Last week was our first week of UGH! We have been very fortunate throughout the year to not have any illnesses, injuries, etc. Except for the occasional colds, which were very few, we have been fairly healthy without any real incidences that required special attention, until last week.
We were all in the car driving around looking for some motorcycle shops that sale ATV's. We finally found a Yamaha shop so we stopped and Gavin went in while the rest of us stayed in the car. Nicole had said several times during the previous hour that Vika had bugs in her hair. I thought she was just teasing her. Then she said, "No, really. She has bugs in her hair." So, I started to think she was serious. She said that Daddy had found one earlier but she still saw a lot in her hair. I started to investigate but of course my deteriorating eye sight didn't help, so I put my reading glasses on and started probing. Sure enough....there were bugs. GROSS!
I have never seen or experienced lice so I wasn't sure if that's what they were. We immediately went home and I looked it up on Youtube to see what they looked like. Yes, they were lice. YUCK!!!! A thousand times over. I wasn't so concerned about getting them out of her hair but I was not looking forward to all the cleaning and work that comes with it.
Fortunately, it was on a Thursday which is our weekend so we went to our local pharmacy, where we can buy just about anything without prescriptions and asked about lice. The pharmacist gave us the shampoo so I spent most of the evening shampooing Vika's hair, cleaning the sheets on her bead, bagging up pillows and comforters to suffocate the little buggers, sterilizing brushes and combs, checked everyone else's hair (thank goodness nobody else had them) and combed her hair over and over with the little comb. Just talking about it again is making my head itch.
The lice themselves were gone but I wasn't sure about all the eggs. Since it was a weekend, we were able to keep her away from other kids. I thought she was clear so we headed off to school on Saturday morning. The school policy is that they have to be checked by the nurse before they can go back to class, so we went to the nurses office right before school thinking all was fine. They said that she still had eggs in her hair so she couldn't come back to school yet. What do I do now? My class was about to start in a few minutes and I'm told that she needs to go home. Our administration is outstanding and very understanding and immediately jumped into gear to help me out. Within an hour we had a sub, my plans were made and I was headed home to spend hours trying to get rid of the eggs.
I combed her hair from scalp to ends in little sections using the tiny toothed comb. Since her hair is thin I did this for about an hour with her hair dry, then put conditioner on the dry hair and combed it all again. The conditioner makes the eggs slide off easier. I then scrubbed her hair in the shower with a vengeance and then combed her hair again when it was wet. This all took about three hours. I repeated this all again later that evening. I was sure that there wasn't a single egg left in her hair.
She stayed home one more day with Nicole who was home with pink eye. I then repeated a mini version of the combing again that night. By Monday morning when she went back to school, she was clean of all those little buggers and eggs. I swear that if this was Nicole who had lice, I probably would have shaved her head. Nicole has very thick wavy/curly hair which would have taken at least twice as long to comb through. So thankful she only had pink eye and not lice too.
We have taught our kids that the only way they ever can complain to stay home from school is if they are vomiting or have a high fever. Saturday morning Nicole had gotten up for school, got dressed and was walking out the door when I noticed her eye was bright red. She didn't even think of complaining that she woke up with it sealed shut and that it was red. I guess we taught her too well, I immediately knew what it was and told her to stay home. She stayed home for two days, went to school on Monday and woke up Tuesday with it in her other eye. Again, since we can get just about any prescription drug from the pharmacy without a prescription, we just went down and asked for the eye drops and got it. So nice to be able to do that without having to go see a doctor first. If you know what you need, why pay to see a doctor just for a prescription?
So our fun UGH week of lice and pink eye. I guess it could be worse but that was enough for me.
No pictures because I didn't want to gross anyone out.
We were all in the car driving around looking for some motorcycle shops that sale ATV's. We finally found a Yamaha shop so we stopped and Gavin went in while the rest of us stayed in the car. Nicole had said several times during the previous hour that Vika had bugs in her hair. I thought she was just teasing her. Then she said, "No, really. She has bugs in her hair." So, I started to think she was serious. She said that Daddy had found one earlier but she still saw a lot in her hair. I started to investigate but of course my deteriorating eye sight didn't help, so I put my reading glasses on and started probing. Sure enough....there were bugs. GROSS!
I have never seen or experienced lice so I wasn't sure if that's what they were. We immediately went home and I looked it up on Youtube to see what they looked like. Yes, they were lice. YUCK!!!! A thousand times over. I wasn't so concerned about getting them out of her hair but I was not looking forward to all the cleaning and work that comes with it.
Fortunately, it was on a Thursday which is our weekend so we went to our local pharmacy, where we can buy just about anything without prescriptions and asked about lice. The pharmacist gave us the shampoo so I spent most of the evening shampooing Vika's hair, cleaning the sheets on her bead, bagging up pillows and comforters to suffocate the little buggers, sterilizing brushes and combs, checked everyone else's hair (thank goodness nobody else had them) and combed her hair over and over with the little comb. Just talking about it again is making my head itch.
The lice themselves were gone but I wasn't sure about all the eggs. Since it was a weekend, we were able to keep her away from other kids. I thought she was clear so we headed off to school on Saturday morning. The school policy is that they have to be checked by the nurse before they can go back to class, so we went to the nurses office right before school thinking all was fine. They said that she still had eggs in her hair so she couldn't come back to school yet. What do I do now? My class was about to start in a few minutes and I'm told that she needs to go home. Our administration is outstanding and very understanding and immediately jumped into gear to help me out. Within an hour we had a sub, my plans were made and I was headed home to spend hours trying to get rid of the eggs.
I combed her hair from scalp to ends in little sections using the tiny toothed comb. Since her hair is thin I did this for about an hour with her hair dry, then put conditioner on the dry hair and combed it all again. The conditioner makes the eggs slide off easier. I then scrubbed her hair in the shower with a vengeance and then combed her hair again when it was wet. This all took about three hours. I repeated this all again later that evening. I was sure that there wasn't a single egg left in her hair.
She stayed home one more day with Nicole who was home with pink eye. I then repeated a mini version of the combing again that night. By Monday morning when she went back to school, she was clean of all those little buggers and eggs. I swear that if this was Nicole who had lice, I probably would have shaved her head. Nicole has very thick wavy/curly hair which would have taken at least twice as long to comb through. So thankful she only had pink eye and not lice too.
We have taught our kids that the only way they ever can complain to stay home from school is if they are vomiting or have a high fever. Saturday morning Nicole had gotten up for school, got dressed and was walking out the door when I noticed her eye was bright red. She didn't even think of complaining that she woke up with it sealed shut and that it was red. I guess we taught her too well, I immediately knew what it was and told her to stay home. She stayed home for two days, went to school on Monday and woke up Tuesday with it in her other eye. Again, since we can get just about any prescription drug from the pharmacy without a prescription, we just went down and asked for the eye drops and got it. So nice to be able to do that without having to go see a doctor first. If you know what you need, why pay to see a doctor just for a prescription?
So our fun UGH week of lice and pink eye. I guess it could be worse but that was enough for me.
No pictures because I didn't want to gross anyone out.
