Lice (again and still)

Remember way back in April when we got lice and I washed and rewashed all the sheets, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals--anything soft--and then put them in quarantine for two weeks and I put all the brushes in the dishwasher and the vacuumed all the furniture, including the mattresses, to get ride of the lice we think we picked up from the neighbor.

It didn't work.

I tried to ignore Alice's constant head scratching for a while.  It was dandruff.  Alice is a weird kid--she probably just thinks her head itches.  I did not want to spend 3 hours combing nits out of her hair.

But the day came that it could no longer be ignored. I rewashed her hair with the lice shampoo and gave myself 30 minutes to go through her hair.  We repeated the next week.  Then we missed a week.  Then Rex started scratching.  I checked his head a few times and didn't see anything.  A few days later, I checked Alice's head again.  Nits nits nits.  And then Rex's again.  Worse than Alice's.  I spent the next hour washing and nit combing.

The next day I was playing with Zora's hair when I noticed what could be a nit, or dirt.  My kids don't get a lot of baths during the summer.  Later that night I was brushing her hair and there was an actual louse!  This had gone far enough; not even the baby was immune anymore.  Greg has me check his hair several times a day and changed his pillow case every night (even though the CDC says pillows are not the most likely cause of lice infection).

 I called my sister to ask her doctor husband what we should do.  I knew he'd give us the best answer since we'll be staying at their house for 5 days on our trip.  He recommended Sklice so I called our pediatrician for some.  But she wanted us to come it and see her.  Nope.  It's lice.  I know what lice look like.  I'm a lice expert these days (well at identifying them, obviously not at getting rid of them).  Just give me the drugs!  Finally I got her call in 1 bottle of Sklice.  But our pharmacy didn't have it so I had to call around to find it.  Then Evan called in another prescription for me after I called around to more pharmacies looking for it.

I washed my hair with it last night and put Finding Dory on for the kids Sunday morning while I nit combed all 4 of their little heads.  I found 2 nits but no actual lice.

Evan will call in 2 more prescriptions for my kids this week, if I can find some, since I can't refill mine for 15 days.  When we get to Greg's grandma's house next Monday, we'll wash and nit comb one more time before we go inside.

To be honest though, I'm over it.  I'm glad we'll be gone for 4 weeks so that whatever lice are still in my house and all their nasty nits are gone.  But really, all lice do is itch.  They're annoying but you can't get the plague from them.  So yeah lice, I give up.  I quite.  Suck my kids' head blood.  But I will still cover you in chemicals once a week or else my kids can't go to school, and my sanity can't allow for that.


All gooped up with Sklice.