stomach bugs and hair bugs

My Friday night plans were rearranged when McK threw up.

I started feeling sorry for myself and complaining about the whole thing, but then I quickly stopped myself short. She got sick on a weekend, not on a school day, and since I'm currently in the negative for days to take off work, this was a blessing.

The whole ordeal really wasn't too terrible. But when I finally got to lie down in my bed (after I had cleaned her up, the toilet, and her bed, started a load of laundry, and made her a bed of blankets on my floor), I had a very vivid flashback.....

March 2009.....I had endured the race, the finish line quickly gaining on me. ASC's second deployment was almost up. One Friday night in particular, the girls, one by one, started getting sick. Throwing up sick. Not always making it to the toilet in time sick. Repeat on Saturday. Repeat on Sunday. Monday we had to all stay home, but the girls were on the mend. I, on the other hand, was simply and purely exhausted. Loads of laundry, cleaning, holding back hair, and no sleep consumed what was supposed to be my weekend of relaxation. (Not when you're a single mom, though).

Four days later, on Friday night, I was not in much better shape, but I at least had all the laundry put away. I sat down on McK's bed to read her a bedtime story.....and it didn't take long for me to realize that a nightmare of my own was playing out in front of me. I looked at McK, I mean, really looked at her, and I knew for certain that I saw something move in her hair. I peered closer, and yes, there it was again. It was a bug. Actually, it was worse than that. She had lice.

Lice.

There was no way my kid could have lice. We were clean people. They didn't bathe every single day, but we were clean. We brushed our hair every day. We had clean laundry (especially then, after the flu fiasco just days before). Lice? It was the absolutely nastiest thing ever. Sent shivers down my spine. No way my kids could have lice.

Now I was paranoid. Checked R's head, just in case. Yep. Darn little critters were there, too. Lice. K's head? Lice. We were, apparently, infested (more shivers).

It was already 8:30 at night, and my kids needed to get to sleep. I didn't even have a clue what the next step was. I needed time to research, needed to call my mom, the school nurse, etc. I did know, however, that things needed washed.....again. I sent the kids to bed with clean sheets and pillowcases and hopped on the Internet. What I found sent shivers down my spine (again). Lice could stay on a soft, cloth surface for 24 hours after leaving a human head of hair. Lovely. The washer (hot water cycle) and dryer (hottest setting possible) were going all through the night. I slept with the one blanket in the house that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, could not possibly be infested. It was a long night.

My Saturday was busy with lice treatments. Yes, I was going to douse my children with pesticide in the attempt to de-louse them. Wonderful. First, though, I bought a special spray for the upholstery in the car and my furniture. Sprayed those areas daily from then on out. Each girl's lice treatment itself lasted about 3 hours. Tedious, painful work. I cried. They cried. We took a break to eat lunch and supper. I cried some more. The treatments had to be repeated again in 2 weeks. Talk about anticipation......

Laundry, laundry, laundry. Every single cloth surface my girls came into even close contact with, I had to clean. I had never before been a germophobe, but now, I was downright paranoid...but I had to be. Bedsheets were replaced each morning for a brand new set.....for a month. Stuffed animals were packed in a trashbag to sit and wait in the darkness of the garage...for a month. All of them. No matter what sentimental ties my kids had to them....they all had the same sentence. DAILY, I say, daily, I had to go back through my girls' heads. One by one, I had to pick through whatever I found, removing the eggs, the nits, and the bugs themselves. I thought I had no sleep before this was discovered.....

My pediatrician recommended either A.) slather the girls' heads with a mixture of Vaseline and mayonnaise, cover their heads with a shower cap, leave on overnight, and then wash in the morning with Dawn dish soap, or B.) come in and get a special prescription that might cause brain damage. The first option made me laugh. Did she know that I was dealing with children here? Children who A.) wouldn't let me put that on their heads to start with, B.) would certainly not sleep overnight with that AND a showercap on their head, and C.) deal with what their hair looked like after meeting Dawn. Option two wasn't any better; I figured I had already messed up my kids enough on my own accord that I didn't need a dangerous medicine to make it worse.

I stuck with the daily regimen of removing "stuff" from their noggins, laundry, and little sleep.

Aaron called home at this point, and when I told him what had been going on at our house, he was silent. "Are you going to be mad at me if I tell you that I'm kind of glad I'm not at home right now?"

Wow, dear. I felt incredibly loved.

At the two-week mark, I re-did the treatments. Again, it lasted all Saturday long. I cried again.

At the three-week mark, Aaron came home. He got to experience first-hand how to help me with the nightly hair inspections. He didn't enjoy it any more than I did, and I was an expert by that point.

At the four-week mark, the girls were officially lice-free. It felt freeing. I felt like I had a "clean" family again.....except my head really was itching. I wasn't worried, however. Since childhood, I've had eczema, a dry-skin issue, on my scalp, so an itchy head was no reason for me to worry. Aaron asked if he should check my head. He could if it'd make him feel better.....but I didn't have lice.

"Heidi, you have lice."

Lovely. Large tears fell down my cheeks. I thought I had been so careful in taking care of my kids and their bugs, but now I was infested, too.

Take all of the previous actions, and repeat....except Aaron did the work, and I had to sit there and endure it. He even had me check over his hair once or twice....which took about a minute flat to do. He managed to stay free and clear of those nasty bugs.

Those weeks of bugs, whether in the stomach or the hair, were my lowest point during ASC's 2nd deployment. What purpose did they serve? I guess it just made it even better to finally welcome him home.