[Magdalen] Shingles

[Jay Weigel]

When my mother was hospitalized with what her doctor termed "the worst case
of shingles he ever saw", she was in isolation, and no nurse who had not
had chicken pox or who was or even *might be* pregnant was allowed near
her. This was several years before the chicken pox vaccine. Mom ended up
with scarring on her forehead and post-herpetic neuralgia that lasted the
rest of her life.

My kids had all had chicken pox before she got shingles. Sam had them when
he was very small, before any of the others came along, and I remember how
miserable he was (we both were!) as I sat in the rocking chair with him all
night for a couple of nights. Adam picked them up at preschool and had a
pretty bad case. Being one of those with thin fair skin, he looked awful,
and although he was extremely good about not scratching he got some scars
anyway. Betsy broke out on Mother's Day and was hardly sick at all. I don't
think she had 2 dozen spots total, and she was pretty unhappy about being
confined to the house. She also didn't like the calamine lotion on the
spots. I remember having the chicken pox quite well. I picked them up
either at preschool or at Bible school, and the morning I broke out, I
remember quite clearly going into the kitchen and telling my mother, "I
feel like I have cracker crumbs in my pajamas." She unbuttoned my pajama
top and exclaimed, "You've got the chicken pox!" I didn't know what those
were, but I remembered hearing that some of the other myriad kids in the
neighborhood had them. Pretty soon all 3 of us did, and my little brother
Lawrence, who was only 9 months old at the time, was truly miserable. My
poor mom.

On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 8:46 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 7/11/2016 6:11:27 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> cervus51 at gmail.com writes:
>
> bout  with chicken  pox.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
> There was no vaccine when I was a youngster, and there were
> essentially yearly epidemics that ran through the school systems.
> Ditto with measles (both types) and mumps.
>
>
>
> David S.
>