Chez Connor and Helen has just wrapped up what I hope will be the shortest and mildest case of lice ever. Wish me luck, because nothing less than my sanity is at stake here. And I'm wishing you luck, too. Consider this my public service announcement of gratitude.
On Monday, I received a note from Connor's classroom rep indicating that lice had been found on some children in the class. Connor was outside making a snowman, so I quickly emailed my mom friends so they could talk me off a ledge. They did. Thank you. Although I had hoped one of them would email "you have been given the ability to wind time backwards and have Connor never exposed to lice", that did not happen.
But even in my panic, I was able to remember that I had tools! In June, 2010, I attended a blogging event for DC Metro Moms - a site I wrote fewer than 10 posts for before it collapsed. While it appears I spent more time tasting cupcakes at that event than anything else, I did remember having a little shiver creep up my spine when the founders of Lice Happens gifted me a comb during that event. I politely tucked the comb away, and prayed that I would never need it. Because lice? That's creepy.
I am nothing, if not an over-reactor in situations like these. I had Connor remove all his clothes before entering the house, and gifted him with a new set upon crossing the threshold to what I hoped was our lice free abode. I didn't know, yet, that lice can't actually hang out and live for a long period of time, so even if Connor's head had been riddled with lice (and thank goodness it was not!), lice weren't going to set up camp in my home, or they would die. They need to be close to the scalp.
We ate dinner, and then I set about using The Comb. And I found four living lice, and about 10 nits (eggs) - and because I wasn't sure I was using the comb correctly, and because I was still freaking out underneath, I called Lice Happens and I talked to a co-owner of the company, Nancy, for a long time. She really did calm me down. She answered a lot of questions that I had and she agreed to have someone at my home the next morning at 10:30. I was actually hoping she'd hop in her car and come right over, and I did ask, but she assured me that this morning would be sufficient. I might point out though, that while this is completely logical on her part, she wasn't the one with four lice recently discovered on her kid.
Also, I should note that I never would have seen these lice by inspecting his head. The only reason I found them was because of that comb. Connor had no symptoms (classic ones would have been an itchy head or a red scalp) to give me a clue he had the little buggers on his head.
I combed Helen's hair - though not as thoroughly as Connor's hair since I knew reinforcements were on the way, and found a couple of nits. That made it official that she'd be staying home from school. Then Helen started sobbing, because Helen LOVES school, and it was such a tease to send her yesterday (first day after two weeks off) and then not let her go today. And, to make it worse her friend's birthday was possibly scheduled for today, and missing that would be awful. Luckily, it's actually tomorrow. I called the mom of the birthday boy and asked about the party and when she queried "why do you ask" (she's a reporter for a major newspaper and it is impossible for her not to ask this at any given opportunity) I said "I'll tell you, but let me warn you - what I am about to tell you can never be unheard or unlearned - are you sure you want me to continue". Yes, yes she did. And when I told her, I could actually feel her shiver. She can't say I didn't warn her!
After the kids were in bed, I continued combing and found a louse on Ed's head. I decided it was OK to be freaked out again and was thrilled that I had decided to call someone who knew what they were doing in for help. This morning, when Connor normally would've snuggled up next to me in bed, I told him I'd wake up instead. Having lice on your head can work to your advantage (from Connor's point of view), as it turns out.
This morning, Kara from Lice Happens showed up and found 1 additional louse on Connor's head and one louse on Helen's head. She found 2 - 3 nits on each of their heads as well. She found nothing on my head, Ed's head, or our au pair's head. And here, I have to hand it to my au pair because she was awesome, working this morning when she should've been off AND not freaking out at all.
Because we didn't actually have many lice, and because nobody in my house has long, thick hair - the whole appointment took an hour, which meant it wasn't too hard on the pocketbook - though it certainly wasn't cheap. I'll be submitting the expense to my FSA and getting reimbursed via that. And even though it seems like I probably could've solved this on my own, I would've had a nagging feeling that I missed some AND my head would've been sympathy itching for days, so I'm glad I ponied up the bucks to eradicate the problem. My sanity is worth way more than the price I paid.
I'll be doing follow-up combing for 2 weeks, and hopefully there won't be any new bugs. I'm a lot calmer now than I was when this episode began, and I will now be decreasing my list of parenting challenges that I thought I could absolutely not handle by 1. (Ironically, my friend Vickie and I were chatting about lice over Christmas and I was definitely no way, no how, I am NOT dealing with those gross things.)
So here it is - my ringing endorsement of the company Lice Happens. They have a 24 hour a day lice line (443.510.4480). I hope you never need it.
Elaine
As a side note, I emailed the mom of someone Connor had a playdate with over the weekend even though the likelihood of spread was infinitesimally small, and she replied "I'll check the boys, but I doubt they have it. And don't worry - almost everyone gets these at some point or another". That, in case you don't know, is a very comforting email to read.
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Spread the Word! Free Lymphedema Sleeves for Low-Income Women
Last January, my former nanny - Rani - died from breast cancer that had metastasized to her brain. As mentioned on this blog earlier, she was uninsured, and received much treatment and care - but all of it was just too late to change Rani's outcome.
I've had the opportunity to learn more about insurance and breast cancer in the intervening year, and what I've learned most recently is that some breast cancer survivors will suffer from lymphedema - painful swelling of the arms. And sometimes, the appropriate medical treatment is for them to wear a lymphedema sleeve.
Only these sleeves aren't often covered by insurance.
And this means that if you happen to have the double whammy of not being well-off AND getting breast cancer, you might not be able to actually get this medically necessary lymphedema sleeve, because it's expensive. Had Rani survived, this would have been the case, unless someone purchased them for her.
You can read more about the issue here.
So, Susan from ToddlerPlanet got together with Sue from Laundry for Six, and together they put LympheDivas (maker of cool-looking lymphedema sleeves that Susan wears) in touch with Crickett's Answer (charity that pays for services for women with breast cancer) and now there's a way for low-income breast cancer survivors to get free lymphedema sleeves.
If you know anyone who you think might need these sleeves, please have them get in touch with Crickett's Answer. I've been told there are hundreds of sleeves waiting to be shipped out to women who need them.
If Rani were alive today, this is something she most definitely would've benefited from. I'm sure there are more women just like her out there. Let's find them!
Elaine
I've had the opportunity to learn more about insurance and breast cancer in the intervening year, and what I've learned most recently is that some breast cancer survivors will suffer from lymphedema - painful swelling of the arms. And sometimes, the appropriate medical treatment is for them to wear a lymphedema sleeve.
Only these sleeves aren't often covered by insurance.
And this means that if you happen to have the double whammy of not being well-off AND getting breast cancer, you might not be able to actually get this medically necessary lymphedema sleeve, because it's expensive. Had Rani survived, this would have been the case, unless someone purchased them for her.
You can read more about the issue here.
So, Susan from ToddlerPlanet got together with Sue from Laundry for Six, and together they put LympheDivas (maker of cool-looking lymphedema sleeves that Susan wears) in touch with Crickett's Answer (charity that pays for services for women with breast cancer) and now there's a way for low-income breast cancer survivors to get free lymphedema sleeves.
If you know anyone who you think might need these sleeves, please have them get in touch with Crickett's Answer. I've been told there are hundreds of sleeves waiting to be shipped out to women who need them.
If Rani were alive today, this is something she most definitely would've benefited from. I'm sure there are more women just like her out there. Let's find them!
Elaine
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Strangest Night of My Life: Health Care, a Kidney Stone, and more!
As mentioned, I went ice skating last Sunday with the little people, followed by skiing the next day. Only, I didn't really ski because I spent my time passed out in the lodge in lots of pain. The pain came and went in waves, until finally, on Thursday, I called my primary care physician.
Only, even though I am part of the insured elite with one of those really great federal health insurance plans, I couldn't get in. Apparently - and I did not know this - if you don't see your primary care physician at least once every three years, they dump you. Because I go to my midwife for all my well-women care, and I am rarely sick enough to require a doctor in my zip code, I don't go to a primary care doc. Instead, I call my brother-in-law's excellent diagnostic phone service. And here, I should mention, if my brother-in-law regrets becoming a doctor, it is totally my fault because I am always calling him for free medical advice. If he's not immediately available, my sister tells me what to do because being married to a doctor is just about the same as being a doctor - or at least she thinks so.
Anyway, on the advice of my brother-in-law, I went to the ER. And actually, I went to the Urgent Care clinic first because I felt guilty about going to the ER, even though my brother-in-law told me that my problems needed to be attended to in the hospital, not a clinic. (Apparently I don't always take his advice.) The urgent care clinic sent me to the ER. See how smart my brother-in-law is?
After arriving at the ER with book in hand and a full bottle of water, I settled in to start reading. It was, unfortunately for me, a busy night. I finally got seen by a doctor and after I spent a few minutes apologizing for being in the ER and explaining how I didn't have a primary care doctor, blah, blah, blah, the doctor spent a few minutes apologizing for my wait. Of course, I was all - hey - I'm a mom of two. I haven't sat and read a book cover to cover in years. This was the most relaxing night of my life.
Well, at least after they loaded me up with pain meds it was relaxing. About this time, Ed called me to tell me a stabber was loose in our neighborhood, so he was locking the door and I should be careful when I came home. Yes, he was totally calm about this. I had visions of being stabbed in my driveway looking for my keys because my jerk husband decided to lock the door so he could go to bed while I sat in the ER.
One CT scan later and with three prescriptions and a referral to a urologist in hand, I was released from the ER with the knowledge that I had a 7mm kidney stone. For the record, most people complain about a little 2mm or 3mm stone. So, mine is like the mother of all stones. The ER doc couldn't believe I'd made it so long before coming in, until I informed him I gave birth at home and had a pretty decent pain threshold.
I went to the 24 hour pharmacy, and my night got even weirder. On my mind, of course, is the knowledge that there is a stabber loose in my neighborhood. I pulled up to a very empty area of the pharmacy parking lot that was well lit and glanced around to see if there were any people between my car and the front door.
All Clear.
So I got out of my car and immediately, a guy called out to me - and he was on the passenger side of my car and here is where I about lost it completely. Because, uh, stabber? Hello? He told me a long story about his dad and a heart attack and Raleigh and I have to admit, I wasn't thinking that clearly, so I asked him if he was trying to get directions to North Carolina because I really am not good at directions.
No, no directions needed. He needed gas money. At this point he was within a few steps of me and it was so strange, and nothing added up, so I reached in my wallet, gave him $20 and figured he would leave me alone and I would live to tell the story. (Which I have, obviously.) Only, he then asked me who else I knew in the neighborhood that he could get money from and I looked at him and said "It's midnight, dude. People are sleeping." And he explained to me that he needed a tank and a half of gas and I actually stood there for a minute trying to figure out how many miles away Raleigh, North Carolina was and tried to then convert my $20 into gallons of gas, and then convert that into miles he could drive, to see how close he'd get, only I have no idea how far away North Carolina is, nor do I know how much gas costs because Ed's job is to fill the gas tank, not mine!
Anyway, the strange parking lot guy kept asking me for advice, and I was busy performing math in my head and finally I sputtered out - "Why don't you get in your car and start driving?" and I high tailed it into the pharmacy, after assuring him that I was not going to give him my name and address because he really did not need to pay me back and if he felt he must, he should just donate the money to a needy organization.
Once inside the pharmacy, I replayed the conversation a few times, and it kept making less and less sense until finally I decided that he would be standing outside the pharmacy, ready to murder me and take my prescription drugs and money. And now, rather than being a helfpul gas-money giver, I was actually an ENABLER of some bad drug habit, which made me feel really guilty. So I thought about calling Ed and waking him up to ask him to come escort me the 15 feet from the front of the pharmacy to my car, only then another customer was leaving and I just pretended like we were best friends and tailed it out with her, but not before putting all but $5 in my front pocket and tucking my drugs safely away because I somehow convinced myself that maybe I would just get mugged instead of murdered, and this way it wouldn't be so costly.
I got to my car, drove the few blocks home, and then once again sat in the car and looked around for the on-the-loose stabber and cursed Ed because he actually turned the lights in the driveway off before he went to bed. The man leaves lights on all day long when he is not even in the house, but manages to turn them off after alerting me to the fact that a stabber is on the loose in my neighborhood. Go figure.
Somehow, I evaded capture, and tried to relate this all to Ed when I got home about how lucky he was that I was still alive, and by the way, I'm having surgery in a few days for the mother of all kidney stones, and the next morning? He remembered nothing.
Tomorrow is the big day that that little stone will be lasered out. Ed will actually bring me home this time, so I don't have to worry about strange encounters in the pharmacy parking lot and stabbers on the lam in my neighborhood.
And that's why I didn't post anything for homemade Friday this week. It shall return next week - and it might just be a picture of my kidney stone!
Elaine
Only, even though I am part of the insured elite with one of those really great federal health insurance plans, I couldn't get in. Apparently - and I did not know this - if you don't see your primary care physician at least once every three years, they dump you. Because I go to my midwife for all my well-women care, and I am rarely sick enough to require a doctor in my zip code, I don't go to a primary care doc. Instead, I call my brother-in-law's excellent diagnostic phone service. And here, I should mention, if my brother-in-law regrets becoming a doctor, it is totally my fault because I am always calling him for free medical advice. If he's not immediately available, my sister tells me what to do because being married to a doctor is just about the same as being a doctor - or at least she thinks so.
Anyway, on the advice of my brother-in-law, I went to the ER. And actually, I went to the Urgent Care clinic first because I felt guilty about going to the ER, even though my brother-in-law told me that my problems needed to be attended to in the hospital, not a clinic. (Apparently I don't always take his advice.) The urgent care clinic sent me to the ER. See how smart my brother-in-law is?
After arriving at the ER with book in hand and a full bottle of water, I settled in to start reading. It was, unfortunately for me, a busy night. I finally got seen by a doctor and after I spent a few minutes apologizing for being in the ER and explaining how I didn't have a primary care doctor, blah, blah, blah, the doctor spent a few minutes apologizing for my wait. Of course, I was all - hey - I'm a mom of two. I haven't sat and read a book cover to cover in years. This was the most relaxing night of my life.
Well, at least after they loaded me up with pain meds it was relaxing. About this time, Ed called me to tell me a stabber was loose in our neighborhood, so he was locking the door and I should be careful when I came home. Yes, he was totally calm about this. I had visions of being stabbed in my driveway looking for my keys because my jerk husband decided to lock the door so he could go to bed while I sat in the ER.
One CT scan later and with three prescriptions and a referral to a urologist in hand, I was released from the ER with the knowledge that I had a 7mm kidney stone. For the record, most people complain about a little 2mm or 3mm stone. So, mine is like the mother of all stones. The ER doc couldn't believe I'd made it so long before coming in, until I informed him I gave birth at home and had a pretty decent pain threshold.
I went to the 24 hour pharmacy, and my night got even weirder. On my mind, of course, is the knowledge that there is a stabber loose in my neighborhood. I pulled up to a very empty area of the pharmacy parking lot that was well lit and glanced around to see if there were any people between my car and the front door.
All Clear.
So I got out of my car and immediately, a guy called out to me - and he was on the passenger side of my car and here is where I about lost it completely. Because, uh, stabber? Hello? He told me a long story about his dad and a heart attack and Raleigh and I have to admit, I wasn't thinking that clearly, so I asked him if he was trying to get directions to North Carolina because I really am not good at directions.
No, no directions needed. He needed gas money. At this point he was within a few steps of me and it was so strange, and nothing added up, so I reached in my wallet, gave him $20 and figured he would leave me alone and I would live to tell the story. (Which I have, obviously.) Only, he then asked me who else I knew in the neighborhood that he could get money from and I looked at him and said "It's midnight, dude. People are sleeping." And he explained to me that he needed a tank and a half of gas and I actually stood there for a minute trying to figure out how many miles away Raleigh, North Carolina was and tried to then convert my $20 into gallons of gas, and then convert that into miles he could drive, to see how close he'd get, only I have no idea how far away North Carolina is, nor do I know how much gas costs because Ed's job is to fill the gas tank, not mine!
Anyway, the strange parking lot guy kept asking me for advice, and I was busy performing math in my head and finally I sputtered out - "Why don't you get in your car and start driving?" and I high tailed it into the pharmacy, after assuring him that I was not going to give him my name and address because he really did not need to pay me back and if he felt he must, he should just donate the money to a needy organization.
Once inside the pharmacy, I replayed the conversation a few times, and it kept making less and less sense until finally I decided that he would be standing outside the pharmacy, ready to murder me and take my prescription drugs and money. And now, rather than being a helfpul gas-money giver, I was actually an ENABLER of some bad drug habit, which made me feel really guilty. So I thought about calling Ed and waking him up to ask him to come escort me the 15 feet from the front of the pharmacy to my car, only then another customer was leaving and I just pretended like we were best friends and tailed it out with her, but not before putting all but $5 in my front pocket and tucking my drugs safely away because I somehow convinced myself that maybe I would just get mugged instead of murdered, and this way it wouldn't be so costly.
I got to my car, drove the few blocks home, and then once again sat in the car and looked around for the on-the-loose stabber and cursed Ed because he actually turned the lights in the driveway off before he went to bed. The man leaves lights on all day long when he is not even in the house, but manages to turn them off after alerting me to the fact that a stabber is on the loose in my neighborhood. Go figure.
Somehow, I evaded capture, and tried to relate this all to Ed when I got home about how lucky he was that I was still alive, and by the way, I'm having surgery in a few days for the mother of all kidney stones, and the next morning? He remembered nothing.
Tomorrow is the big day that that little stone will be lasered out. Ed will actually bring me home this time, so I don't have to worry about strange encounters in the pharmacy parking lot and stabbers on the lam in my neighborhood.
And that's why I didn't post anything for homemade Friday this week. It shall return next week - and it might just be a picture of my kidney stone!
Elaine
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