The "Louse"-y Month that Ended Well

          I love learning, but the things I could tell you about head lice at this point is ridiculous.  It has always been one of my worst nightmares to have to make an announcement about "having lice" to friends and families. This past month, I've walked through a lot of fears (it was kind of been my theme for the month). Mary has brought so much excitement and happiness to our lives. However, this month she brought us itchiness. Near the beginning of September, she complained of an itchy scalp; and being the caring mother of five that I am, I briefly inspected her head. No bugs, no bumps, no white specks meant no problem in my mind. I figured that she just hadn't been washing out her shampoo well enough.
          A week later, Half-pint spotted a louse crawling across Mary's hair part (her visual acuity is amazing). After a doctor appointment due to some serious denial and inexperience on my part,  I sent hurried notes to those we had recently seen (like a new friend I had over for the first time that day, "Hope you enjoyed your visit to our farm...of head lice!") and those we had planned to see. I then made a very quick trip to Wal-Mart for the recommended shampoo. I'm all for natural stuff, but ten minutes till complete annihilation of lice sounded pretty appropriate at the time. However after bagging all of her stuffed items and treating her hair, I felt despair well up within me after I picked live louse after live louse out of her hair with the nit comb (my final count of live lice was over thirty). Since it was midnight by the time I was done, I gave up and went to bed. At 5am, I woke up to a horrible itching sensation.  The pediatrician said I'd know if I'd gotten it because "it's uncomfortable". Oh, yes, I knew!  At this point,  I was convinced these lice were resistant to the pesticides;  so I began googling essential oils treatments. Every site had a different recommendation,  but nearly all of the recommended Melaleuca for both lice repellent and insecticide. Unfortunately,  that is one oil I didn't own (notice the past tense). Instead,  I poured coconut oil and lavender and eucalyptus all over my head.  Then I sealed it up with some Saran Wrap and began texting my friend, begging her to order me some Melaleuca.  Eventually the itching subsided and I calmed down enough to go over the info from our pediatrician.  They recommended Cetaphil if the pesticide didn't work. Yes, we're talking gentle daily facial cleanser. (Here's the info in case you ever need it.) The kids and I traveled 20 minutes to snatch the last two bottles on sale at Walgreens. The rest of the day was a blur of applications,  nit-combing and blow-drying. Fortunately,  no one else had any nits or lice during their wet combing that evening (for the record,  I couldn't find any on my head that night either...but they may have been obscured by the bleeding birthmarks on my scalp line that didn't agree with the cheap plastic comb included in our kit). It's 3 1/2 weeks later,and I'm now starting to consider inviting a families over for playdates again.
           That's not the only buggy issue we had this month. Half-pint has had some swelling in her knee joint that we followed up on with lab work.  Last week, we were notified that she has Lyme's disease (which is being treated with antibiotics for the next four weeks). Lyme disease always scared me, but juvenile rheumatoid arthritis scares me more. At least Lyme disease doesn't mean managing pain for the foreseeable future...or continued doctor appointments an hour away. This was definitely an answer to prayer; and considering the natural tick predators that we've added to our family of fowl (lovingly named "Tic" and "Tac"), we will hopefully not deal with this again. I couldn't resist throwing a picture of their ugly diseased bug killing faces in with this post (I wonder if they eat lice too).
           If you'd have asked me if I was a fearful person , I would've said "No, way!" even after this crazy month of scary things. I went to a conference this past weekend in St. Louis (best Christmas present ever!) and had a wake-up call to how much of my life is driven by fear. I picked up a copy of Joyce Meyer's new book, "Living Courageously", which covers the topic. I'm only about halfway through it, but I really love it! I'm currently meditating on Psalm 56:3 (pg.33): "What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You." After all, who knows when the next bug will strike?

           Because I didn't want to keep this book all to myself, I picked up an extra copy to give away too...so if you'd fess up to one fear in the comments below,  you will be entered in the drawing (which an unsuspecting child of mine will randomly draw). The drawing will take place next Friday morning (the 10th),  and I'll announce it in the comments below. I also decided to give up linking these blog posts to my Facebook account.  It's only really showing it to two or three people anyway (it's weird how they determine who to show what); so if you were encouraged (or know someone who needs some lice sympathy) and want to share this,  feel free. I won't stop you. I might even "like" it.