Lice are NOT Nice

AAAAAAAAAAAARRG!!!!!!!

Lice. Just the mention of the word makes one shudder with disgust and itch the scalp. I've heard about them throughout my life, but I'd never had any real experience with them until a couple of weeks ago. I can talk about the experience now, but there was a time when it was dark in my world, and I was very fragile about the whole thing.

I had received a few emails from the school about cases of lice that were going around, and that the necessary precautions were being taken to handle the situation, as per school protocol. (*Tip: if you ever get word that lice is going around, start using hairspray on your kids, and putting dabs of tea tree oil on the nape of their necks and behind their ears as a precaution). Meanwhile, we were to remind our children not to share hats and that sort of thing. When Viv complained that her head was itching and hurting for the first time, she was in a bath with her two younger sisters. I didn't think much of it at first, but said I'd check her after the bath. It wasn't until she had brushed her hair, and then passed the same brush to Ru that she reminded me about her head. It didn't take very long for me to look through her hair and see a tiny bug. I tried to remove it, but it was gone, lost again in her hair.

Then it hit me. LICE... (insert expletive here). I thought about the brush that Ru had just used to comb her hair. Too late, I thought, cross contamination was inevitable. I took a few deep breaths and a bit of time to process the implications of what lice would mean for us, but I just didn't really know what the implications were. I felt sick. Ugh. I tried to gather myself. I called Adam, told him what I thought I had discovered, and that he had better stop by the store on his way home to get whatever it is people get to get rid of lice. I really had no idea, but I was pretty sure that one needed special shampoo. I think it was during that conversation with Adam that I learned that he had to go on a business trip in a few days. I had just recently gotten power back after Hurricane Sandy, and I wasn't mentally prepared for another blow of anything stressful. Time just sort of stopped, or my brain stopped. I went through the motions of feeding my children, but I was somewhere else in my head. I fought back tears (I know, I'm such a wimp) then I went online to look up lice.

I won't go into all of the details about what happened, but I will say this: getting rid of lice is a full time job at first. It takes about 10 days to completely get rid of them (assuming you didn't miss any, because if you missed even one egg, you get to start over). You must wash pretty much everything in your house - bedding, stuffed animals, clothes, pillows, couch cushions, etc, etc, etc - in hot water, then thoroughly dry it all in the dryer. You then have to re-wash everything that the lice-infested child comes in contact with, or at least get everything nice and hot in the dryer for 30 minutes. This means that you should limit where they sit and lay their head because you have to wash or at least dry it every day!). It helps to have them use a towel to carry around and use to sit on (instead of having to wash couch cushions multiple times).

I made the mistake (in my panic and anxiety) of going out and purchasing almost everything on the market for lice removal - a costly venture, but I was desperate. I also got the girls' hair cut. I was rejected at two salons because I told them about the lice, but luckily, some places will cut lice hair if it has been treated - and ours had been. We spent hours pulling out lice and nits (eggs) from Viv's hair twice a day. It was much easier with the short hair. She worried, at first, that she looked like a boy, so we showed her a bunch of pictures of movie stars with short hair, and that was helpful. We had to use a fine toothed metal come and nit-pick twice a day for 10 days. We treated her hair with rosemary infused olive oil every night and she had to sleep with a shower cap on for the treatments - that is aside from the other shampooing treatments each day. ...her poor scalp.

Much to our relief, we heard about a lady at our church who does lice removal for a living (who knew that was a profession?). She told us that in our county last year there were over 30,000 cases of lice reported. Apparently, they are rampant around here... great. In any case, she was a saint. She came to our home, checked us, checked my collection of products that I had purchased (and told me which ones were junk), and then gave us instructions and all-natural products (from http://licefreepros.com/), which I highly recommend. She gave me the peace of mind that I needed. I will always be grateful to her.

On a side note, weeks later, lice are still alive, well, and spreading at the school. Why? Because I learned that the school has a "yes nit" policy, which means that if the child has nits (eggs) but no live lice on their heads, they are free to attend school... what the *&;^$?  That's correct. The problem is that no one knows when the lice eggs will hatch. So ... they hatch all day, and spread from child to child. Brilliant. I was told that it is a "standard" policy. Crazier still, I was just told by a teacher yesterday that the state was about to change the policy to allow even live lice at school because lice are not technically parasites. I have to say, homeschooling is sounding better all the time. Yikes.