Well, Jerilyn was ready to come home on Friday (at least according to our insurance company).  They took her one-on-one aid off on Wednesday and she did fairly well participating with the groups.  Unfortunately, to add to our list of diagnoses we now have Bipolar. This has been a tough pill to swallow…on one hand, if she is on the right meds they can really help level out her moods, on the other hand, this will be a life-long struggle for her…and us.

You may have noticed that I wasn’t blogging a whole lot last week…now I’m going to let you in on the new crisis that took my attention and then you can all feel REALLY sorry for me. When I went for visitation with Jerilyn last Monday she was itching her head and guess what I discovered….yep….LICE. Ugh!!  When I mentioned that I could stay and help treat her hair….the nurses jumped on that faster than….well, faster than lice spreads to an entire wing of children.

That’s when my night turns from bad to OMG Horrible. They said they’d order the shampoo and have it sent up. I told them I would go grab something to eat and pick up a movie for Jerilyn to watch while I went through her hair. I know I need a movie because, unfortunately, lice has been my nemesis this year. Six months ago there was an outbreak at Ainsley and Daisy’s school that would not die!!! I probably spent 4 weekends having to go through every strand of their hair. I HATE LICE!! In fact my head started itching right now just with the thought of it.  I know you just started itching too, but I’m fairly certain that you can’t get them just from reading about them…but don’t quote me on it….they are sneaky little blood suckers!

Anyway, so after leaving and getting lost approximately three times in a very bad part of town, eating at a McDonald’s where I had to hold my breath when standing in line because the people around me stunk so bad, and then finally making it back to the hospital I find out three things:

  1. They haven’t shampooed Jerilyn’s hair yet….like I asked them to.
  2. The main area which has the TV now also has children on cots sleeping there with the lights turned down low.
  3. Jerilyn has been given her night meds and is totally out.

I go to talk to Mr. Nurse who acts like I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about when I tell him that HELLO…we have to have good lighting and that it’s going to take 1 ½ – 2 hours to pick through her head.  He tells me it won’t take long…really?? Sure…in your world….where you shampoo a kid’s head, take a quick glance, and send him home for his parents to really deal with it. I have two other girls and I am NOT bringing this back into my home!!!

Luckily, there was ONE nurse that night who understood. Why? Because she was a mother of a daughter who had it before, of course. She helped me go through Jerilyn’s hair and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. And boy did I feel for her the next day when I went for visitation…every kid on the wing had lice and she had endless heads to pick through.

When they told me on Thursday that Jerilyn would be released on Friday you’ve got to believe I had an Anti-Lice Plan in place. I stripped that girl in the garage and put the shampoo on her head again. Everything that came home is getting thrown away, washed on “sanitary” cycle or burned. In the name of Jesus….Lice be gone!!  LOL

1 Comment on Jerilyn’s Home, But She Wasn’t Alone….

  1. Oh, and just so you know, after trying every single lice shampoo on the market earlier this year, I am convinced that mayonnaise under a shower cap overnight is the only true fix. I’m sorry if you ever have to use this information because it means you are under a lice attack!

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