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| Photo Credit: Web MD Report on Head Bugs |
Got a text this morning that rang up there on my list of a mothers’ worst nightmares.
“All the girls have lice!”
No!
I was in shock. They just left a few days ago. I gave them all haircuts two days before. They all washed their hair the night before the trip. They wash their sheets and blankets often. Sometimes twice in one week. They’ve been out of school for over two weeks now. How did this happen?
For a mom of four girls with heads full of thick black hair, often wearing it long, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen sooner.
I have no experience with lice. I don’t recall ever having it, but I guess I should call my mom up to double check about my younger years. I don’t even know what lice looks like.
And there in lies the first problem.
If I look back on this past week, the signs were all there. I just didn’t put itch one and itch two together. It couldn’t have helped that our shower was out of commission for a few days with a major clog. Not wanting to pay a plumber half our 401K, I waited for hubby to come home from work to tackle our pipes that refused to drain five or six showers worth of used water. I know. A hardy yuck is in order. Go ahead.
I was nice. I put aside my writing for an hour or two while I wet-vaced the tub up and boiled several pots of boiling water to help loosen and burn a hole through the clog if possible. Nothing. Then the snake came out. For hours, hubby twisted and turned the coiled pipe from two different entrance points and pulled out wads of hair, but the water was still not going down. Finally, he opened up a portion of the pipe from the basement laundry room and found the site of 100% blockage. If he was a heart surgeon, my Baby saved a life that night. The life of our one funtioning shower. *Not counting the RV shower, of course.
And the girls were going on day three without showers, *unless you count jumping through the sprinklers, and each of them had itchy heads. I attributed it to dandruff. Summer sweat. Dry scalps.
And when the shower was put back together and sparkling white from a fresh cleaning, I told the girls to shampoo twice and really scrub their heads well. I did Sarah’s head myself.
The next day was the wedding. Sarah looked so precious with her flower head piece. But it was scratchy. “Mommy, how long do I have to keep this thing on?” Sarah asks me before the ceremony, her fingers scratching her head. Clue number two. I just assumed it was the headpiece bothering her. And I let her take it off during the reception. And the complaints stopped.
Then two days ago, I set up my hair salon outdoors by the tree house, and one by one, I cut inches off the girls’ hair to give them their summer dos. Shorter translates as cooler and everyone predicts brutally hot days ahead. So I combed through their hair and nothing. I didn’t see anything that looked like bugs jumping in their hair or eggs or whatever lice entails.
Well, almost nothing.
This was the biggest and clearest Clue Number three. In one of the girl’s hair, on the surface, I saw one. Only one. Tiny brownish bug. But we were outdoors. I totally assumed it was some summer bug that flew around us or fell from the trees. Summer time brings lots of bugs of all types and sizes. Plus, and this is where I get myself in trouble so often, I thought lice were white in color. Why would I think this? A nurse recently told me this. Like two weeks ago. And I believed her at face value. I should have looked it up on Google images. Read it on the CDC website. Done a little research myself. But I figured she was a nurse. She’d probably dealt with this before. Oops.
I even looked through this daughter’s hair carefully to make sure I didn’t see anything else. And the coast was clear. Nothing. Nada. Surely, that little bug was incidental. We’re outdoors right now, after all.
So let the record show that I plead Guilty. I saw the signs this week. I just read them all wrong. I aired on the side of “It’s nothing” rather than “It’s something.” Cuz, sure enough. It was a lot of something sleeping, about to wake up and cause havoc on the whole family and now all the cousins will spend a day getting hair shampoo treatments instead of swimming and diving into summer time activities.
Hubby and I feel bad. We’re washing sheets and blankets and towels, but the girls are all in Delaware. The hardest clean up job lies in the hands of their aunt and uncle this time around.
As I heard hubby talking to our oldest on the phone, consoling her during this tough time, he said words that reminded me that perspective is everything.
“It’s not dangerous. Sure, your plans will change now. Yes, you have to take care of this, but guess what? Ten years from now, you’ll be sitting around with your cousins and talk about this day as one you’ll never forget! Just remember, you’re still together. You’re still together, and that’s what matters.”
**Ever have to change plans when someone got sick? Pink eye? Chicken pox?
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Thanks so much Jamie! Appreciate you “following” too! You’re my official #150!! Totally made my day! 🙂 And hop around…Hope you find some other fun dives here at InSearchOfWaterfalls! “Nitpicking” … exactly! -Raj
I had to deal with lice once when my nephew was visiting–so long ago. Using that shampoo, combing the “nits” out. Makes you understand the tediousness of the term “nitpicking!” I know kids who have gotten them from movie seats, other kids, who knows where. My mother’s motto: Maintain perspective! It could be a LOT worse! Enjoyed your guest post on marriage!