Need to know = Chickenpox

I just wanted to say not to worry too much. I don’t know if I would expose them again or not-but I’m not very good at making decisions!

I’ll tell you what happened to us (and we’re all fine now). My son got chicken pox when I was pregnant. I had never had them, and I hadn’t been vaccinated. I had thought about the vaccine for me because I was 30, but I got pregnant so I couldn’t get it. Anyway, the pediatrician said we needed to vaccinate our little girl (2 yr old), and she and I should get out of the house as soon as humanly possible. So my husband had vacation that week, and my little girl and I went to stay with my parents. I thought this was silly since I had slept with my sick son the night before.

Anyway, that week drove me crazy; and I got chicken pox anyway. I was 20 weeks along. It was the single worst thing that has ever happened to me. My 2 yr old got it twice-once from her brother and once from the vaccine (I guess since she was exposed before the vaccine. But both cases were almost imperceptible. My son (8 yr) had no trouble with it whatsoever. He and his dad had a great time spending the week alone together.

They were so amazed the baby came out perfect. She does however have a herpes problem. It’s just like canker sores in her mouth sometimes in clusters for a couple weeks at a time. She does have to avoid acidy foods so it won’t flare up as much. I’m very sure this is because of my chicken pox while carrying her. Also, she has a lazy eye. I have no idea if that’s related. They were more worried about her hearing based on how far along I was. She’s fine with that though.

They did say to give her Lysine when it flares up or to prevent it, so that seems like a good idea. I did get her vaccinated and her younger brother, because I never never wanted to see chicken pox again as long as I lived. I have my reservations now, but it’s too late. That was 12 years ago now, and life goes on you know; with or without chicken pox.

I would suggest not letting someone get too old and not be vaccinated or have the disease. My brother had it at 28, and it was extremely hard on him too. The older you get the worse it is. And at the age I was, the blister stage lasted 3 weeks!! It was insane.

HTH!

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/shingles/shingles-topic-overview

And yes, you can have a very mild case of CP and not know…my niece has only a few blisters! Lucky!

Oh here is some disturbing info on the vaccine:

“The researchers worked out a mathematical model that predicts that eliminating chickenpox in a country the size of the United States would prevent 186 million cases of the disease and 5,000 deaths over 50 years.

However they said it could also result in 21 million more cases of shingles and 5000 deaths.”

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/May2002/VarVaxIncrShingElder.htm