A Lousy Experience

My reasons for getting so far behind on this blog are two-fold.  Reason the first: Special Meeting rounds are a bit hectic and leave little time for blogging.  The second reason is one that I originally planned to keep to myself.  However, after the initial reactions, I decided that the whole experience was too entertaining not to share.  So….Reason the second: I got head lice.  There.  I said it.  I sat here for quite a while trying to come up with a “good” way to say it and then decided there is no good way to say it.  There’s nothing good about head lice.  That being said, the whole situation, or at least most of it, ended up being highly entertaining.  Here’s the story, or at least part of it. 

On the morning of Tuesday, March 27, I got the funny feeling that I was scratching my head more than normal.  When our hosts left for work, I hesitantly asked Kayla B. to take a look at my hair.  I hoped that after a quick inspection, she would say, “I don’t see anything.  Your skin must just be dry or something.”  Instead, she said, “Ummm……  I think maybe you should get this checked out.”  “For real????”  “Yeah, I think so,” was the reply.  I must say, it gave me a bad feeling. 

Kayla located a Minute Clinic for me at a CVS in North Myrtle Beach, about twenty minutes away from where we were.  That gave me plenty of time to think about this potential problem as I made my way to the place where the fateful verdict would be given.  Once there, I filled out all the “paperwork” on the computer and waited to be called in, hoping all the while that I would be told I had a bad case of dandruff.  Not something I had ever hoped for before I must say.  However, when the nurse said, “Yep, you’ve got ‘em,” I knew she did not mean dandruff.  She reassured me that it was not that big of a deal.  You can get rid of them; they go away.  “Yes,” I agreed.  “But what if I’ve slept in a different bed every night for a week?”  “Have you???” she asked, somewhat incredulously.  “Um, yes.”  She told me I would need to inform everyone with whom I had stayed of this “situation.”  “Hallelujah,” I thought even though I had known all along that is what I would have to do.  “And what if I’m supposed to continue sleeping in a different bed every night for the next week and a half?” I continued.  “You are???”  “Um, yes.”  She informed me that would definitely not be the thing to do, which I had also anticipated.  “So, I’m also supposed to attend several special church services in the next couple of weeks.  Will that be a problem?”  She told me that would be okay as long as I didn’t hug anybody.  I’ve found that South Carolina is a very hugging place, but I thought I could handle it.  She fixed me up with some special shampoo and a nice little instruction sheet, and I headed home to get started with what would turn out to be a long and exhausting process.

I will try to abbreviate this story somewhat as, in reality, it was quite drawn out and tedious.  So, here are a few of the facts about the rest of Tuesday in list format.

•  Kayla and I both did the lice treatment on our hair.  She went through my hair with a fine-tooth comb (2 hours), and I went through hers (1 hour). 
• We stripped beds, laundered, unpacked backpacks and all the little bags contained within, laundered, vacuumed, laundered, bagged things up, laundered, Cloroxed and lice sprayed, laundered, threw multitudes of items away, and probably several other things about which I have now forgotten.  We cleansed ourselves, the house and the car thoroughly. 
•  Throughout the course of the day, I visited five drug stores, one grocery store, one dollar store and one Wal-Mart to purchase various and sundry items.
• I spent many minutes on the cell phone informing various and sundry people of my problem – people with whom I had been and people who were responsible for making the plans for the upcoming weeks as they would need to make changes since I would no longer be able to make my scheduled visits.  That was a blast, let me tell you!  Everyone was very understanding and compassionate, however, and one kind brother even offered to call all the people with whom I had stayed during the past week.  I was delighted to let him have that job since I had not been looking forward to that at all!
• There was a Special Meeting on Tuesday night, but I did not plan on attending since it was so soon after the discovery of the problem.  For one thing, I was in no way interested in passing along my little buglets, and I wanted to be absolutely sure that there were none left before venturing out in public.  That certainty would require more than one comb-through.  Secondly, I had absolutely no clean clothes.  The washer and dryer had been running all day, but somehow we had not yet gotten to my clothes.  The plan was that I would take Kayla to a nearby McDonald’s to meet up with some folks who would then take her on to the meeting.  Before we left, I managed to throw one of my skirts into the dryer for twenty minutes, and I put it on damp right before walking out the door.  (I had been wearing a beach towel all day.)  J  As it turns out, it was a very good thing I did so because on the way to Mickey D’s, I got a phone call from our overseer who told me that he thought it would be just fine if I came to the meeting.  I did a little “explaining” about why it might be a little difficult for me to do so, but I got the idea that I should probably just go.  So...Kayla and I let the folks know what our new plan was, and sped off with plans to try to find a few things that would make me more “presentable.”  (i.e. shoes to replace the flip-flops I was wearing, a scarf to turn my ensemble into a meeting outfit, deodorant, toothbrush and toothbrush since both Kayla and I had thrown away nearly all of our toiletries in an effort to cleanse our possessions, and some sort of food since I hadn’t had time to eat hardly anything all day and didn’t want my growling stomach to interrupt the meeting)  Making my hair presentable was hopeless.  It smelled like disgusting shampoo and was saturated with gel.  I had it slicked back and pulled into a tight bun, making me look like a plastered onion (or something like that).  I was delighted that this was how I would meet the friends in that area.  Oh well.  Pride is a nasty characteristic anyway; I should be glad for every opportunity to have it checked. 
• After meeting, Kayla and I made a couple more stops for various supplies.  The clerk at CVS looked at the items we placed on the counter (four cans of lice spray, four packets of fine-tooth combs, one “lice-prevention” shampoo and one “lice prevention” spray for the hair) and commented, “It looks like you girls have a little problem.”  You guessed it, buddy!  J
• We finally got to bed around midnight with great plans for a sleep in morning on Wednesday and a few leisurely activities mixed in to the “lice care” chores.

Our dreams on Tuesday night were bug-filled, and there was no sleeping in on Wednesday.  Our early awakening ended up to be quite fortuitous because our day was filled with more lice-fighting.  No relaxing for us!  (Vaughn had kindly planned for Kayla and I to have two free days at the beach.  The thought was nice, but we didn’t get there.)  As Kayla combed through my hair that morning, she discovered a live louse.  That was not supposed to happen since I had done the shampoo already.  I called the Clinic number and talked to a nurse who told me to do the shampoo again, something you really aren’t supposed to do since it contains some pretty strong chemicals.  Oh well, at least my remaining days on earth would be lice free.  Turns out, the CVS brand of lice shampoo isn’t very effective.  This time we went with NIX, the preferred brand.  (If you ever need to know, I would recommend using that kind the first time.)  All the laundering, cleaning, combing, etc. of Tuesday was repeated on Wednesday. 

We had planned to leave the house by 4:00 at the latest on Wednesday afternoon in order to make our supper and Bible study appointment.  We made it out the door at 3:58.  We had worked non-stop since 8:00. 

After the Bible study, we made the 3-hour drive to Greenville, to the home where I would be spending the night for the next week or so.  We arrived at 11:30 with shower caps over our mayonnaise-covered hair.  (More lice had been discovered.  Mayonnaise is supposed to smother them.  Mayonnaise is also greasy and gross and not something you want to put in your hair if you can help it.)  “Lice kits” were waiting for us, and we doused our heads in chemicals yet again (for the third time in two days).  By the time the comb-throughs were completed, it was 2:30 a.m., and we were quite ready for bed!

Things calmed down pretty well after that.  The Thursday check of my hair turned up clean.  Laundering, spraying and other general precautionary habits continued, but the worst was over.  I decided that I wanted to have three days worth of “bug-free checks” before rejoining the rounds.  So, on Saturday, when that had been accomplished, I joined all the other workers for a lovely lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs before returning to my home base.  I wanted to spend one more night in the same home just to be sure.  I enjoyed bagging up all my left-over lice supplies and leaving them there when I headed out on Sunday.  I kept one bottle of shampoo with me and a couple of fine-toothed combs since the instructions say to repeat the process again 7-10 days after the first treatment.  When Kayla pronounced me “BUG FREE!!!!” on Tuesday, April 3, my long (It seemed like longer than it really was, I know.) ordeal with lice was over. 

And hopefully, that’s my final experience with the lousy little critters!!!!

Wow!  That got really long!  Congratulations for making it all the way down here.  I should probably add a few pictures to reward you for your perseverance.

Kayla holds out the offending tresses

I got some interesting hair-do's in the effort to try and keep the "gone through" hair separated from the "to go through" hair!

My outfit for most of Tuesday - a sweatshirt I picked up at the drug store and a beach towel

I was glad that I was in slightly better condition when I got the call about meeting.

One of my many phone calls

If only they could have seen me!

From the back

Kayla takes a quick lunch break.

My room - stripped, sprayed and vacuumed

The laundry room on Wednesday

*Note - A good portion of the laundry had already been done on Tuesday.  I'm sure we racked up quite a water bill!  And also electricity since everything had to be washed in hot water and dried with high heat.  I was surprised that none of my clothes were completely ruined since I had quite a few things with me that I always wash in cold water and never put in the dryer!  

After things had been cleaned, we put them in a separate part of the house.

I covered seats (in the house and car) with trash bags before I sat in them.

More clean items

Poor Fleece thought she might have to live in a bag for two weeks, but after 20 minutes in the dryer, she joined the clean items on the kitchen counter.

Proudly displaying the "purse" that I used while my actual purse was being cleaned.  Kayla enjoyed seeing me walk into all the stores with my envelope.

Getting my hair wet to make it easier to comb through

Expressing my displeasure with all the lice supplies

Vacuuming the bed

Ready to move on

Items that we were not able to launder were placed in bags to be left unopened for two weeks.

Kayla and I pose with our mayonnaise jar after applying it in a "secluded" (or so we thought) parking lot.

A Starbucks stop on our way to Greenville on Wednesday night.

Getting ready to do another comb-through at 1:00 a.m.

It was great to take a little break and make some music on Saturday evening.

My gracious hosts, Cecil and Dot H.

Our Special Meeting crew at Saturday's lunch

It was really nice to rejoin the group!

Perhaps these phrases had a "lousy" beginning?

• splitting hairs
• nit-picking
• getting down to the nitty-gritty
• to louse something up
• to go through something with a fine-tooth comb

I think we came up with some more, but those are the only ones I can think of as this goes to the press.  Any others you can add?  Feel free to comment.  :-)

All done.  Does your head itch?!