Profpointy
Legendary Member
Bah & Harhumph !
Chickenpox !
- Thread starter Profpointy
- Start date
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Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Have you got it ?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Isn't shingles somehow related? Isn't that what us old folk get?
Julia9054
Guru
- Location
- Knaresborough
Hideous medieval disease. Don't know why we don't just vaccinate. (I had it aged 28)
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Yes! My BIL had it really bad and I think he was in bed for a week .
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
I think it can lie dormant and flare up at any time .
vickster
Legendary Member
As shingles
Julia9054
Guru
- Location
- Knaresborough
Caused by the same virus which, after you have had chickenpox, lies dormant in the body and can flare up as shingles when the immune system is weakened (through age or other illnesses )
Profpointy
Legendary Member
You can't get it a 2nd time but it lies dormant and can resurrect as shingles, which I gather is worse, maybe years later. You can't per se catch shingles but you can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles
edit: julia beat me to it by a nanosecond
Profpointy
Legendary Member
Yep - felt ropey at work (working away) and went back to hotel and bed early a couple of nights. Yesterday saw a load of spots and thought hey ho, this aint right. nhs website said book a call back with a nurse - they were very helpfulland thorough but a bit non comittal. Whilst encouring me to see a doctor, there didn't seem a lot of point since, though in late middle age, I'm in good health. To be fair they want to rule out the more serious but rare things like meningitis or tropical deseases. Today looking in the mirror it is pretty obvious it's chickenpox
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Best to be on the safe side.
I came out in spots years ago. I didn't feel bad until one day when I developed a splitting headache and light sensitivity. The docotor came out and checked me for Meningitis but said that it must have been a virus.
Julia9054
Guru
- Location
- Knaresborough
I caught it from my mum who had managed to get to the age of 54 without having it despite growing up in a tiny house with 4 siblings who all had it and being a teacher for many years.
I was 28. I had an 18 month old and had a rare night out with a friend. I had what I thought was a massive zit on my neck so i wore a little scarf and thought nothing of it. Woke up the next morning looking like something out of the middle ages.
Of course my baby got it too so i had to take care of him whilst feeling and looking revolting !
Old vs young skin - I have scars and he doesn't.
I was 28. I had an 18 month old and had a rare night out with a friend. I had what I thought was a massive zit on my neck so i wore a little scarf and thought nothing of it. Woke up the next morning looking like something out of the middle ages.
Of course my baby got it too so i had to take care of him whilst feeling and looking revolting !
Old vs young skin - I have scars and he doesn't.
Tail End Charlie
Well, write it down boy ......
- Location
- In green and pleasant hills.
Get to the docs. I had shingles 18 months ago, at first I had intense stabbing pains in my chest on the rhs which I ignored as it wasn't my heart, then I got some spots and I discounted these as ant bites (I'd been lying on my side whilst gardening), but then more spots and by the time I went to the docs the spots covered my shoulder and side. Whatever he gave me helped, but apparently the earlier you catch it the better. I had six weeks of itching and scabbing, the itching was intense, especially the first couple of weeks. Calamine lotion helps (spell check put gasoline, which is a bit drastic). I've still got the scarring on my back.
Shingles can be triggered by stress, which given I was in the middle of moving house and had been living at my in laws for three months, I'd go along with.