The Puddles

I thought my life was full, but going well.  I had several really good days on a good work flow, dinners on the table, life being good, and then . . . BAM!  I found lice in Madie’s hair.  She had her head on my lap and one crawled across my leg.  If that doesn’t have you grossed out and your head scratching, there were hundreds of them.  There was essentially an army of bugs preparing for an invasion in her beautiful brunette hair. It is so long and thick and gorgeous.  Translation . . . it took a really really really long time to treat her head.  11 hours the first day, almost 3 hours the next, and then after an hour on the third day we found live ones again, so we had to treat her head with chemicals again.  Add mounds and mounds of laundry, excessive vacuuming, more mounds of laundry, spraying pesticides on areas that can’t be washed, boiling all hair supplies, and bagging up stuffed animals and I am one tired puppy.

After the seventh hour of hair cleaning/ bug killing the first day, I finally called the pediatrician.  The nurse told me that we were already doing everything that she would recommend.  She mentioned that a lot of the bugs nowadays are resistant to RID.  Darn.  But after sharing our case with the doctor, the doctor gave us a prescription since Madie’s hair was so bad.  Of course, we called around and none of the pharmacies carried the drug or didn’t carry enough to treat all of Madie’s hair.  So we special ordered it (thank goodness for insurance.  It would have been $180 without it.).  Madie’s hair is in a couple dozen braids so the I can look at one section at a time.  My eyes hurt from the strain of looking. And I am beginning to see lice everywhere.

My worse fear has always been that Madie would get lice. And now that she has it, I pray she never gets it again.  The doctor said the more diligent we are up front, the better of a chance that we won’t have a repeat performance.  Poor Ainsley has no bows to wear for 3 weeks and Madie has to wear her hair up in braids for 3 weeks. Both are disappointed.  I have been searching Ben and Ainsley’s head every day and so far so good.  No lice.  I hope my luck holds on that one. Pray for me if I get it. I’ve shown Chris a million little bugs and nits and he still swears he can’t see them. (Now that I type it, I am beginning to wonder if he is faking so he doesn’t have to do lice duty.)

Madie has really been a trooper through all of this. She hasn’t freaked out too much.  She has been patient. And most importantly, she has sat really still while I looked through her hair.  Let’s hope that this is a phase that will soon be over and we can joke about it when she is 30 and has her own children!