my worst fears....

so.. just to make sure i wasn't feeling bad enough about the relationship situation, i get another kicker....in the head...

so most of you who know me, know about my one HUGE phobia... PARASITES!

well.. so my head had been itching for weeks now.. and being allergic to almost everything, i figured that it was maybe my shampoo or new laundry detergent... or just a couple days of dry scalp.. or the water from surfing.. it COULD NOT be lice... even though i work with children infested with them in a community that hasn't had the proper education about prevention of them... IT COULD NOT BE!! so i continued to wait.. waiting for the itching to subside.. but it didn't..

anyway, finally my housemate was convinced that she had them.. very matter-of-fact, without fear of them.. she was going to head off to the pharmacy to buy a comb, so i asked some housemates to check my hair "just in case"... but likely i don't have them, right??

nope...

apparently i was infested with them... 2+ weeks worth just about, maybe more????... and again, may i remind you of my phobia.. not just squeamish about parasites, but like panic attack sort of feelings... anyway, my housemates were awesome in helping me feel alot better and we spent the next 3 hours picking the buggers out and using the shampoo and comb...

can i just tell you I did not realize how freakin' big these bugs get??? I don't remember ever having this as a kid, so this was a first for me.. and it was sort of like the reality was almost worst than the fear.. as fearful as i was about having them, i thought they were maybe the size of tiny dots.. not like.. milimeters long... like the size of rice... :(

also i seem to have an allergy to them because i have a rash all down my neck to my shoulders (...please don't tell me it's somethign else altogether!!! let me believe its a result of the lice.....)

ugh i feel sick just recounting it..

felt just about as bad as when i found out my cat had tape worms... UGH

anyway, apparently this is just going to be a reality.. we're going to attempt to do some more education about lice during summer camp with the kids, but it's just gonna be something i'll have to deal with for the next 7 months....

AND LET ME JUST SAY!>...... that i shower on a regular basis and am very clean ..so it has nothing to do with my personal hygeine! :)

hope you weren't eating while reading this post!



not my picture, but it was similar heh.

good articles: http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/lice/headlice018.shtml
http://www.drgreene.com/21_640.html

oh.. so for my future reference .. here is what i'm doing for removal....
so from talking to mates here, it looks like it's going to be an ongoing problem while i'm here, so rather than using pesticides (which is usually how parents go about delousing their kids...) what i did the first day we discovered the little buggers was to shampoo (actually the shampoo had the slightest bit of the pesticide), condition the hair (to make it easier to comb)... then you start the 3+ hour long process of combing the hair very carefully with this fine tooth comb specially made for lice to get each and every lice out and cover every strand of your hair... the 3 hour process also includes you sitting there with mates picking out the lice with their fingers like monkeys... the nits (eggs) are literally cemented to the shaft of your hair, so you have to carefullly pull very hard to get them off your hair.. the bugs are easier to pull off, but they do move around, so you have to catch them, heh..

this happened on wednesday, i'm doing it again today (friday) and every couple days or so for 14 days (the amount of days it takes for eggs to hatch).. the idea is to catch the baby ones before they become moms to lay eggs again...

i'm the picture of sexiness :)