The Nature of the Beast

Scabies. That's the beast of the month. I've managed to go 10 years in this profession without catching it or it's cousin by association - lice. And now I have and boy was I itchy! At first I thought it was just another round of mosquito bites like always, so I scratched, applied more bug stuff and carried on. Then the spots kept appearing and the itching became worse. Uh oh....what have we here. So I did a little research online and determined it was likely scabies. So I went to the chemist (drugstore) and showed him. He then showed me scabies cream. Okay, good enough. I'll get right on that. He also gave me some phenergan for the itching along with the cream. Failing to read the directions, I came home and applied cream to all the spots. And continued to itch.      Day two - read instructions, realize my error - one must apply the cream to the entire body from the neck down. Great. Let's try this again. So I rub the cream all over the body, and I'm still itching. The cream does not stop the itch, it simply kills the scabies mites and all their friends. So now I was off to the store again, this time for calamine lotion - it might leave whitish marks all over the body but it sure works well. So then I realize that I have not been able to reach my back.
     Day three - text a friend to come over and put scabies cream on my back, I would supply the gloves. That turned out to be too much to ask of my one good friend here who recoils from personal touch, so she brought a friend who could do it (another friend of mine, not some stranger). So lathered that onto my back, and then had to wait. With each application you have to leave it on for at least 8 hours. Then came the waiting until I could finally wash the last of the cream off. More itching and calamine lotion.
     Day four - finally headed back to work. The itching has finally subsided (although not entirely gone) and I was ready for human contact again. Of course, heading back to work after scabies is always fun...people look at you as if you have just come through the plague. I wore sleeved clothing and a long skirt so they wouldn't have to look at it, but they were still itching psychosomatically. Whatever...they will probably get it anyhow, heh heh. I didn't know I had them for weeks, and kept passing it off as more fly bites. I was covered in them on Christmas Day when I had that horrible night camping in Port Pirie - thought I was attacked by mosquitoes - not so much. I was carrying scabies!!! Dammit. Now I have to get my sleeping bag washed out, along with the camping foam cover, and possibly my seat covers in my car. My friend F. who drove home with me from Melbourne is likely going to get them. She is the skittish hands-off friend who wouldn't rub cream on my back. Awww...
     Most people only get scabies in a couple of places, but because I was oblivious to them, and had fly bites to scratch as well, I spread it to nearly ALL of my body. I have spots on my legs front and back, feet, hands, arms, shoulders, all across my belly and even down the crack of my butt...I know, as disgusting as it sounds, it is even more disgusting in person. Even I don't want to touch my body...
     So that was the start to my new year. Scratching scabies...if only having them once made a person immune like chicken pox....the one thing that struck me though is just how many of the kids we deal with here have scabies, often infected and untreated. They have to be downright miserable...poor little things.