Piojos: Lice :-(

Welp, leave it to me posting about how fine I am without a drier to be smacked down by the gods of humility. I realized at 10:30 last night that Jane and I have lice or piojos.

You need to realize, before I get into the situation, when lice went around in both kindergarten and first grade, I used tea tree oil shampoo on my kids every night and sent Jane to school in tight braids each day. The idea of lice is just one of those things for me. For whatever reason, it grosses me out more than vomit or actual sickness.

So when Jane called me into her room to show me the little “bug” she pulled out of her hair, and when I searched her head seeing lots of little white / yellow nits, I sprung into action. First I pulled up the CDC guidelines as to what to do.

1) Wash and dry everything on the highest setting. I freaked out over lack of a drier and scheduled all bedding and towels to be picked up in the morning.

2) Get a chemical wash and nit comb and GO TO TOWN on the head of the infected.

3) Freeze anything that can’t be washed for 24 hours or put it tightly in trash bags for 2 weeks. We put all pillows and lovies in trash bags and put them in the freezer.

At this point, I new we needed a trip to the farmacia which was closing in 30 minutes. Within 2 minutes, we were out the door. I humbled myself and whatsapped my “gringo spouses” group about what to buy at the store. I purchased two applications of “Para Plus” and had it in Jane’s hair 10 minutes later.

The good news, it seemed to work well based on what I was able to remove. I was unable to find any nits or lice in her hair after last night or this morning – thank goodness.

We have to wait a week and do another round of treatment, and I’m seriously fighting the urge to apply it every night for a week. But as the directions state (in Spanish) that’s not recommended.

There is a business here called Lice Team. You visit twice, get the chemicals applied to your hair, and the professionals remove the lice if they return. We’re not heading there yet. I was meticulous and at this point grateful that the resolution was pretty straightforward, and we have backup options if we need them.

Again, beyond grateful for a community here, even if its just virtual. And as Mark stated at 1am, “Hey, tomorrow’s blog post will practically write itself!”