Worried I may have chickenpox...

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Hi,
Sorry to hear you are not feeling great. My experience of chicken pox is that the incubation period is bang on two weeks - so if you can pin point when you saw your friend and her son that would give you more of an idea.
My daughter started with headaches, neckache, grumpyness, and the next day had a few spots on her chest. My son started exactly two weeks later with a small spot on his neck, no headache, grumpyness etc.

Have a warm bath, that should bring the spots out. And if you do have chickenpox, you must let your doctor know, as it tends to be a different ball game in adults.

Hope you feel better soon

annie

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Thanks Annie,

.....it's been two weeks since ...... I think I had better make an appointment at the docs just in case.

Love Nicky
x

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Hi Nicky, I caught chicken pox a few years ago & it was awful, like you my body ached, particually pain in my back & then I woke in the night covered in spots that looked liked blisters & we so so so itchy[:'(]...it was a real nightmare!! You really must get to the doctors, chicken pox can be quiet nasty in adults

Hope you feel better soon[sm=hug.gif]

Love
Amy

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Well, I have definately got something as I'm sitting in bed covered in itch red blotchy things. Will see doctor tomorrow morning hopefully. I did try to get an appointment today, but they have a stupid appointment system, even if you may be contagious it seems, so I'll have to call at 8.30am to see if I can get seen.

As it's now 2.14am I had better go to sleep or else I won't wake up in time to call the doctor. I can't believe how fast this thing develops. I've put some germolene on as it has anaethestic in, I'm not itchy all over,but it is begining. Wish me luck at the doctors. As a friend said to me tonight, I can't believe it's taken me 35 years to get chickenpox!

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Let us know how you get on, and i hope you start to feel better soon.
Calomine lotion works well with chicken pox.

annie

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Thanks Annie.

Yep, it's definately chicken pox and since seeing the doctor this morning I seem to have a gazzilion more spots.

I have been in sever pain across my chest and shoulders, but now spots ave come up in these areas the pain is not so great.

I'm finding calamine lotion very soothing and might try aloe vera gel a little later.

I look like a walking dot to dot!

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Oh poor you...what a nightmare..I remember having the posts on my scalp, soles of my feet...infact everywhere & it was really really unbearably itchy:(, camomine didn't seem to help me an awful lot, I discovered Eurax cream which was a tottal blessing

Hope you get better soon
Love
Amy
xx

RE: Worried I may have chickenpox...

Nicky,

Yep Aloe Vera gel would do the trick as well.
And the pain should start to disapear now the spots are appearing.

You poor thing, take it easy and let us know how you are doing.

annie
xxx

Chickenpox update and what's been useful

Hi, I now have 100s (literally) of spots/ blisters some of which are forming scabs.

It is still very painful, I'm having antihistamine, paracetamol, lavender essential oil baths and have also made a blend of calomine lotion with roman chamomile and lavender essential oils. I have also tried aloe vera on the newly forming scabs and this does seem to help the itchyness for a while.

I'm not sure how to cope with the ones in my hair, of which there are many. I have very long hair, which I'm keeping tied up. I really wanted to wash it yesterday, but couldn't face using shampoo. The spots/ blisters are absolutely gigantic on my scalp and I didn't want to distrurb any scabs that might have formed. In the end I just sank down into my lavender oil bath. It felt wonderful and my hair seems fine. I haven't attempted to brush it, nor will I for a few days I think, but the condition ironically looks quite good.

I've also been recommended to have oatmeal baths (not tried this yet, no oatmeal).

The above are all very useful for dry skin conditions like eczema too.

It seems to be very very painful just before the spots come out, then it feels like a mass of bee stings as the blisters form, then it starts to itch like mad as the scabs form.

I was told the spots will come in waves. But being me, they are coming in tsunamis!

Love Itchy Nicky
x

PS
There seems to be nothing like a dose of chickenpox for focusing the mind and I have been able to cope amazingly with things at home over the last few days, which some of you will know about.

RE: Chickenpox update and what's been useful

I had chiceknpox twice when I was young; the first time I don't remember but I was 17 second time round and I will never forget the itching! I ended up wearing socks on my hands to provide some light relief - it was intolerable.

A big empathy moment coming your way!

The chickenpox are going, but I'm so much worse....

.....yesterday we had to call NHS Direct who called out an out of hours doctor. The doctor phoned at 01.30am but by then I was feeling much better. I have severe head and neck aches, and I mean severe, very nausous (I was actually ill 4 times yesterday) and very very dizzy and hot. Paracetamol did nothing in the end. Even lying still in a dark room hurt and the room felt like it was spinning.

We were worried it was encephalitis which is a problem sometimes with adult chickenpox. Thankfully, I don't think it is a the pain/ nausea comes on in waves and I think with encephalititis its constant pain.

I had felt much better this morning and so we didn't go the our local doctor. However, as the day has gone on I have had the headaches come back again, though no way near as crippling as yesterday. I am calling for an appointment tomorrow morning and hopefully Mum can take me there and back. If I am feeling rough again I won't be able to take myself there, you see.

I am taking nurofen, as the doctor yesterday on the phone recomended, but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

I'm sure I'll be fine (I'm practicing being positive, can you tell), but it's awful having an underlying feeling of pain/ nausea. Actually I think the nausea is the worst bit as I can't move around properly. I have so much work to do and the stress of worry about that alone is enough to bring on a headache so I'm really trying not to worry and just to get better.

I have just taken some more nurofen and am going to try, as I feel a little better right now, to do some work. If I feel awful I'll stop. I thought, well, I've done the lying still and that worked for so long, how about trying carrying on as normal as see how far I can get. I can see how easy it is to get a "poor me" complex and resign yourself to being ill. I've had so many serious things waste years of my life. I've decided I'm not going to be all weak and feeble, so while the nurofen IS doing something, I'll try to press on.

RE: The chickenpox are going, but I'm so much worse....

I think if you are feeling soooo bad, you should bypass the GP and go straight to A&E. I had chickenpox aged 36, and it was the most ghastly experience! The only thing that helped the itch, was lying in a tepid bath for an hour with half a packet of scotts porridge oats in it!
I was hospitalised for 24 hours at one point, as the pain in my head & upper body was so intense, I was given IV pain killers and saline solution, as I was very de-hydrated.
Both my small daughters got it before me, and they breezed through it (youngest daughter has very fetching scar, just where a bindi would be!) - I didn't know I had not had it as a child............NOT a good experience. I do wish that people would let friends and family know when they have chickenpox in the house!

Let us know how you get on.
J xxx

RE: The chickenpox are going, but I'm so much worse....

Hi,

Well last night I was A LOT better. I still had a headache, but it was nothing compared to before.

This morning I felt quite stiff and painful and had a little headache, but on the whole felt better.

I went to the doctor and he said that the severe headaches and nausea/ vomiting were not to do with the chickenpox.

We are hoping that what ever it was, has gone.

I am still getting headaches (this afternoon I had to go to bed), but he reckons that these are migraines to do with stress. I have begun to get migraines over the last month or so (the Wednesday headaches were so much worse than the migraines I had been experiencing by the way).I'm taking nurofen for symptomatic relief (althought it didn't seem to work completely earlier today, but I have just had some more and am begining to feel better).

I am a little worried as to how to cope with migraines in the long term. I don't want to keep taking nurofen. The doctor asked if I ate lots of chocolate, cheese, tea and coffee or citrus fruits, and I don't, especailly during the last 2 weeks, so that's why he thinks it could be due to stress.

I might check the forum out to see if there are any suggestions for migraine sufferers.

Thanks for your support,

Nicky
x