Chicken Pox!!??!!

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Well my dd woke up this morning with spots, some broken open, some small and pimply, and some blistering. I think it is chicken pox, but we'll have to wait and see. This was my nightmare, thinking they would get them just in time for our trip. I think "someone" was helping me out - giving me one less thing to worry about, LOL Thank goodness, she got this 35 days before our trip and not a week before. Now, I just have to worry about my son, when will he get it? The bad thing is, that he will probably miss about a week of school now, when he hasn't missed any ~ a week of this plus the week for Disney , I was hoping he wouldn't have missed any before our trip. Oh well....anyone else have a chicken pox scare before a trip to the world?

 

[Jordan's MOM]

I am so sorry! You are right though that at least she has them now. I can't remember but I think that the incubation stage would put your son having them and being over them before your trip. You might want to call your DR. and tell him your story. There are some things they can do to lower the chances of catching them and to make the case lighter and shorter. If your kids have had the vacine, thier cases will most likely be quite mild anyway.Happy scratching!!

Jordan's mom

 

[travelitis]

My whole family except me got chickenpox. It started with littlest, went to her brothers, and finally my dh got it. The incubation period is 10 - 30 days but usually 17 - 21 days. Our family used Benedryl gel for relief. The doc said to either give oral Benedryl or the gel but not both at the same time. Good Luck...sending pixie dust!

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Both my DS's are not long recovered from a bout of chicken pox.......luckily they both had it at the same time. They got it from their cousin. Now if I remember the incubation pariod can be up to 21 days. My DS's were 15 days after the first contact with the infected cousin (they see her every day) before the spots appeared.
And I think that you are infective just before the spots appear until the spots begin to die and fade, usually about 5 days, so I think total infectious period is 5-7 days.

So if you calculate all those days together with the number of days till you go your trip I think your DS should be in the clear, but only just!!!! At the outside, your DS will take them in 21 days, be infective for 7 (max) leaving a couple of days to get his energy up!!!!

Good Luck

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Thanks for all the good thoughts guys . I hope ds starts getting some spots soon, I don't want to cut it close. DD is just fine, playing, eating - she doesn't have many spots, will they all show up like crazy tomorrow? Or maybe she will just have a mild case. The ones that are blistered look so painful, but she isn't complaining a bit - what a sweetheart!

 

[SueM in MN]

Here's a link to the FAQs about chicken pox from the Centers for Disease Control and some additional FAQs about treatment.The time from exposure until the disease develops is 10-21 days (commonly around 14 days) and someone with chicken pox is contagious from 1-2 days before symptoms begin until all the chicken pox are crusted over. They do tend to come in "crops" over several day, so you might just be seeing your DD's first crop of chicken pox. If you are really lucky, your son was exposed to the same person who gave them to your DD and he will break out soon (but things often don't work out that way).

Good luck.

 

[CRCrazy]

Good Luck - My oldest two got them within a week of each other - Jennie got them first, and she still was pretty bad off when Amanda broke out a week later. Jennie had them everywhere - inside and out! Not a fun week to use the bathroom! Ouch! She was a real trooper though, and only got one small scar on her chest. Amanda started off slow, and I thought she would get just a mild case, but about 4 days later, she too came out with a bumper crop. We tried to do chickenpox counts - dabbing with Aveeno lotion, but lost count at 500 each! Amanda didn't get very sick though, just itchy! Their beautiful Easter dresses with matching hats didn't get used that year!

After such a harrowing experience with the older two, when the doctor offered a vaccine to Sarah - we leapt at it! Supposedly, they can still get it, but it will only be a very mild case. So far, no spots and she's six.

Hope your DS gets through this okay, and you guys will be clear for your vacation!

 

[travelitis]

I looked the incubation period on the web, too, and as you can see my numbers and Sue's are very close but not exactly the same.

 

[SueM in MN]

I looked the incubation period on the web, too, and as you can see my numbers and Sue's are very close but not exactly the same.[/QUOTE0

The incubation period of 10-21 days is from the US Centers for Disease Control and a book called "Control of Communicable Diseases in Man" which is the main refernce book used by Public Health and Infection Control Practitioners. In fact, for Health Care workers who are not immune to chickenpox, if they are exposed, they would be restricted from work from the 10th day after exposure until after the 21st day after exposure.

The incubation period might be as long as 28 days if someone was given Varicella (the virus that causes checkenpox) Immune Globulin to try to avoid getting the disease after exposure, but I've never seen 30 days listed. For your son, you may not know just when he was exposed - was it at the same time as his sister, or did he get exposed by her? If he picks it up from his sister, was it a few days before her rash broke out or after?

Good luck with your chicken pox adventure.

 

[travelitis]

I didn't point out that our posted numbers were different in an effort to argue which was actually more correct. I was pointing out that on the web you will find different information, and I went to more than one website. I didn't bookmark any of them, and just posted the one with the greatest time span for incubation with the thought that people do not always follow what is considered the norm. When it comes to chickenpox my family certainly didn't. One son has had them twice, and the other had 2 mild cases and 1 real good case. My dh and I didn't have them until we were adults. One of my kids took longer than normal for his to scab, to the point the clinic had us come after hours through a back way because the doctor wanted to see the child.