I have debated about posting this just because I am still a little too emotional about the whole situation, but I'm going to anyway. The morning of the last day of school I was helping the girls get their hair ready. One of her sisters couldn't find her brush, so as soon as I finished up, I handed her sister the brush we had been using. There was a little bump in the back of her hair, not thinking anything of it, I picked up my brush and brushed through her hair. She's my daughter, so I brushed through the entire back of her hair. No big deal, right? WRONG!!!!
I then proceeded to brush through the underneath of my hair, brushed one side and then, as I was finishing up, I brushed through the front of my hair through to the back. I looked in the mirror and I moved at lightening speed. I grabbed my tweezers from the counter and pulled an imposter from my head.
I screamed, "CRAIG! CRAIG! GET IN HERE!"
He wasn't moving fast enough, I yelled again, he got defensive and then I pointed to the deceased on the counter. "Is that what I think it is?"
He dodged the question in my opinion, wouldn't answer definitively, but I knew and he knew, and both our stomachs dropped. I pulled my little girl back in and started looking through her hair. How in the world did I not see them earlier? I couldn't believe it. I benched her and the sister who borrowed her brush and I headed over to the school. I spoke with my daughters teacher and the office. It was then I found out there had been lice in her class a month previous. WHAT?!?!? How come nobody told me?
We had this situation pop up in the past when a child I watched had lice. Unfortunately when we found out it was in the middle of a party we were hosting in our home. Kids everywhere, laying on the sofas together, trying on hats together, needless to say it was like my stomach dropped. At that point in the game the only thing I could do was contact the parents of everyone who had attended the party. Was I embarrassed? Yes. I was absolutely mortified to make those calls. And we didn't even have lice! But the point was knowledge is power, and anyone who has had to deal with these critters knows earlier in the game is ALWAYS easier. The end of that story is two kids who attended that party ended up with lice. I panicked and treated my whole family and our home as if we had it. Why? The child was at my house every day. In my kid's rooms, on my furniture, and the ONLY time one of the infected party guests was near this child was in my home. The vampire bugs had invaded my home. They may have all been carried away, but I wasn't taking ANY chances.
This was during spring break. My children were quarantined, all their friends were pretty much quarantined, while moms joined forces and went on lice watch. It was miserable. My children didn't understand it was probably worse for me having to deal with bored children during spring break.
Fast forward about six months and AGAIN we find out through the grapevine that we have been exposed to lice. This time we did have one little bug in one of my daughter's hair. It was treated, but this time it was the night before their class Halloween parties. While all their little friends were at school playing dress up we were all at home watching movies and checking hair. AUGHH!!!!
I am a pretty easy going person, BUT, there is strength in numbers, and with these little critters the more there are the longer the battle. I HATE LICE!!!! Hate is a strong word, but appropriately used at this time.
This time it's the last day of school. The problem being we were in no way prepared for what we were about to face, and this time, they were in MY hair!!!! This time they have crossed the line. Anyone who has had a friend or family member with lice knows the minute the word comes flowing from another's lips your head starts to itch. It's a natural reflex. Now my head was itching and I wasn't sure if it was because there were bugs crawling around on my head or if I was psychotic. Regardless what it was, we were taking action and doing so quickly.
The first thing you HAVE to do is contact parents of your children's friends who may have been exposed. This is miserable. It is one of the worst conversations to have with anyone, but it HAS to be done. Did my daughter choose to have her head attacked by little vampire bugs? No. Looking back she did have a red spot on her neck a couple days earlier that should have caught my attention. The problem was lice was so far off my radar, probably because it was a painful memory I wanted to block out, that I didn't even think to check her hair. Trust me, if you don't and someone gets it they will not be happy with you.
Second, plan your attack. We do a full court press in our house. Everyone is treated no matter if we found something on you or not. We have two non-toxics we use, Quit Nits and LiceMD. The first is a minimum four hour treatment, and the second has to be on for at least ten minutes before you can start combing. I am confident some of you reading this are taking the prescription standpoint and wondering why I would make my children have chemicals on their heads unnecessarily. The answer is my sanity. I need a starting date. I don't want to have to play games about when I washed what or what day I found the first bug or egg on who. Friday was day one. If the treatments are adminstered correctly all adult lice and recently hatched should be dead. While combing through you should be combing out all the dead little vampire bugs. DEAD is the important word here.
Then there is always the issue of the eggs. They hatch on average seven to ten days after they have been laid on your head, and supposedly they should all be withing 1/2" of the scalp. We're talking ten hours I had been looking between two girl's hair. Ten hours, and then I saw it. One of the eggs was almost six inches from my daughter's scalp! Oh no, how long have they been here? I panicked, then I researched. We live in Arizona and apparently in warmer climates the bugs are smart and adjust how far from the scalp they are going to place their little babies. Whew...maybe...WAIT! I just spent ten hours and I wasn't looking six inches from their scalps. AUGHHH!!!! I have to start again? The answer was yes. In order to defeat the vampire bug army you have to get all viable eggs. Unless you look at each egg you see on the hair shafts with a magnifying glass you will not know which ones have hatched and which haven't. If you have done this before you might be thinking the white ones are clear, that's what they look like after they've hatched. This is true, but did you know that newly laid eggs can look almost transparent? In other words they can resemble the white eggs you think are in the clear. And don't use location of the egg as a deciding factor either. I found out the hard way that six inches may or may not be safe depending on the climate.
We bought one of those electronic combs also. We haven't found any live lice with it yet, but it sure makes the inspecting doable with the two year old. It definitely sends out an electric current, and I'm willing to try anything at this point.
You may read on the internet to focus your efforts on the hair, the house needs to be cleared but it's not a priority. In my book that's WRONG. Depending on which scientific study you choose as your source the bugs can live anywhere from 2 to 4 days off a human host. Now, I do agree that a dehydrated bug would have to have a perfect opportunity to reinfest your child or set up residency on another family member's head. BUT, the more there are, the worse your odds are. Our plan for the home runs pretty smooth. We bag EVERYTHING. Clothing, stuffed toys, backpacks, towels, pillows, everything is placed in large garbage sacks and our garage starts looking like the city dump with all the trash bags everywhere. There are piles of things that can be washed, things that can go in the dryer, and things that will stay in the garage for fourteen days...or longer. :)
The darling husband then vacuums and flips every mattress in the house, vacuums all the carpets, the sofa, the chairs, and we quarantined the girls from their rooms. We set up a tent in the back yard, got out the sleeping bags, and separated everyone by about eighteen inches. This allowed us to have a cushion of time to work with in case any live bugs are missed by the vacuum. This is the paranoid side of me speaking, but I'm not taking any chances and it's warm enough for the girls to sleep in the tent.
When we aren't picking we're doing laundry. Our biggest problem this time was I had folded about eight loads of laundry two days before this happened and my daughter was in there with me when I was folding the laundry. Again, the paranoid side of me wondering if by some small chance could something be alive there. All the clean clothes were going through a high heat dryer cycle. All the pillows and non washables that we had to have available during the next ten days went through the high heat dryer cycle for at least thirty minutes.
Bed linens and towels are washed at the highest heat for the fabric and then dried on a high heat dryer cycle. Now, to put this in perspective you have to know that I have thick medium to long hair. We have five girls, all have medium to long or long hair. My husband, I think he used a number four a couple weeks ago, so he's pretty safe...but he still has to be checked daily. Anyway, the point is who has time to fold all this laundry when you are looking for eggs in everyone's hair? It was a little overwhelming to me. Especially since one of those girls is only two and would have a ball playing in all the clean laundry. So, we bagged up the clean laundry. Your shirt is now wrinkled you say? Get over it. I'm worried about vampire bugs in my hair. My primary concern is making sure they aren't on your shirt, not making sure the shirt isn't wrinkled...at least not today.
Yes, I am not environmentally friendly today. I am trying to compost, I recycle, I'm not a completely green person, but we try to do our part. My sincere apologies for using this many plastic garbage bags, but again, we're talking about little vampire bugs and I'm not taking any chances. Sheets went over the sofas so we could wash and dry them at the end of the day and the girls would have a place to sit. I think we spent $20 at redbox in three days so they could have something to watch as we picked through every strand of their hair. And the process continues every day until there are no little eggs on ANYONE'S heads.
One of the girls has a friend she is pretty sure won't be able to play with her at all this summer because of the lice. She had it a while ago and it took her mom months to get rid of. I don't blame her. If I had to deal with these critters for that long I may never let my kids go anywhere. And if you have ever looked for those eggs you know they are hard to see. If you feel that way about someone else who has lice, be sure you talk to them, find out what they are doing. Offer help. The only way to get rid of lice is to be proactive. I HATE these things, but you HAVE to talk to people about it.
So now the hard part. My head still itches. Mentally I think we're fine, I'll give the girls who had the lice and myself a second treatment on day nine. Why did I choose day nine? We're suppose to be leaving on vacation on day eleven. We can't leave if there is anything left. I won't expose family and strangers who'll be staying at our timeshare after us. So, we treat on day nine, check on day nine and check again on day ten just for good measure. For those who are new to lice, the second treatment is not optional. Those eggs are so hard to see, and there are so many hairs to look through. It only takes one to start the whole cycle over again, and we're not taking any chances over here.
In the meantime...girls we didn't find anything on are free to roam as usual except my time is a little more limited in transporting them where they wish to go, and providing they stay clean. If anything changes in their status, as part of the full court press they're benched.
Those who had the little vampire bugs aren't allowed anywhere until they are nit free for at least three days. Again, those eggs are hard to see and there is a harsh reality that you won't find all of them in one sitting. I figure three days is enough time for me to really inspect as well as I possibly can. Again, retreating still is not optional. I don't care if the child has been clear since the day we treated the bug, my eyes aren't perfect...it's not worth the gamble in my book.
Now, I am a little more nervous this time because we have summer vacation plans that I do not want to adjust. So we are bound and determined to be clear before we leave town. With that in mind, I went psycho and we're trying all sorts of home remedies also. We are combing through the conditioner, we have sprinkled rosemary all over the sofa, on their mattresses, and in all the pillowcases. We applied an olive oil and vinegar mixture to everyone's heads tonight and are hoping it will finish off any determined vampire bugs.
I have been getting between three and four hours sleep each night. With all day spent inspecting and picking and evenings spent working on the house, I now have come down with some cold junk and am sick to top it off.
Today I woke up and with hours of picking ahead of me, I can barely stand up. I am feeling defeated, want to throw in the towel and it happens. I realize I can understand why some parents just don't want to deal with it. The fact is they are so annoying, and time consuming. It is 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and I have done nothing more than cook meals and wash dishes and deal with lice since Friday morning. My life has been on hold for five days going on six. I can't even begin to tell you all the things I needed to do before we are planning to leave next week. EVERYTHING IS ON HOLD. Selfish little vampire bugs. (Did I mention I hate them?) Regardless, at that moment where I felt defeat I understood. It doesn't mean I agree, because I don't, but I can understand why people can get to that point. So now I sit, with the oil and vinegar mixture in my shower cap on my head. I look ridiculous, but so do the rest of my family members who are wearing the same things, with their towels over their pillows on their bed. I'm hoping and praying everyone stays clean from here on out. I am grateful school is out, and I am especially grateful we're leaving our home so they girls won't start asking about bags in the garage. They'll have a full three weeks to become lice free.
Lastly, as horrible as this is for me and everyone else who has to deal with it, just be up front and honest with people. It is so important to tell everyone you can. Let word get through the grapevine in case there is someone you forgot. Communication is key, knowledge is power.
It's okay to melt down. We have spent close to $200 in product and combs and home remedies and I didn't really have that money to spend in the first place. Am I angry? Yes. Am I mad at anyone in particular? Not really. I'm a little disappointed in the lack of communication from my daughter's classroom, but I also understand how it was missed. I hope they will learn for the future that this is a check and balance type communication. Have someone you can talk to when you are going to lose it. The kids will get tired and bored and drive you crazy. You'll start second guessing yourself no matter how efficiently your plan is executed. Make sure you have a sounding block outside your home. Your spouse will hear enough from you as it is, and it's important that you two stay on the same team.
And finally, I regret that my guard down and we will be checking for lice in our home at least once every other week. Nothing as labor intensive as when you know it's infested your home, but labor intensive enough that I can sleep at night. That electronic comb may be the best investment ever. You may feel you can't do it any more, you may feel you don't have the strength or the time or the energy. PRAY!!! He will make you equal to the task. Although I would prefer he just remove the lice altogether, I can't tell you how many times I've picked up the exact strand of hair an egg is attached to as I'm feeling my eyelids are heavy and don't believe I can look any more. It's a long haul, but you don't have to do it alone.
