The "L" Word.

Well, our time has come. We've caught the dreaded LICE. We've made it until until Lily's 2nd grade year before it hit. I should be grateful...and I am...but right now, after a full week of dozens of lice treatments, I'm just frustrated. It started out that Lily was exposed pretty extensively to lice...and for a couple weeks afterwards, we were watching and praying it would skip us...then last Monday morning she said her head was itching. So, I looked...and saw a GIANT bug on her hair. I almost puked on her. I don't handle bugs well. That began our journey of eradicating the enemy. We treated with Nix, coated hair in mayonnaise and let it sit for 4 hours, combed and combed and combed with olive and baby oil. Then I took bedding and toys and have been washing and drying non stop, using the steamer to clean everything else, spraying stuff with furniture spray and spraying ourselves with peppermint oil. Eoghan and Jim got their hair buzzed as a precautionary measure, I treated Fiona just to make sure she was bug free...and thankfully she was. Then last Wednesday, I combed through my hair just to make sure I was clear...and wouldn't you know, I found a big ass lice clinging to a piece of hair for dear life. I about crapped my pants. I called the doctor to have them phone in a prescription for lice shampoo (this is killing us financially) and after 2 full hours of calling the pharmacy and our clinic's phone line to reach the doctor, we finally got it squared away. So I go to Walmart to pick it up...and insurance won't cover it. It's over the counter. OMG! If I had known that it was the same stuff we had used before, I wouldn't have been bugging the shit out of the pharmacist and doc all night! I was annoyed. Thankfully my mom was willing to help me out and treat my hair. I tried doing it myself and ripped out tons of hair. Now, after a week of hell...I found freshly hatched lice in Lily's hair. I have been defeated. So we started over. Washing, cleaning, combing, itching, crying. I had to have my hair treated again and combed out. My hair is pretty long right now, and since it's so thick, it takes a ton of the special shampoos and a full hour of combing to get through it all and still not be done. I've decided I want to get my hair cut to help make it easier...but now I'm stuck. Can't go get my hair cut with lice, but can't get rid of the stupid lice and need my hair cut to cut costs of treating. I'm hoping that I can find someone willing to come to my house to cut my hair for me...but I'm not holding my breath. I'm at my wits end with it all. I hate the dreaded call of shame to tell people that we've discovered lice. I'm mortified that we've passed it along to another of Lily's friends. I'm ready to buzz everyone's head to be safe and bug free lol. I feel like we've been dealing with this forever, and it's only been a week. I read somewhere that it could take up to 6 months to finally get rid of everything. omg. 6 months of this would kill me. Thankfully the kids are off for the next 2 weeks...so I'm thinking that since we have nowhere to be, we'll be spending today with our heads covered in mayonnaise and a plastic bag, cleaning the crap out of everything I can. I'm ready for a nap. :(