Thursday, May 22, 2008

Nitpicking

Today, at work, I was working furiously to meet some frighteningly upcoming deadlines; and, as is the way of things, I received a phone call from my daughter's school.

It was the school nurse. I sighed, feeling sure in my bones that the OG's congestion had morphed into some little fever, AGAIN, and that I was going to have to go get her.

Sadly, I was only half right. I did, indeed, have to go and get her, but - sigh - it was head lice.

I know lots and lots of people who have gone through this, but my family was lucky growing up. Except when I was a teacher, long ago, I've never seen them, and really had no idea what to do, until the nurse told me.

And? Well, all I can say is....ewwwww.

Cripes, this is one disgusting, annoying task to interrupt your badly needed workday. First, there's the shampooing and the pulling the tiny, pulling little comb through the thick red hair of a recalcitrant and hyperactive eight-year-old. Next, there's the washing and/or bagging of every piece of linen in the house, and the stuffed animals, and the pillows. Then, there's the vacuuming of all of the couches and carseats, to be finished off with much MUCH more hair washing for the OG, and all of the rest of us, too, of course. (Then, we do it all again next week.)

And, though neither The Man nor I can see any trace of critters on either of our scalps, our heads are ITCHING like crazy; psychosomatically, one assumes. (Probably also from looking up louse pictures on Wikipedia.)

Cross your fingers for us. (And, if your kids have seen my OG lately...um, check them.)

5 comments:

La Turista said...

There have been a couple of outbreaks at Peach's school over the last two years, and every time I get the email about it, it makes my head itch. Could be a good way to winnow down the stuffed animal collection, though. Hmm.

Karla said...

my head is itching just thinking about it. I was always afraid of getting lice, can you imagine combing my hair with a fine comb? Christ that would hurt.

Anonymous said...

Cooties!
I was going to drop a quick note saying that my head was iching along with you and the man's. Looks like la turista and karla beat me to it. Ha! Humans have been dealing with parasites since before day one (for those of you in the 6000 yo universe) so the 'ick' factor must now be some sort of built-in Jungian thing.
Now I hear that bedbugs are making a comeback because the chemicals nasty enough to control them are no longer labeled. Tough call, that.

Good luck, Mags!
Brian

Anonymous said...

Mags,

I forgot these last few words of caring and solidarity. Here they are:

My skin crawls for you!

Brian

Bookhart said...

Oooh, I'm sorry for your troubles--and have long suspected that we will succumb one day or another.