The Chicken Pox

The Saga Continues...
Let me just state right now, for the record and all that, that having the chicken pox at the age of 25+ for the first time has been one of the most horrific experiences of my entire life.

In fact, the lingering side effects are just now becoming apparent. When the nurses warned me my immunity system would be low for 6 months or longer, they didn't tell me it would be so low that I would catch viruses so mild that my roommate could drink after me and not catch them. Pretty entertaining, that was!

For any of you that have not had chicken pox before adulthood, or know someone who has not had it: tell them to be very careful!! They only have to be in the same room with someone that is contagious for a short time and they could catch it!

I'm now going to approach this section of my site in such a way that hopefully I can help keep a few people from getting this damn sick. I gave it to one person, so if I can help 3 or 4 from getting it, I'll feel better.


Helpful Tips for Adults with Chicken Pox

Well, if you're not on an antibiotic, you might want to try and get one out of your doctor. It seems the largest problem is the secondary stuff that comes with it. It builds up fluid throughout your body, and can hence make you very susceptible to sinus infections, ear infections, upper respatory infections, and the like. Everyone I've known that had antibiotics got over them better without as many side-effects.

Also, if they do break, try peroxide on them. It helps keep the infection of the actual pox from building up. Also, if they do break, take a clean tissue and dry up the fluid. Be very careful not to smear or rub it anywhere else. That's a good way to spread them. Also, heat will make them worse. If you've already broken out everywhere, you don't have to worry about heat making them spread, but they're like blisters: heat is bad, something cool is good.

Also, while you still have them actively, don't go out in bright sunlight without sunglasses. The darker the better! Your eyes are very sensitive to sunlight while these things are active. You can damage your eyes more easily than you would think right now.

Ice chips will help if you have them in your mouth/throat.

After you get over this, there are plenty of secondary effects, too. For one, your immunity system will be as low as if you just had a very bad case of mono or similar virus (because you have). You'll probably also be low on the potassium and vitamin counts. A good multi-vitamin will help overcome that much quicker. I had mine 5 months ago, and I'm still useless if I don't take a multi-vitamin every other day. And I've NEVER taken vitamins, so its not like my body was used to having them. I just went to a GNC store (any decent health-food store should do) and got whatever they thought was their best all-purpose multi-vitamin. In my case, it was something called Ultra-Megas. They're horse pills, and make you pee gatorade green, but they work.

Good luck, and much sympathy. If you can sleep, it helps. Oh, yeah. We have a theory that afterwards if you can get a good base tan, what few scars got past the treatments should fade out pretty quickly.

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