Ahhhh, that lovely childhood infection 
Chicken pox (varicella-zoster virus) is usually contracted by kids but that isn’t always the case. Teens and adults can get it too and it’s usually worse the older you are. Better to get it while you’re younger. Back in my day, when a kid got chicken pox, you’d bring your kid to their house to expose them early. Symptoms usually start with a fever, headache, sore throat, and your kid will just generally feel icky. After a couple days, they will get the spots that are the recognizable portion of chicken pox. They will be a blister that will burst, then dry, then scab over. You can expect these spots to appear over the period of about a week. Your child will have to stay home from school until the spots have totally cleared up (scabbed over) which can be as many as 10 days. Again, it just depends on the severity of their case of chicken pox.
The severity of the spots will differ between each person. Some barely get them at all and others will have them down their throats and in their mouths. Can you even imagine??!!?? *shudder* My case wasn’t that bad at all, thank God. 
Since chicken pox is viral, there’s no medicine that will cure it. The patient has to fight the virus on their own which can be hell for parent and child, especially if they have a really bad case. About the only thing you can do is give them the good ol’ calamine lotion and cover the spots with pink goop.
There is a vaccine available for chicken pox that will often greatly reduce the severity if the disease if they contract it. Most kids that get the vaccine get a super mild case and heal quickly.
Now here’s the icky news: if you’ve ever had chicken pox, you are at risk for developing shingles. And I’m not talking the things that go on the roof. Kids can get shingles but most often they are seen in adults. There’s no way to predict who will get them and who won’t which kinda sucks. The thing about the chicken pox virus is that it can hang out in the nervous system in a dormant state. For reasons unknown, the virus becomes active in the nerves that lie just below the surface of the skin. This causes painful blisters to form in large patches of the body. The flare-ups have to clear on their own and are people are contagious while they are having a flare-up so they have to be careful. If they work or live with someone who hasn’t had chicken pox before, they can pass it on.
Did any of you have a bad episode of chicken pox or was it pretty mild? Anyone get shingles or know someone who did?
I had chicken pox when I was about 9 or so – all I can remember is that it itched like crazy, the calamine lotion was icky and my Mom yelled every time I tried to scratch. There was no vaccine then. Several years ago my husband came close to losing sight in one eye from a nasty case of shingles that didn’t get correctly diagnosed until it was almost too late. My grandmother had shingles on her back and sides – it was a fairly mild case but seemed to take forever to go away. After seeing those two cases and having a mild case on my shoulders I’m a firm advocate for shingles vaccinations if you’ve had chicken pox!
Definitely!
Interesting; this is the second time this has come up today and I want to know what you think, Dr. Fab. I have had both types of measles (irrelevant, I know) and chicken pox, but no other childhood diseases, About 20 years later, when I was working at the University of Michigan Hospital, I was exposed to someone who came to work with chicken pox. I worked in Medical Records, as a “runner,” a messenger and we were all over the old hospital and because of the nature of our exposure, and the possibility of lawsuits, we, despite our protests that we had either had the childhood diseases or were immunized, were tested. This was in the early 80s and lots of things like that happened. I digress, What I want to know is this, I found out that I actually showed NO immunities to ANY of those diseases, either type of measles, or the chicken pox. Thus, I was quarantined and not allowed to work for 10 days, although I never showed any symptoms of the disease.
Furthermore, the previous summer, I had been hospitalized for an upper GI bleed. The hospital wanted me to have 2 pints of blood transfused. This was prior to the testing of the blood supply for HIV, but I knew that this was one of the ways that disease was being transmitted. I originally withheld my permission, but both the Attending and the Resident wore me down and I withdrew my objection and allowed the 2 pints of A+ to be transfused. 10 years later in 1994, I found out that 4 people that same YEAR and MONTH were transfused in that hospital and died of AIDS. It’s all water under the bridge now, Dr. Fab and I certainly appreciate and respect the medical community, but not as a whole. I say that because I’m now fighting with neurologists in Tampa over my movement disorder mess; it’s the usual “we don’t think you have fill-in-the-blank-blargle.” I really love what you do in educating us heathens. A doctor is a docere, which you do beautifully. I’ve probably used up my commenting space for this month. Just kidding!
I was an interesting case as I was born two months premature, somehow contracted chicken pox when I was about a week old, and for one reason or another it was learned a couple of weeks afterwards that I was allergic to Keflex. From what I’ve heard from my friends I’m grateful I don’t remember the constant itching.
Knock on wood, I haven’t had shingles yet (unless I was too young to remember) and am not looking forward to possibly having them. Given my odd medical history, I never say never. lol
I hope no one ever gets them. They sound rather horrid!
I have never had chicken pox. My dad said I did, my mom said no… so a doctor tested me when I was pregnant. Nope. never had them. 3 of my sisters got them when they were older… two were in highschool and the other an adult with kids. Her kids got them too… so I knew mine weren’t far behind. I went to the doctor and got the vaccine. Probably should have for my kids, but I wasn’t sure of lifelong effectiveness and they were young. And yes, they got it. I didn’t, so the vaccine worked. I’m not sure what I think of the vaccine for kids. None of my kids had terribly bad cases and while I think some vaccines are necessary… polio, mumps, etc, I also think we are breeding a society where our bodies can’t handle illnesses because they aren’t exposed to anything. Does that sound dumb?
I had Chicken Pox at 23yrs. I was covered in spots head to toe. It was itchy and miserable. I lived in oatmeal bathes lol I had an oatmeal lotion too that worked better and lasted longer than the Calamine. Definitely an experience I never want to have again.
Oh my gosh, 23???? Eeek. I was younger than 8 but old enough to remember, that’s all I can tell ya as to what age I had mine.