The doctor confirmed what I had feared and told me it was shingles and gave me some meds for it. Within 2 weeks I was all better. I know what you're saying "That doesn't sound so bad... why was shingles what you had "feared" the rash was?" Well, because my husband had never had chicken pox as a child which meant that both he and George could potentially catch chicken pox from my shingles.
After talking to the doctor, and getting a blood test done to confirm that Ben had never had the chicken pox, we decided that the best thing to do would be for Ben to get the chicken pox vaccine. That was December 23.
Ben's mother had come into town for Christmas this year, and a good friend of mine had passed away unexpectedly... so I admit, I was very distracted... Ben had been complaining of headaches, had been coughing a little and had been very sick to his stomach.
It wasn't until the 27th when his mother had left to go home that I noticed "the spots" and I started to piece things together. First it was one on his back... then a few around his temples... and by 6 pm that evening I called my parents in a panic to come and pick up George until we were sure what we were dealing with. Ben called the doctor right away the next morning. At this point I would say he was about 60% covered in chicken pox.
Our doctor wasn't available that day so we saw another doctor in the practice. He told at first that he had a "severe case of acne"... and was extremely reluctant to say that Ben had chicken pox. He even went to "consult another doctor in the practice" and still would only say that Ben was probably only having a "mild reaction" to the vaccine. He told Ben to take Benadryl for the itching and Tylenol for pain management.
After 2 days my husband was now about 95% covered and in so much pain all he could do was lay down and close his eyes. He hadn't eaten in 3 days and his fever wasn't going down,.. even after taking Tylenol. We went back to the doctor and saw OUR doctor this time. Interestingly enough though, the nurse who saw Ben first said there was no mention in his chart about having chicken pox... which means that the doctor we saw earlier in the week really thought that Ben just had acne... sigh.
The doctor walked in and withing 2 seconds said that Ben had chicken pox and that we needed to get him on 3 different prescriptions ASAP. He also commended our decision to send George to my parents (something the other doc told us wouldn't be necessary... grrr).
Long story short after being on the meds just 24 hours Ben went from t
his...To this :)
Ben got better and better each day, and finally George could come home again!
We had 2 very blissful days of being a family again... and then we saw the spots on George!
Back to the doctor... "yes, he has them now too" back to the pharmacy... and I braced myself for another 2 weeks of chicken pox.
So now it's the end of January, 2010... And save for a few persistent scabs on George's scalp we're now, officially done with the chicken pox!
