Monday, April 20, 2015

The great lice scare of 2015

I've been living in panic mode for a week now. Last Monday when I picked up Emmie from a playdate with her friends the mother informed me that her daughter had lice. I panicked. And then she told me that she was planning on treating the lice that night. I panicked more. Then she told me that her daughter had been given lice by her son. Who she suspected had had lice for nearly a month. Then I thought about how Owen was in this son's class at school and had been there playing a few days prior. And then my panic reached crazy high levels.

 The thought of lice in my kids hair has got to be up there on my list of worst nightmares! While I'm still not sure what my friend was thinking in having a playdate at her house with lice running rampant, I will say that I know she had had a terrible and stressful week. Maybe she just wasn't thinking clearly... But needless to say. I have still been a little on edge all week. I have spent the last 7 days checking heads of hair, freezing backpacks and jackets, and using smelly lice deterent shampoo. All in an effort to dodge the lice.

 So far I've been successful. But I still worry that we're not completely in the clear. I think I reached my highest level of panic when I found this in Emmie's hair one morning. My sister has recently had a run in with lice in her girls hair. So I immediately called her and txted her this picture.

And then when I still felt that she needed to get a better look at it I took it to her house. We determined that it was a booger. That's right. I went to my sister's house and made her look at Emmie's booger. Gross!!

I might be a little bit crazy... I will be glad when I have determined that we are no longer in any danger of getting lice. And I'm sure my head will stop itching as well.

5 comments:

shellydinger said...

Thank you for the good laugh at your expense. That is so gross - but I am so glad that you haven't actually found anything yet (aside from Emmie's little gift).

Alene said...

Lice is the worst. (Yes, I speak from experience). And just so you know, you don't often see the actual bugs unless it's a really bad case, so you usually have to tell you have lice by the little eggs (nits) stuck to the hair. You can't really see those until you've had lice for a couple of weeks, because the insects lay the eggs on the hair at the scalp level and you can't see them until the hair has grown out a little. But if you did get them, I'm guessing that you killed any bugs before they even had a chance to lay eggs, when you used the shampoo and froze backpacks, etc.

EJ said...

I would have flipped out!! I had a similar thing happen with a friend whose kid had strep (though lice is probably worse). The booger thing is pretty hilarious, though.

Melanie said...

Lice is my number one fear as a parent. I am super super paranoid about it and I'm constantly checking my kids' hair and telling them not to touch other kids' heads, share hats, etc. Really it's not the lice that freak me out, but that I KNOW I would have a nervous breakdown if my kids got it because of the enormous cost (time and money) it takes to get rid of it. Ugh... Now my head itches.

I also bagged something up I found in Colin's hair and took it to a lice expert friend for examination. Luckily it wasn't lice or a booger - just a beetle.

KT said...

Oh my goodness, Jess! Lice is seriously my worst fear too! I would be going completely crazy too! I just cant imagine how that would affect my family with our 6 kids. JUST KILL ME NOW! I can not even think about it without having major anxiety! I hope you continue to be unaffected! And booger.....hahahahahahahaha!