All You Ever Needed to Know About Chicken Pox

I have never had chicken pox, but I have treated family members suffering from the itching and can tell you "How To Properly Treat Chicken Pox" does not tell you the whole story.

The best way to treat chicken pox as an adult is to have them as a child. It's kind of like Malcolm Forbes' advice on getting rich, "Have rich parents and wait for them to die."

Seriously though, childhood illnesses are best kept to childhood. My mother knew this and tried desperately to infect me with chicken pox every time it went around my grade school. It never worked.

When I was a senior in high school and my baby brother had them, she encouraged me to drink after him, let me be in charge of his calamine lotion routine and generally made me his full-time caretaker thinking I would finally catch the darn things. Nope, not me. To avoid getting chicken pox, most people should avoid these things. Also, wash your hands frequently and avoid the infected while they are sneezy.

Once I was an adult, I figured I was simply immune to the virus and my doctor said I was probably right. Many infants inherit their mother's immunities, especially if they were breast-fed. Again, if it's not too late, try to get that immunity passed on from mom.

My daughter was not breast-fed and I doubt my immunity would have passed on to her anyway, so I was furious when she was 18 months old and playing in a children's clothing boutique and I noticed that the child she was playing with was covered in chicken pox. After a few unkind words to his mother, who claimed he was completely not contagious, I took her to see her pediatrician.

Yup, he told me, she'll get them, in about two weeks. And, he said, the virus has mutated since we were children so you might get them again while she's sick. "Never had 'em," I told him and he looked at me with pity in his eyes. "You're going to be miserable, trying to take care of her and sick as a dog. Stock up now on the benadryl and calamine lotion. You might want to get pedialyte too."

"Is she going to be throwing up too?" I asked.

"Probably not. But you might be," the doctor replied.

I was not impressed.

Two weeks later, to the day of her exposure, my daughter had a fever. Relying on my mother's advice, I gave her a bath in epsom salts to bring out the rash. It was there in spades by the next morning. Following age-old wisdom, I gave her an oatmeal bath and treated her with tylenol for the fever. She was clingy and slept a lot and wore her mittens even though it was March and she was in the house.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad, until she started getting better and my husband started getting sick. He had chicken pox as a child. He had a scar on his nose from having them as a child, so when he first got sick, we didn't think it was chicken pox. He had a high fever and no visible pox. I thought he had a bad stomach flu or maybe strep throat. When I called the doctor's office, they had me bring him in through the rash hall, just in case, since my daughter had recently had chicken pox.

And, here's why I know that "How to Properly Treat Chicken Pox" misses a couple things, his throat and mouth were covered in sores. That's why we thought it was strep throat.

But the doctor confirmed. Nope, he had chicken pox. A nasty strain that had mutated since we were children and he had it bad, probably because he was an adult. For four days, he could only sip liquids. The Pedialyte was very welcome, as were Popsicles. He lost his voice and ran a fever of 104 degrees. And he never once had visible chicken pox.

Another misnomer in "How to Properly Treat Chicken Pox" is the idea that infants are more susceptible to the virus than others. Actually, newborns often inherit, temporarily, some of their mothers' antibodies and can fight off infections better than toddlers or young children. Persons with weakened immune systems due to other health factors, like Lyme Disease or HIV, are very susceptible and the elderly are vulnerable to the virus because the same virus that causes chicken pox causes shingles.

While I have never witnessed someone with chicken pox in their eyes, I have seen people get shingles in their eyes. The virus is readily identifiable to eye doctors as it has a break out pattern and can be confirmed through a lab test. Shingles outbreaks can be brought on due to stress, among other things, and don't even require a new exposure to the virus. The condition is also very painful.

So, the other way to properly treat chicken pox is to be inoculated. The vaccine is recommended by most pediatricians and will help prevent not only the itching and scratching of chicken pox, but also the pain of shingles.