Monday, February 23, 2009

Itchy, itchy head

Last Saturday I had an itchy head. Thought I had nits so I went to see our school nurse. We ruled out headlice and she thought it was dandruff, so I began using Scott's Head and Shoulders. But my head kept getting itchier and itchier.

Today, at work I went back to the nurse, she said I had no dandruff, but she thought I had ringworm. Ringworm! Two of our colleagues have shingles so we needed to rule that out too.

I left school and headed into our local clinic where the doctor started to examine my head using his regular hand and a tongue depressor to lift my hair. He excused himself for a moment and came back with 2 colleagues. All of them came back wearing gloves and face masks! That's a little scary. The doctor told me he's like to send me for a consult with a dermatologist, but he thought I had scabies, only he didn't know the word scabies, instead he said, "little bugs tunneling in your head." What a terrific verb tunneling is - so vivid.

The dermatologist took one look at my head and said that it wasn't scabies, ringworm or shingles. In fact he didn't even need to look at my head to rule out scabies because people can't get scabies on their heads. Turns out I had a bit of a dry scalp and a serious allergy to Head and Shoulders. Got some antihistamines and I'm good to go.

What a drama!


Here's Blake using his new stool to climb up to the top of the bookshelf. That's where we keep the medical books and he was just trying to help.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like quite an ordeal!!! I'm glad you have it all sorted. Hope your head is feeling easier soon. Do keep away from those shingles too if you can -- they can be really nasty especially on the head and/or face. That's how Aunt Rose lost the sight in her one eye.
    How many tumbles has Blake taken off of that little climbing apparatus. He looks as if he is about to do a backwards dismount. Gymnastics is great background training for any number of sports. Super job Hossacks 3
    Hugs & Kisses
    G'ma & G'pa

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