How it felt to have chickenpox as adult

[Aquaduct]

I thought I'd talk a bit about my recent experience of having chickenpox at the age of 37. It wasn't a pleasant experience I can tell you, and I wish I had had it as a child when it would've been a lot easier.

I am immune-compromised due to a chronic health problem, so according to current official views I am probably lucky to still be here!

However, they don't know about homeopathy do they!!?

My main symptoms were terrible fever which put me off food...in fact I threw up when I did try to eat; headache; malaise; fatigue. I measured my temp. and it was 104 o F. After a couple of days of that scorching temp. which no doubt was necessary to burn off the virus, though maybe overdoing it a little, I realized I had to do something.

Thinking hard is no fun when you feel that off-colour, but I forced myself to look up my homeopathic books and try to work out a remedy.

My first selection of Bryonia was useless.

If anything I got slightly hotter...the last thing I needed! Luckily my second selection of Belladonna (based on the heat was radiating out of my skin, throbbing headache, and thirstless even though I had a fever which is unusual)-- worked a treat, so well that I could almost immediately feel the fever go down a little. I took my temp. a few minutes later and noticed it had fallen two degrees.

I was still convalescent though, after that, for some weeks, the spots kept coming out up to 2 or 3 months later, though just in small numbers.

I guess what I'd like to say is you're much better off having it as a child. Vaccine induced immunity is so fragile and temporary....you're surely not protected as an adult.

What are some of your experiences?

[candiland]

I am interested in the responses you will get from this.
I don't think I got chicken pox as a child. My two kids were recently exposed and I am SWEATING BULLETS! I don't have any other health issues and I have a pretty strong immune system, but....... I've heard it's an atrocious disease to have as an adult. Only time will tell...:

[Aquaduct]

Originally posted by candiland
My two kids were recently exposed and I am SWEATING BULLETS! I don't have any other health issues and I have a pretty strong immune system, but....... I've heard it's an atrocious disease to have as an adult. Only time will tell...:

I am interested in how worried you sound regarding the possibility of you getting chickenpox. I don't think you have to be very concerned if this happens.

I have heard from a lot of people now about their experiences of getting chickenpox when they were children. Not one of them had a serious complication. The worst thing a few of them got was a little indentation in their skin where they had scratched one of the pustules. Virtually unnoticeable.

In your case, if your immune system is strong I don't think you will get is as bad as me. I know a flat-mate of mine who got it when she was 20 and it only affected her for a week; was no worse than a cold, except she got itchy skin. You can always use herbal remedies, or homeopathics to help you through.

Large doses of Vitamin A and C will help as well. The C increases the efficiency of your white blood cell to fight the virus. It also decreases the surface tension of the viral envelope, and makes it easier for the body to attack it. Vitamin A is always good for the mucous membranes, and has an affinity for the skin. Its a general immune booster. So eat lots of organic carrots - they have a good amount of beta carotene which converts to Vitamin A...

PS... make sure you don't give your children or yourself Ibuprofen or acetominophen for the fever or skin eruptions or else you will all run a much higher risk of getting a flesh eating bacteria called necrotising fasciitis. There are official warnings about this. this fits in with the homeopathic philosophy which has always warned of the perils of suppressing fevers and skin eruptions.

[Aquaduct]

Originally quoted by Hilary

I know that people with an immunodeficiency can shed polio virus for over six months, so that might also have been the case with you too.

IThanks for that, I never knew that. I thought the continuance of me getting a few pustules on my abdomen for weeks and weeks may have been due to that......But never thought I might be the chickenpox equivalent of "Typhoid Mary"
You sound like you know a lot....in your view, how infectious could I have been when I only had 3 or 4 pustules; and how come when I came into direct contact with a baby covered in chickenpox pustules 4 years ago, and my flatmate with it 6 years ago, I never got it then. I never had it as a child, and have certainly never had the varicella vax.
I was just as immuno-compromised back then too.

[Aquaduct]

Well Hilary, it is true in my opinion what you say...we are so often resistent to infections for mysterious reasons. Why didn't I come down with chickenpox even when I was a child, especially when I was a child with all my classmates, friends etc. getting it. My brother had it twice, and I'm pretty certain we didn't put him into quarantine.
Regarding your parents giving you Diptheria when 3, I assume you mean the vaccination combo of DPT. From what I know about vaccines that doesn't surprise me.
If you can excuse this metaphysical speculation I think chickenpox often comes on in a time of transition , of even spiritual transition in our lives. A Russian friend and his wife both came down with it when they moved back to NZ 2 years ago. And I got it only a week after I'd completed a 10 day meditation retreat. I believe the Rudolph Steiner people believe in something like this. That 20 year old flatmate of mine who got it was Indian. She told me that it is their cultural belief that chickenpox is a visitation from a goddess....and that's why she refused to let me give her a homeopathic remedy.
By the way, my Russian friend said he was getting the odd pustule months later too. And he's got a strong body. So maybe I didn't do too badly after all.

[colaga]

guess what I'd like to say is you're much better off having it as a child. Vaccine induced immunity is so fragile and temporary....you're surely not protected as an adult.

My thoughts exactly!
I had chickenpox as a fifteen year-old, although that probably doesn't qualify as an adult quite, yet..

My little brother got chickenpox in the kindergarten, he was about 5-6. He got spots, he felt unwell, but he got better very quickly, no worries whatsoever.
But then I got sick, and I can say that I had never felt that sick in my entire life. It was simply torturous, that's the best way to describe it. I honestly thought that I was going to die.
(I have felt as sick only one more time - when I got salmonella poisoning.)

Here, in UK chickenpox is not required, yet, but I am sure that as soon as MMR+varicella is here, chickenpox will get announced as a deadly disease, and all parents will made feel guilty if they don't immunise.

I will never give varicella vaccine to my children. As bad as it sounds, I hope that they get chickenpox as kids, and then they will have lifetime immunity.

[applejuice]

A friend of mine did not get any childhood diseases as a child because there was strict quarantine rules in force in her community when she grew up in the 1940's-1950's.

When her children went to school and got the diseases in the 1970's, she also got the chicken pox. (BRACE YOURSELF - PERSONAL) She told me that she could feel the pain and itching of the postules all the way through her vagina and other private parts and it was horrendous!

I remember having chicken pox at the age of eight. I remember having the postules, mild itching, and a very high fever that caused some hallucinations. I recovered within about ten days.

[rainsmom]

My dh didnt have it and I was wondering if there is a titer to see if for sure he didnt have it. He's really worried about getting it.....and with our dd almost 3 and exposed to alot of dc's, its likely he will get it from her.

Does anyone know?

[mammastar]

I got chicken pox about 3 years ago from one of my kids. It wasn't great, but it was really quite mild - not 'one pox' mild, but definitely not all over me, and the itching was manageable. No complications either.

Does this mean I could get it again? Dd may have been exposed last week, so we're waiting with bated breath to see what happens...

[Aquaduct]

I have heard that one of the things that can prevent you getting shingles, which from what I've heard from people who've had it leaves chickenpox in the dust as far as discomfit is concerned, is occasional exposure to chickenpox from children. You don't necessarily have to come down with the full blown disease to benefit from that exposure either.
Of course older peolple get it because their immunity is weaker, they're less vital, but I wouldn't be surprised it this reason is just as valid.
I don't think chickenpox as an adult is so bad, it you know how to look after yourself. This fear of getting disease is being played on by vested interests. It's wise to examine these kinds of fears.

[Yama]

I got the chicken pox when I was 23 and single. I looked like a real life monster and I felt like dirt. I was up two nights in a row, walking in circles in my apartment, wailing, to keep from scratching! The only thing that worked for me was pinapple juiced in my juicer and watermelon to eat and for my pox.... good ol' Eucalyptus oil mixed in cornstarch! That was heaven because nothing else worked..... Lasted for about a week and it took about a month for my body to get normal again. I was very self concious for a long time after that. now 28 I still have two scars on my face and one on my arm.... but they were allllllllllllllllllllllll over my body. It was absolutely THE worst experience I had. I hope my children gets it.... but then again I don't want them to have it at all! :

[colaga]

That's the thing - when kids get chickenpox, it's nowhere as bad as it feels to get it as an adult. So it's better for them to have it as kids to have lifetime immunity.
Imagine getting chickenpox when you're elderly.. then indeed it would be deadly.

[mattjule]

This is a little off subject, but at our last well baby visit, they immunized our ds against chickenpox without telling us! I only found out afterward when the dr mentioned that it wouldn't need a booster. I am still very angry about it. I, too, have heard it is much worse to get it as an adult and I have also heard that the vaccination doesnt neccessarily protect against it. My poor baby!

[SagMom]

I had it at 17. I remember being sick, with a fever and of course, VERY itchy, but the thing I remember most was how pissed I was about the timing. I'd just passed my driver's test the DAY I broke out.

Two of my children had cp when they were 8 and 5. They each had one day where they felt horrible enough to stay in bed and then they were back to playing.

I vaguely remember hearing that having cp as an adult can cause sterility, but don't quote me on that--Hilary, do you know if this is a complication? (It WAS 20-something years ago and I don't claim to have the greatest memory!)

[Aquaduct]

You don't have to worry about Chickenpox at all. It can't cause sterility.
You're probably thinking of Mumps. Even that is something of an urban myth, that the authorities don't mind people believing.


A relatively rare complication of mumps in adult males...virtually never in boys is orchitis or inflammation of the testicle. Even in men it only occurs some of the time , and then almost always only with one testicle. Usually there is no permanent damage or atrophy, but even if there was, as Prof. Robert Mendlesohn points out, a man could , with only one good testicle, technically fertilize all women on the planet!

[Aquaduct]

I would like to add that if you are worried about fertility or sterility, a much more realistic fear would be in regard to the mercury fillings in your mouth, and the ever increasing pollution of our environment.

Toxic byproducts of industry like pcbs and dioxins and heavy metals like mercury are very good, in even the tiniest concentrations at effecting adverse changes on human endocrine systems. Pcbs and dioxins are known as hormone disrupting chemicals and they're in everyones bodies now. An excellent book on this subject is "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colburn. Apparently they're noticing sex changes (ie. crocodiles in Florida more and more getting tiny wangers) and fertility problems in wildlife.
Studies show the average sperm count in males these days is half what the average male had 50 years ago. It is not of course because of mumps. It is almost certainly because we live in a more polluted environment these days.

Also, I believe, people are in general in poorer health than 50 years ago, due to overuse of antibiotics which upsets the digestive process, vaccination , and the lack of trace elements like zinc in the soil. Zinc is lost also when food gets processed; yet iit is hugely important to our sexual organs. There is a lot of zinc in sperm and in the prostrate gland.

Mercury vaporises off an amalgam filling, especially when we eat hot meals or chew gum. An electron microscope reveals little beads of mercury on the surfaces. It is a very dense metal so a lot needs to be lost before it reduces in size. But as most toxicologists will tell you it is the most poisonous non-radioactive element on the planet. There is no safety limit for mercury. It can alter the DNA and remain in the body for a lifetime. It concentrates in foetuses, and it should be no surprise to realise it can affect fertility. Prof. Boyd Haley of Kentucky Univ. is the world expert on this, see his website.

So yes, be more fearful of your dentist, than of poor little mumps. Be more worried about the chemicals you use in your household....and what is in the atmosphere if you live near factories, or where they do agricultural sprayings. That would be a more reasonable fear. And don't eat predatory fish like sharks and tuna either, nor shellfish. Too much mercury.