he came back downstairs I had to leave the room so that he wouldn't see me cry. He looked like a boy who was just released from a concentration camp... and it just broke my heart. My beautiful Sam, (although still beautiful)... looked horrible (way more so than in this pic). I couldn't handle it, and I didn't want him to know that. I was so upset that we had to do that because of these f*%!ING bugs!!!!!
Sam could care less. He likes his hair... or so he says. And obviously I never let on that I didn't. After returning to school today for the first time he came home & told me that his teacher & all his friends were stunned... and of you ask him he'll tell you that all his friends like his hair (phew). But to make matters worse (for me), he said that one girl on his bus said "yuck". Although it didn't phase him, it was very hard for me to hear.
As for poor Juliet... well I've spent at least 4 hours of each day under intense light picking nits out of her hair. A couple of hours or so first thing in the morning & another couple of hours before bed.
As of yesterday I was still finding live ones amongst the many, many nits so she had another treatment last night before bed. Although I've picked 20+ nits out today I haven't found any live ones so I think it's safe to say they are all dead. But until all the nits are gone we're not in the clear. All it takes is one missed nit to hatch & lay more eggs.
I seem to be in the clear though. Although we did find 3 lice in my hair the first night... there doesn't seem to be any trace of anything else. No lice, no nits. Thank god. So why is my head still itchy??!
As for the rest... I have done at least 20 loads of laundry in the past 48 hours (& counting). The upstairs has been stripped of anything that may carry lice that are just waiting to jump back onto a head for a snack. Vacuuming has been done. The kids linens are stripped everyday and re-washed along with all clothing & towels that we use. All stuffed animals & throw pillows have spent at least an hour in the dryer. It's not done yet but it's been 2 full days now and I think I can actually say we've got it under control. I can only hope that this means the end is in sight. If not... kill me. Or give me a cold sore... I'll trade lice for that.
I noticed that Juliet was itching her head a few days ago... Friday or Saturday. I didn't react to it.. because who wants to admit to themselves that it might be lice? But I did take note of it and thought it stood out as abnormal. The next day... I noticed that I too was itching my head unusually. Still... no reaction. Finally on Sunday night after a dip in the hot tub I recalled the itching and decided that while getting Juliet ready for bed I might as well check her head. F*$%. Saying that she had lice is an understatement. She had a frickin' colony. An infestation. She didn't have lice in her hair, she had hair in her lice.
You never really know what to do in this situation. My husband & Sam were still in the hut tub so I went & told them to get out because we had some work to do. Then I turned to the internet for answers. Of course I knew that I had to go by lice shampoo, but turning to Google is just a normal reaction. And a hopeless one at that. There really isn't much info. I mean there are home remedies, holistic remedies, toxic remedies & organic remedies but it all comes down to the same thing... the same answer that you DON'T want to hear. Treat with lice shampoo to kill the lice, but nothing kills the eggs. No matter what you do, hours of "nit" picking lie in your near future.
We decided that the first thing to do would be to check everyone's head, get some lice shampoo & strip the bedrooms of linen, clothes, stuffed animals etc. My husband's head is shaved bald so he was no worry, but we discovered a couple of lice in BOTH mine & Sam's hair. Awesome. So off my husband went to the pharmacy while I gathered anything that could possibly be infected and brought it down to the laundry room for loads & loads of laundry and dryer time for anything that can't be washed. Luckily, lice cannot live off the human head for longer than 24 hours and any egg needs to feed immediately upon hatching. So I declared the basement off limits for a few days to make sure that anything that might have fallen off a head would die off in a few days and then I could go clean the whole room without worry. I didn't want to have to worry about the basement when I had the entire upstairs & main floor to deal with.
When my husband came home we decided that Juliet needed treatment first because she was the lord of the lice. Then we'd treat Sam & just shave his head... and then I'd treat myself last. Lucky for us my good friend Ashley came over to help. Thanks Ash. We treated Juliet and sat down to start the fun while my husband took care of Sam's treatment. Ridiculousness.
The amount of lice & nits (eggs) coming out of Juliet's hair was astonishing. Ashley had never seen anything like it even after suffering through the same ordeal with her own boys. Juliet's shoulder length hair was no help. We spent over an hour combing her hair until bedtime was 3 hours ago and Juliet just couldn't go on. And while shaving Sam's head was the way to go, I have to admit that when he came back downstairs I had to leave the room so that he wouldn't see me cry. He looked like a boy who was just released from a concentration camp... and it just broke my heart. My beautiful Sam, (although still beautiful)... looked horrible (way more so than in this pic). I couldn't handle it, and I didn't want him to know that. I was so upset that we had to do that because of these f*%!ING bugs!!!!!
Sam could care less. He likes his hair... or so he says. And obviously I never let on that I didn't. After returning to school today for the first time he came home & told me that his teacher & all his friends were stunned... and of you ask him he'll tell you that all his friends like his hair (phew). But to make matters worse (for me), he said that one girl on his bus said "yuck". Although it didn't phase him, it was very hard for me to hear.
As for poor Juliet... well I've spent at least 4 hours of each day under intense light picking nits out of her hair. A couple of hours or so first thing in the morning & another couple of hours before bed.
As of yesterday I was still finding live ones amongst the many, many nits so she had another treatment last night before bed. Although I've picked 20+ nits out today I haven't found any live ones so I think it's safe to say they are all dead. But until all the nits are gone we're not in the clear. All it takes is one missed nit to hatch & lay more eggs.
I seem to be in the clear though. Although we did find 3 lice in my hair the first night... there doesn't seem to be any trace of anything else. No lice, no nits. Thank god. So why is my head still itchy??!
As for the rest... I have done at least 20 loads of laundry in the past 48 hours (& counting). The upstairs has been stripped of anything that may carry lice that are just waiting to jump back onto a head for a snack. Vacuuming has been done. The kids linens are stripped everyday and re-washed along with all clothing & towels that we use. All stuffed animals & throw pillows have spent at least an hour in the dryer. It's not done yet but it's been 2 full days now and I think I can actually say we've got it under control. I can only hope that this means the end is in sight. If not... kill me. Or give me a cold sore... I'll trade lice for that.
Oh No!!!!! This is a horrible story. I feel so terribly for you guys, what a nightmare. You did well though, you took control, you took action, you didn't pass on your disappointment of Sam's hair (it will grow back very quickly). Well done.
ReplyDeletemy head is itchy too now ... : \
ReplyDeleteOh my I can't believe you went through all of that. Is there anything worse than that? I remember having it as a child and I just remember crying and my mom crying because they just kept on coming back. You should have called me - I would have gone over too to help you guys. My head is itchy now too. BTW, Sam still looks gorgeous with the shaved head. He's got the best eyes I have ever seen. What a terrible couple of nights you've had!
ReplyDeleteJulie