Sorry about the long hiatus. Saturday, two weeks ago tomorrow, I was loading the Lone Star Baby into the car in bright sunlight when I saw...something. In her hair. Maybe. Well. So much for going to the Art Market. I took her to the porch and started looking.
The long and short of it is that we found two living creatures in her hair, one each on Saturday and Sunday and more of what seemed to be dead debris. We treated all of us with one OTC product on Saturday and, after hearing that it wasn't a particularly good one, another on Sunday. I had reservations, of course, but the OTC stuff seemed like the lesser of semi-reliable evils. I certainly couldn't bring myself to use the lindane. The pediatrician was frighteningly ignorant and casual about prescribing potent neurotoxins which have caused death in people under 110lbs to be rubbed all over my 28-pound toddler's head. No.
Anyway, we combed and combed. We found three of what looked like dead ones in my hair, or possibly like dirt - it's hard to say. We found white flecks on all of our heads but never white flecks that clung to the hair shaft as nits are supposed to do. We are itchy scalp, dandruffy folks at the best of times, so I was a little panicky at when I should decide we were clean when we always have white flecks, but people who should know tell me that I will know the difference. We never found anything living after Sunday, though an we spent our evenings for the next week combing for hours to check and washing bedding and the couch cover in hot water daily. The school said she was clear that first Monday, too.
On the next Sunday, we did the follow-up treatment and checked everyone's heads again. Found nothing but a little dandruff. So I am considering us clean and hoping we are done. Of course the couch or the mattress could hatch in a week and infest us all over again, I suppose, but it seems unlikely and I sure hope not. This has not been fun.
And Lone Star Pa cut the Lone Star Baby's beautiful hair to facilitate the difficult hours of combing. Into a very short bob. With bangs. Sniff.
2 comments:
Oy! No fun at all. I got lice when I was in 6th grade, and I had looong hair. That would have been the good time to cut it all off. I'm glad that the lice are gone-- and may they stay gone!
Oh no! I also hope the lice stay gone for good.
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