Of Lice and Men – Part II

It’s time to finish the story we began in Part I.

After my first post my wife was going through my daughters hair one by one looking for nits and she found a tiny louse, and this was after the 2nd treatment of Nix, but my daughters hair was very long so I wasn’t completely surprised. My wife kind of freaked out, but it was only one louse and it had just hatched, you could tell because was so small. I’m pretty sure the sulfur soap killed it (more later).

Anyway, my wife called the doctor and the doctor prescribed Malathion (an organophosphate pesticide) but that was it, I put my foot down. I wasn’t going to put so much pesticide in my daughter that a parasite feeding on her blood would die, nope, not going to do it. Remember that word, Malathion, we’re going to come back to it later in this blog post. Already she had had two poisonings using Nix and I told her it was time for the buzz cut. So, I took the trimmer and we shaved her head to a hair length of 1/16th of an inch, trust me, that’s bald.

Well, she had no living lice on her and there was no hair for any nits to be attached to, problem solved. She had showered with the sulfur soap just before we cut her hair and I’m pretty sure that killed it because it was gone. However, rather than play cat and mouse with the hatchlings we nuked the little b@#@#$rds.

I said to her, “Let’s not poison you to death and find out at age 16 you wind up with leukemia or cancer or something, it’s not worth the risk” and she agreed. So we shaved her head. Actually, she kind of likes the new look. Surprisingly, no kids made fun of her at school, and that was the part that worried me. She is definitely out of the woods now. In fact, had everyone listened to me there never would have had to have been a single treatment of Nix. If you get lice, trust me, just shave your stupid head near bald and be done with it, what’s the big deal? It’s only hair and it will grow back.

Now, even the doctor mentioned that Malathion was pretty toxic and only used as a last resort. I sure was glad we didn’t use the Malathion. Well, look what popped up in the news not a week or so later.

Study: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure

See this link for more …

Remember Malathion from above, here’s the more part …

Kids exposed to above-average levels of pesticides, particularly those found on widely consumed varieties of fruits and vegetables, appear more likely to suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a new study.

Berries, whether fresh or frozen, along with celery and peaches are only a few of the fruits and vegetables containing significant levels of pesticides. Now a study published in this week’s issue of Pediatrics indicates that residue from these chemical compounds can be found in the urine of most Americans and seem to be affecting the neural development of children.

The study builds on previous research that reached similar conclusions, but it’s the most comprehensive analysis thus far of the suspected link between pesticides and ADHD, which afflicts an estimated 4.5 million American children. Rates of ADHD have increased consistently since the 1990s.

A team of researchers at the University of Montreal and Harvard evaluated 1,139 children, ages 8 to 15, for six key compounds that comprise 70 percent of all food-based pesticides. Of the study participants, 119 met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, a condition characterized by academic struggles, impatience and difficulty focusing.

They found widespread connections between each pesticide and ADHD susceptibility. And ADHD rates actually doubled among kids with higher-than-average levels of a common compound called malathion.

So, all that fresh produce we think so highly of, well, not so hot. In fact, my wife has been feeding the kids lots of strawberry’s and that really concerns me.

But let’s stay on track here. If you ever get lice and your doctor tries to prescribe you Malathion make sure you consider the side effects, especially for your children. They keep saying “Lice are becoming resistant” but I think the way we treat the infestation is well …, just stupid. Shave your head and be done with it. Sure, you should wash your sheets and stuff for 10 days just to be careful but why poison yourself. However, that being said, on the the other hand maybe they are becoming resistant because we are slowly building up our pesticide levels in our blood and they are becoming used to it such that we practically have to kill ourselves to kill them.

Of Lice and Men

Well, my daughter brought home lice from school. Here’s how it went down. After surviving and conquering Morgellons almost nothing can phase me now. This event is told with a little humor but it’s all true.

My wife comes up to our room in the morning and says “Now, don’t get upset, but XXXX has lice”. I looked at her and said I’m not upset. Now, you have to know how afraid of this kind of stuff I was pre-Morgellons, it terrified me. I think that is why the Lord allowed me to go through the Morgellons experience. My wife kept her home from school and called the doctor, the doctor said use Nix. Well, my wife did and that evening went to comb out the nits and there were still live lice. The treatment had failed right out of the box.

About that time my younger son says his head itches, I’m like, that’s it. So, I grab my beard trimmer and shaved his head bald, I’m talking hair shorter than 1/16th of an inch, he had no lice. I go downstairs in the downstairs bathroom and did the same to myself. I’m like to heck with that, I don’t want any part of it. Being a man certainly has it’s benefits sometimes. I shaved my head darn near bald. My older son of course cares what he looks like and wanted no part of it. We checked him and checked him, he didn’t have it. Turns out only my daughter had it.

However, the Nix had failed, we called the doctor and she said the next thing would be Malathion, a very toxic pesticide, and I’m like no-way, I know too much now to let her be poisoned like that. So I Googled lice and natural cures and guess what came up, Sulfur, and I knew it would. In fact, they use sulfur dips to treat cats and dogs that get it. I had a bunch of my sulfur soap bars laying around (like spare ammo) and gave her one and told her to go suds her hair up, leave it on 10 minutes and rinse, guess what, all lice dead, gone, eliminated. She should be out of the woods now as we haven’t seen any in 10 days or so (since that very shower). I’m pretty sure we could have eliminated them without Nix by simply using my Asufre/Sulfur soap (10% sulfur). My wife has been using it too just in case.

Now, I love my wife very much don’t get me wrong and I hope this doesn’t sound too cruel. But she was in a panic, freaking out, doing laundry massively, on the border of a nervous breakdown for a week, and I took a certain pleasure in seeing her freaking out (only a little mind you). To be honest I was like “Lice? that’s it?” You want to experience something scary I’ll tell you what’s scary. Imagine this, the feeling of a million bugs crawling under your skin, there’s no Nix at CVS that you can run and buy to make it go away, there’s no doctor going to help you, there’s no cavalry coming over the hill, and unlike being fixed up in 10 days this sensation goes on for years, and you not only feel the crawling but you also become sicker than a dog, now that will cause you to freak if it doesn’t destroy you altogether. Now, top it off with your loved ones not believing that what you are experiencing is real and your in a mess, and all alone. I think maybe for just a moment, she understood what I had went through. Anyway, I’m lucky to have her.

All is well at home again although I look like I was just drafted into the military, but me and my younger son kind of like our new hair style.