Chicken Pox: A Diary

Saturday, October 31st HALLOWEEN

I lead a fairly healthy life. I watch what I eat most of the time, ride my mountain bike around town regularly, and even take vitamins every day. I never imagined that I could fall victim to such a debilitating disease as the one I woke up with this morning.

When I looked in the bathroom mirror, I saw that my face was covered with little red spots. No, I hadn't planned on dressing up as Raggedy Ann, complete with her characteristic freckles, this Halloween. I strongly suspected though that my evasion of the chickenpox so far in life had just ended.

At first I was in disbelief. I thought, "How could I have the chickenpox? I'm twenty-four years old, and this is a childhood disease, right?"

MYTH #1: Only kids get the chickenpox.
REALITY: Anyone who hasn't had it can get it. Natural immunity is rare. 95% of Americans get it at some point in their lives. In adult cases, the disease lasts longer and can be more severe. Adults are 20 times more likely to die from the chickenpox than children are.

I rushed to the phone and called my mom to find out what I should look for.

"Mom," I said, "Sorry to wake you, but what exactly do chickenpox look like?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked, as she shook off the sleep.

She told me that the little red dots on my head and belly were probably chickenpox, but I should go to a doctor to find out for sure.

"I didn't actually see your brother's last winter, remember? He didn't want any company. I tried to give them to you guys when you were kids," she said apologetically.

My mom had fallen into the parental conspiracy theory that you should let your kids play with every kid in the tri-state area who has the chickenpox, until they finally get it. We showed her—we never got it as kids.

My older brother is a sheriff's deputy, and he contracted the virus last year while investigating a domestic violence call. He was only in the house with the two infected children for a few minutes, and he started sprouting spots a week or so later.

"How long was he off work?" I asked, knowing I didn't want to hear the answer.

"Two weeks," my mom said.

I decided to take a shower. Big mistake. Any doubt in my self-diagnosis was gone when I got out of the shower. I had twice as many spots as when I had called my mom, and their multiplication didn't appear to be slowing.

MYTH #2: You shouldn't take a bath or a shower while you have the chickenpox because it will spread the sores.
REALITY: Keeping the sores clean will reduce the chance of infection. The act of bathing won't spread the spots, but take care when drying off so you don't break any fragile blisters.

Questions filled my mind as my body became overrun with pimple-like bumps. Who gave me this? What am I going to do about grad school? When is this going to be over? How am I going to explain this to my boss? Do I have the willpower to resist the itching? Why me? Why now?

When I told my roommates what I had, they both laughed. Then they wondered if they could have brought the virus home from work. One works in a day care center and the other is a third grade teacher. Perfect breeding grounds for disease. Then after some thought, they worried that they may take it back to work with them.

MYTH #3: Even if you've had the chickenpox, you can still carry the virus.
REALITY: Once you've had the virus, you can no longer get it (unless you had a very mild case), and you cannot carry it to someone else.

The doctor's office was closed until Monday morning, so I decided to quarantine myself in our apartment until then. Then, if I really did have the chickenpox and not just a bad case of acne, I would ask my mom to come get me and take me home.

I called my friends to tell them I wouldn't be coming to their Halloween party because I had the chickenpox. They laughed. Then they said I should just come as a kid with the chickenpox. Very funny.

I went back to bed. I couldn't sleep with all the chaos going on inside of me, so I started counting the bumps on my scalp. One, two, three…twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six…and on up to fifty-some when I got bored.

Nothing to do until Monday morning. I eventually fell asleep, and when I woke up I had twice as many spots. They were spreading from my head and belly to my chest, neck, and back.

I could feel every single spot. Each one felt like the point of knife repeatedly being jabbed into my skin. On the places where my skin hadn't yet broken out, I felt a constant sensation of static running just under the skin.

MYTH #4: All chickenpox itch.
REALITY: In children they usually do, but in adults they are more likely to hurt.

Sunday, November 1

I tossed and turned all last night. Every time I rolled over, I could feel a new area of knife jabs so I barely slept at all. As I lay there, I could hear a distinct sizzle in my head like bacon frying. That must just be a side effect of all the neurological madness going on inside my body.

When I finally decided to get up, my entire body hurt. My back ached, my head was pounding, and I had a sore throat. To top it all, my skin had transformed over night into an overactive oil slick.

I looked bad.

The first spots that had appeared the day before were now filling with clear pus, the second stage of their development. They reminded me of bubble wrap. I concentrated on not breaking the fragile sores. I did not want to cause scars.

MYTH #5: Scratching chickenpox will result in scarring.
REALITY: Scratching chickenpox sometimes can cause secondary infection which can lead to pockmark scars, but sometimes chickenpox that aren't manipulated can also leave scars.

It seemed like everyone I talked to had some sort of treatment or general advice to share with me concerning my chickenpox. You're contagious until the spots appear. You're contagious until your fever goes down. You're contagious until the last blister scabs over. Take a Caladryl bath. Soak in oatmeal. Don't get them wet.

MYTH #6: Chickenpox is contagious…only at the beginning, only in the middle, or the whole time you have it.
REALITY: From 2-3 days before the spots appear until the last blister scabs over completely, you are contagious through direct contact with open sores and through the air (sneezes and coughs).

I had also heard my share of chickenpox horror stories. One guy I know had the chickenpox so bad that his mom had to find a creative and effective way to keep him from scratching. She had him hold a tennis ball in each hand, and then she put socks over his fists and covered the socks with duct tape. He said he remembers wishing the walls were made of stucco, so he could throw himself against it to scratch his itchy pox.

Monday, November 2

I woke up early today after another night of knives and restlessness. When I did finally sleep, I dreamed of being bounced around in a mosh pit filled with spike-covered punks. Ouch!

My roommate dropped me off at the hospital on her way to work. The doctor quickly confirmed that I had the chickenpox, and he excused me from school and work for the next week to ten days.

Then he called in some medical students to study my blisters. He pointed out the perfect specimen of a "dew drop on a rose petal" on my back. That's what they call a clear lesion on a red, irregularly shaped red spot. What a beautifully poetic description of a nasty pus-filled sore!

Before I left the doctor's office, he prescribed Acyclovir for me. I asked him what it would do to help me.

He vaguely answered, "It will make you feel better."

I called around to all the area pharmacies to check out the price for this mysterious drug, and the minimum cost for the five-day treatment was $100. Since I don't have this much money lying around, I decided to do some research of my own.
From what I read, Acyclovir takes only one day off the suffering and may reduce the number of blisters that appear. I thought $100 was too steep for one day's suffering, so I decided against filling the prescription.

Tuesday, November 3

Some of my earliest spots have reached the third stage, white pus. And I'm still producing more pox. My friends told me that I'd get them "everywhere," but this is ridiculous. I have them on my lips, gums, genitals, eyelids, scalp, and in my nose, ears, and armpits.

My appetite is completely gone now. I've been living on Jell-O and applesauce. These are the only things that don't irritate my raw gums and sore throat.

My mom came to get me today. You know you look bad when your mom says you look horrible. It was the longest drive home ever. I couldn't sit still, but I didn't feel like moving either. I tried to sleep in the back seat to make the trip go by faster. When we finally got home four and a half hours later, I set up a nest of quilts and flannel blankets in my dad's recliner. Ooh! Direct TV.

Wednesday and Thursday, November 4 and 5

The white pus bubbles have reached their fourth phase and started to implode. The center dips in and the blister turns dark red in this stage.

I slept off and on all day and night, drifting in and out of TV land. I'm only drinking fluids now and taking Benadryl and Tylenol every six hours for the intense pain. Luckily my mom's here to keep my juice glass full because I don't feel like moving. Right about now that $100 drug, Acyclovir, is sounding better and better. Too bad you have to start taking it within 24 hours of the initial breakout.

Friday, November 5

I feel like the end is actually in sight now. My appetite is returning and I don't feel so run down. My blisters have reached the final stage: scabs. The oil factory in my skin is drying up, too. Hooray! I'm still sleeping most of the time though.

Saturday, November 6

I'm definitely feeling better now, but I'm still a little weak. I went to the mailbox at the top of the hill today. It wore me out. It's been one week since my breakout, and my scabs are starting to fall off.

Sunday, November 7

My skin is so dry. At least the oil slick is gone, but I'm starting to itch all over. My scabs are still falling off, and everywhere I go I leave a little trail of "me" crumbs. I feel like a snake shedding its skin. I'm just about ready to return to school and work. I'm still spotted, but I now have lifelong immunity. Thank goodness.

Why do we still suffer from this awful ailment? You never hear of campaigns to find a cure for the chickenpox. It's like it isn't even a full-fledged disease. Anyone who can remember having it, especially as an adult, will tell you that it is unquestionably a real disease with painful and debilitating symptoms.

Nearly 4 million people suffer from the chickenpox each year. Most of them are under the age of 13. More than 95% of Americans get the chickenpox sometime in their lives. The average sufferer produces 400 lesions.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? It seems like a simple enough question. In 1995, the Federal Drug Administration approved a chickenpox vaccine, so why not use it?

Some doctors and parents believe that one or two weeks of suffering do not warrant the same treatment as commonly vaccinated diseases such as measles or mumps. They claim that since you are naturally immune after getting the virus, there is no need to vaccinate. Some people worry about the effectiveness and safety of the newly approved vaccination. There is also a concern that the chickenpox vaccine will cause an increase in the number of shingles outbreaks patients may suffer later in life.
MYTH # 7: If you don't get the chickenpox as a kid, you will get shingles as an adult.
REALITY: After you have the chickenpox, the virus lays dormant in your spinal cord. Later on it can be reactivated (by stress or other unknown causes), producing a line of painful red bumps, called shingles, along a nerve. Only 10-20% of people who had the chickenpox suffer from shingles later in life, usually after they are 50 years old.

Other parents and doctors believe that the vaccination should be used on all healthy children and adults who haven't ever had the virus. They claim the expense and inconvenience of caring for chickenpox infected children is a good enough reason to prevent the virus through vaccination. A similar chickenpox vaccination was developed in Japan in the late 1970s and the long-term effects appear to be positive. According to the Center for Disease Control, the current vaccination is 70-90% effective. Those who are vaccinated but still get the virus get a milder case with fewer lesions (less than 50) and recover more quickly.

One final myth: Life is too predictable. The reality is that there are diseases, accidents, delights, and wonderful surprises just waiting to shock you and possibly disrupt your life. Generally plan your life as much as you can, but also try to make the most of life's unexpected twists and turns.

Just when I thought I had my life mapped out down to the day, I took an unplanned U-turn back into my childhood. Somehow surviving this minor trauma showed me that I need to loosen up a little and live more day to day.

References: All "Reality" data was taken from the CDC (www.cdc.gov) or the American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org/family/chckpox.htm).

Rebecca L. Ash
Fall 1998
N-E 220