OMG- I hope you can handle my saying this was absolutely hilarious to read. I am quite visual with my reading and your descriptions were wonderfully detailed. Your next week has to be better!

When it rains, it pours. Ah, to have your engery would be a blessing, but not your panic attacks. lol lol

Hang in there!

Oh my; sorry you had such a freak out week! I used to do day care and twice kids brought lice in. And one of them had slept in my bed!!! Things can only get better.....right?? :) Hope they do!

LOL it's like a soap opera and while I feel bad for you, I have to admit it was all very entertaining.......Hope things lighten up for you soon.

It's just on-going fun and games here.

Oh Sunshines, if only it was true. I have no energy. Between the heart issues, diabetes issues, immune system issues, and plain-worn-out issues I often have to force one foot in front of the other to just get through the day. But the thought of bugs did motivate me.

I was ready to burn the place down. Of course, I'd get caught and go to jail. I worked at a 1,200 inmate facility for seven years. There are bugs in the jails so even arsen wouldn't solve my issue.

The plumber just left. He did get the drain open but he was in no way "professional." Well, he did charge "professional" prices. He didn't want to get his shoes wet; he didn't have boots. His feet were too big for Wes' rubber boots. I told him the water was 6" deep when I called him.

He kept huffing and puffing and was having a harder time breathing than I do. The wet boxes were in his way, so he stood by and watched while I pulled and pushed and managed to get them to higher ground. Didn't offer to help even with the lighter ones.

He snaked two of the main drains. This old house seems to have three. Interesting.

I am so fortunate to have a lady come to "help" me with housework for four hours every other week. I'm going to call her to see if she'll be willing to help mop and bleach the basement floor. It was all "sink" and "washing machine" water so I don't feel bad asking her. If the bathrooms had been involved I'd be doing it all myself.

Juellie - You're a brave woman. I don't know how I'll react if someone wants to bring a child here now. I can't go through this again.

What do I do? Run the kids through a sheep dip tank and shave their heads before they're allowed in the house? I'm sure some moms may raise their perfectly arched eyebrows at this solution.

Does anyone have an underground source for just a little DDT? I'd love to have a few ounces for "emergencies."

You sure have a way of describing your problems!

Reminded me of Erma Bombeck's tribulations.

I can't decide which was worse, the cooties or the fraidy-cat plumber.

I think if I were you I might put a sign on the front door: "COOTIES HERE!! That would keep them away!

Sue

Caroline, am I correct in assuming you did not raise any children? I think you really over-reacted to the head lice but it was comical reading. My DS had very light blond fine hair as a child. Periodically, a note would come home from daycare or school about a case of head lice. He never did catch it even though his coat was hung next to the person with the lice.

My older daughter got head lice when she was in second grade. The school sent home a note that these cooties had been found on several children at her school. So I looked in her hair. I found a yucky microscopic transparent "lobster" sitting in her part. Frantic, went to local drug store and got the fine tooth comb and some headlice shampoo. Treated everyone in the family except DH who refused treatment. Washed all sheets in hot water, vacuumed like crazy, all the stuffed toys went in the dryer. We survived but I have since gone gray.My dog once ate some fruit rollups and developed nasty diarrhea. Luckily these events happenmed at different times. When my Dad was dying of liver cancer, my parents dog got sick and their stove broke. Three disasters at once, my poor mother.

My son had lice twice when he was a kid. I went through the entire process of debugging the entire house. Shampoo, nit removal, boiling sheets, brushes, etc. It was exhausting and I couldn't figure out where he was getting them. It turns out my neighbor was training as a nurse at a city hospital and was helping to bathe homeless people. She brought them home and she and her kids had them. SHe didn't even know it, in spite of all her kids scratching like crazy. My son had gone over there and picked them up. Blech.

I told the school the entire story and they called her and told her not to send her kids back until a doctor had certified them as clean. It was awful.

My poor Mom holds the record for most disasters in a row -- my father (the jerk)left her at age 60 for a young woman, then her mother died, then her beloved dog died and then while we were at her mom's funeral in another town, her house was burglarized and ransacked. I don't know how she held up through it all, but she did and she's going strong at 94.

Life is a kick in the butt some days.

When my kids were young the director of the after school care program told me the kids often got lice from a day at the movies because they sit so low in the seats.

Well, I'm not tall either. So, I do Netflix. :-)

Jodi-

Sue VA - No doubt about it; the cootie-scare was the worst event of the bunch. How did the cute word, "cootie," come to be associated with nasty, blood-sucking bugs? That's just wrong.

There go my knees; I'm itching again.

Linda in Iowa - You got that right, baby! LOL No kids for me. Along with all the other reasons I chose not to have children, I can now add this problem to the list. If I wasn't post-menopausal, I'd get my tubes tied now.

Over-react? ME? LOL I didn't even include all the measures I took to ensure there were no bugs dropped from that little gal's head.

I feel for all you moms that have had to go through this, and especially the ones that faced it time after time. I'd be even more crazy if I was having to protect kids from these things.

One of my friends, a young, blonde, Barbie-like creature with the most beautiful children, and the most beautiful home, came by to encourage me by telling me about all the lice episodes she endured as a child.

She also told me as a teen she got headlice from an airplane trip. The passengers were informed the airline discovered the problem after their flight. Now I hear about the theater seats. Just seal me in plastic and ship me to northern Alaska.

Okay, I'm off to shower again. I got some great flea shampoo at PetCo. The dogs have never needed it (they use Frontline) but I've been using it as a preventive measure.

Hey, Caroline, ease up on the pesticides!! Really, you're ok but they could bring on other issues. I wish you could hear my voice as this sounds like a chastisement and it's not; I'm just concerned that you're using too much of them and you've had other health problems.

One of my dd's had one heck of a bad weekend last summer. She had recently found out her boyfriend was killed in a motorcycle accident, then discovered she had lice (she teaches,) AFTER staying at a friend's parents' house for the weekend. She was mortified and disgusted and had a good ol' meltdown. Unfortunately (fortunately?) she was across the country so all I could do is try to soothe her and offer advice over the phone. She had to beg her roommate to check her head every day and used the pesticide only once, I believe, then followed up with olive oil. She washed bedding but was too busy to do much else even though she was still disgusted. No one in her house ended up getting them and no one at the house she visited ended up with them. She was so mortified to have to inform them of the extra "visitors."

After a week has passed and you have no bugs, there's no way you're going to get them so you truly can relax and concentrate on getting 100% well!

Oh Caroline, I feel for you!!!
Not having kids, nor been exposed to head lice, I don't know if I could have done what you did, to protect yourself. You were a virtual whirl-wind.

I had to read your tale of woe out loud to my hubby. Have you thought of writing children's books?? You have a fantastic way with words and as visual as all get-out.

You even put Harry in your story! I like the air-freshener to his tail part.....

After working at a 1200 inmate prison, you would let a few little lice scare you that bad? With all the communicable deadly diseases inmates carry? I unfortunately am not phased by lice. After having many patients with them, and DD having them twice, they don't rattle me. In fact, when she came home from Ukraine in September, she brought those little buggers home for a visit. So we had international cooties in our home, lol. It sounds like you've had a rough time, I hope your week gets better.

Believe me; Harry's tail needs the air freshener. He's been clearing the rooms on a regular basis. He even shocked poor Sam, and Sam is the crown prince of stinkies.

Harry didn't eat breakfast or dinner today, and he's still running frantically to the door, but his gastric woes seem to be abating. I'm going to offer him a spoonful of canned pumpkin in a bit.

That was a home made pecan pie...just bursting with light and dark Karo syrups, sugar, eggs, pecans. None of the ingredients, except maybe the eggs, are puppy diet approved.

Oops, I think I meant "fazed" and not phased.

Years ago at one ER where I worked, police would frequently bring an infant in to be cleared by the doctor before it was taken to the children's shelter. While they were waiting to be seen, I would offer to change the baby's diaper or give it a bottle. (I have always been nuts about babies). More often than not, when the infant was examined, it would be found to have scabies. These were infants whose parents had just been arrested for drugs or other things. I never once got scabies from holding those precious babies. One of the docs told me that, except for the male docs with very hairy forearms, most did not contract scabies from patients mainly because they showered daily.
Also, many years ago my DS and his then-girlfriend had been sleeping on my living room floor for a couple of nights when they couldn't find a friend's couch to sleep on. DS then told me they both had scabies. I helped them get prescriptions for the lotion that gets rids of them and then told them to wash their towels in hot water. We shared the one bathroom in my house. I also vacuumed the floor they slept on. I wasn't panicked and I did not get scabies and neither did the young student who rented a room from me.

I'd rather deal with the flood and Harry than deal with the lice. Now I'm starting to itch! Years ago my daughter had a friend sleep over. The next afternoon the parent called and said the hair cutter told them she had lice. Cleaned like a madwomen-never had an issue. I wonder if Harry would et another pie if given the chance? I know Sparky would!

I am itching just reading this. My mother always told me not to lend my comb to anyone because I might get lice.Never had lice and raised two kids w/o getting it, but I'd probably freak too. I'm more worried about bedbugs though. You can get them from movie seats and in hotel rooms. They are so hard to eradicate. What I do have is the occasional flea on my six pets. I comb them a lot and use Frontline but seem to never completely get rid of them.

Honestly, stop with the pesticides. Our school system has been saying for years that _one_ pesticide treatment on the hair followed by fine combing, laundering bedclothes and towels as normal, and disinfecting hats will do it. You don't have to sterilise the whole house. The lice can't live long off a host anyway. All those pesticides are going to make you sick.
Also, if your knees are itching it's definitely not lice, as lice are site-specific having adapted to live in particular kinds of hair. So head lice are different to pubic lice, aka "crabs", for instance. Unless you have head hair growing from your knees, you can be sure they are cootie free :-)

oh, I so get the pesticides...

My girls had head lice when they were in grade school, and in middle school.

To this day, when my head itches, I get lice shampoo, and give myself a treatment, "just in case".

You do write very descriptive, like Ima used to.

I am so glad, it sounds like it is about over for you. Hang in there!

Moni

I agree, don't go crazy with Raid and insecticides. We literally killed a wonderful dog with Hartz Mountain. She was always scratching, occasionally I'd see a flea on her. Hubby insisted on putting Hartz Mountain powder where she slept (in our room). One day she was wheezing. I took her to our vet, who thought she had asthma. The wheezing got worse, vet did an Xray and found lung cancer. It soon spread to her brain, she had seizures that required medication. She died within 3 months of the first wheezing episode. We still feel guilty. It was probably the Hartz Mountain dust.

Well I had head lice myself! We took a trip to NYC and I caught them (I think) from riding the bus.
I survived!!
Last year we brought fleas back from Chincoteague.
I about turned this place into a toxic waste dump. Hate to tell you - but fleas are getting immune to Frontline. They are gone for now - but I have a feeling they are waiting in the yard for warmer weather.
The Chincoteague vet sold me Trifexis. Anyway, it's flea killer and heartworm med in one pill. It kills all live fleas on the dog immediately.

Oh you missed some!

Iowagirl, you're Mean! Hahahhaa Poor Caroline will slam her computer shut when she sees those!

Fleas are getting immune to Frontline. In addition I give dogs Sentinel prescribed by the vet year round. The fleas are gone now, but wait till the ungodly summer comes with heat and humidity. And I will not bomb the house. I use NO pesticides anywhere at any time.

You're probably right Jannie about Hartz Mt killing your dog. They have killed many animals with their products. I almost killed a little kitten years ago. I immediately dunked her in water and she was okay.

I agree with laying off the poisons Caroline! You are going to cause damage to you and your pets. I understand getting the heebie-jeebies, but if you were going to get lice, you probably would already have them.

Tea tree oil is a great natural deterrent for lice, btw. You can put it in your shampoo and conditioner.