Sep 26 2005
Move over Dr. Spock…
Fuller has a mysterious rash with bumps all over his body that has his parents befuddled.
This was our conversation earlier:
Damon: It looks like an allergic reaction.
Me: Or it could be chicken pox.
Damon: I guess.
Me: He hasn’t had the chicken pox vaccination yet, he doesn’t get that until his next checkup.
Damon: But we want him to get the chicken pox…
Me: But there is a vaccination now…
Damon: But I saw on The Simpsons (referencing the Pox Party episode)…
Me: (chuckling) I know, I saw that too, but…
Damon: I get all my medical information from the Simpsons.
Fuller will be going to the doctor later today.
if you havent, you might want to call ahead, as they will NOT want you in the office if he does indeed have the pox.
Oh, don’t worry, we have an appointment. I would never just show up there.
My advice is let him get it the way most of us did as kids. My little brother managed to avoid it as a child. He picked it up as a grad student in New Orleans at age 26. It nearly killed him. I got it as child…. no problem.
Avoid the urge to vaccinate your kids against everything. There is some wisdom in the old fashion ways. Best of luck.
Mike
Hey, I agree with the above comment. Let fuller enjoy the full scope of the chicken pox. He’ll be better off for a little natural future immunity!
I heard that if you have chicken pox at such a young age that puts you at a greater risk of having it again (like I did) and supposivly it is a lot worse the second time around.
Is there a difference between having the chicken pox and being vaccinated for the pox when it comes to susceptibility to shingles and other related conditions later in life?
yeah, and skip that whole polio and mmr stuff too… yikes! sorry mike, I spent too much time in health care to pass on the whole immunization thing, and I’m a big fan of the CDC…
Alice, shingles is caused when the chickenpox virus (varicella, which the body never gets rid of completely) comes out of dormency. The vaccine available for chickenpox is currently thought to provide lifelong immunity. There would seem to be a correlation then that if the vaccine stopped the proliferation of the varicella virus the first time around, it may help stem the development of shingles later on in life.
Would the chickenpox vaccine protect one from shingles, or give you the exposure to the virus which, as you say, can come out of dormency later in life? Maybe we haven’t been using the chicken pox vaccine long enough to know for sure, but I’m curious. If it turns out that those who had the vaccine have a lower incidence of shingles that those who had the pox, then there is an additional motivation to get the vaccine rather than waiting for the natural immunity. I’m just wondering… I’ve known people who have suffered through shingles outbreaks and it appears to be pretty awful.
I like chicken soup.
http://www.urticaria.com/
Did you check out this website? I googled urticaria as and image and yuck…it looks painful!