I thought only old people got shingles

kim — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:30:38 +0000

I obviously thought wrong. Last week, my daughter showed me a little bump under her arm, but I wrote it off to razor burn. Then she got a lesion on her back, and I wrote that off as a bug bite. When her left front and back upper torso all broke out, I thought it was poison ivy/oak from playing in the park and took her to the Urgent Clinic. Being the weekend, we waited an eternity for the doctor to tell us it’s shingles, and there was nothing we can do about it. Nothing?

I then researched shingles to read that anyone who has had chicken pox is at risk, but shingles itself is not contagious. I used to work in a dermatology office where we’d treat elderly for shingles, usually brought on my stress, so knew there surely had to be something to stop my daughter crying from the hurting and itching.

So, I made an appointment with our local physician assistant who prescribed Acyclovir (an antiviral med), Prednisolone (steroid) and Triamcinolone Cream. She is now on her way to recovery! Once a person has shingles, they aren’t likely to have them again, thank God.

Even though stress is the main culprit to aggitate shingles, it can occur for any reason at all. Being a single mom of four, I’ve been my fair share of stress, but have never had shingles, but I’ve also never had the chicken pox!

If you read Macy & Mallory’s NICU story, they had to be given the VZig antibody to ward off the chicken pox since my then three-year old son broke out lesions. When I said I had never had the chicken pox, they wouldn’t let me see the babies until I had a blood test showing I was immune to the varicella zoster virus. So either I acquired the immunity somehow or else I had a mild case of the chicken pox at some point in time and my mother nor I never knew it.

The VZig was only a temporary prophylactic, and because the twins were given that, they couldn’t be given Chickenpox varicella vaccine to ward off the disease permanently. They eventually contracted the chicken pox in second grade and missed picture day that year.

My daughter’s shingles…

Related Article: Mailbox Monday video about my daughter with shingles

Preemie Twins Blog » chicken pox

I thought only old people got shingles