Head Lice... Eww!

Funny how events can spark memories of your childhood. Over the past couple of days, I have done nothing but relive old memories. From getting in trouble for swimming at the Pump House, to being run over by a 10 speed because I couldn't leave boys alone - I was quite a handful for my parents. But I am sure they loved every minute of it!

One memory that is simply crazy to me is the time I contracted Head Lice.

I was in 5th grade. I had to ride the bus to and from school. No biggie! The bus also had kids that went to another school further downtown. It seemed like I was the only one on my street that got off at the first school - I really didn't like it at all.

At any rate, one day the nurse's office called my mom at work to tell her I had head lice. Mom left work, picked me up and took me to the doctor's. Yep, I definitely had lice. Off we went to the pharmacy to get the nasty shampoo and then home where, for 2 days, Mom constantly washed my hair and sat there with the crazy fine comb, pulling the dead lice out of my head. She also used our Filter Queen vacuum on my head. Apparently it's suction was 'amazing'! lol

Finally, mom took me back to the doctor's and we got the "all clear" and I could go back to school. Off I went...

Less than 48 hours later, mom got another call that my head was packed right full of lice again! She was MAD! Good Lord she was mad. I thought she was mad at me, but that wasn't the case. She was yelling that she was going to clean me up again and I was switching schools and she didn't care what the boundaries were for which schools and what areas! I don't think I had ever seen my mom so angry!

We didn't stop at the pharmacy this time on the way home. Instead, mom went into a hardware store and came out with a brown paper bag. I thought she had to pick something up for my dad so I didn't ask any questions. We got home and mom told me to go down to the bathroom.

I was waiting patiently, when mom came in with a face cloth. She soaked it in cold water, rang it out and then handed it to me. She said: "Here. Put this over your face and no matter what do not pull it off". I did and next thing I knew, my was spraying my head with her hairspray! I didn't know what the heck she was doing, and every time I tried to ask her she told me to hold still and breath in the face cloth.

She was finally done and told me to go out in the living room and to not move from one seat. I did. I must have sat there for a good 3 hours. Mom brought out the vacuum cleaner again and had me sit on the floor in front of her. When she started vacuuming my hair, there was this crazy sound. I couldn't explain it at the time, but now I would say it sounded like she was vacuuming cake sprinkles out of my hair. We sat like this for probably a good half hour or more, then mom sent me in to shower with the nasty shampoo from the last time.

She checked my hair that night before I went to bed and then took me back to the doctor's the next day. The doctor was amazed at how quickly mom got rid of the lice. Said he never knew it could be done and asked what mom did. To my horror mom answered: "I bought a can of raid, sprayed her head then vacuumed them all out".

RAID!!!!!!!!!!!!! ON MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The doctor about had a fit and told mom she was lucky that my hair didn't all fall out, to never grow back, or worse that I might have ingested it. She calmly explained to him what she had me do and it solved the problem, my hair is fine, so no worries. LOL

The doctor gave me the 'all clear' again but instead of going back to my school, mom took me to the school that all my neighborhood friends went to! From that day on, head lice has never bothered me. They must have heard their buddy lice screaming in pain from my head and have decided to never bother me again!

Haha!