It started with an ache behind the right side of my neck, like I had not slept right.
The ache quickly developed into a terrible burning sensation, resembling a bad sunburn.
It was overly sensitive to touch and even my hair felt like tiny needles grazing an open wound.
My son took a picture of the back of my neck so that I could see what was happening.
Staring at the raised oval shaped rash on the camera I had a sinking feeling that, at age thirty-three, I had somehow managed to reawaken a virus that had laid dormant in my body since I was seven.
The rash on my neck was just the beginning of this indestructible virus that was revealing itself through my nerve tissues.
The itching and slight burning feeling that I had been mildly annoyed with on my shoulder and chest produced raised bumps that I had brushed off as strange bug bites when I first noticed them.
Within a day of the appearance of the 'bug bites,' the burning nerve pain had traveled from my neck to my shoulder and chest and down my right arm.
It basically felt like I was on fire with intervals of sharp stabbing pain.
The doctor confirmed that I had shingles, or rather herpes varicella-zoster virus, or, as I like to call it: chickenpox reloaded.
Varicella-zoster virus first appears in many of our childhoods as an itchy annoying pox that some feel is a part of some initiation of adolescence.
It may seem like a harmless, albeit unpleasant and somewhat torturous, week off of school (although thousands do end up in the hospital and at least one hundred die of this 'harmless' virus), but it is a lifelong parasite.
Once you have varicella-zoster virus, it is with you forever.
Chickenpox may seem like it is over within a week and the symptoms may be gone, but the invincible virus is just taking a nap, until something like stress or old age resurrects it.
After a long sleep, the virus is rejuvenated and seemingly stronger and meaner than before.
It is no longer a simple pox - it is now an uncontrollable burning sensation that attacks nerve tissues as well as inflame the skin with rashes and blisters and, for some unlucky folks, leads to post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) that can torture nerves for years.
The newer, energized version is called shingles and, if not treated within seventy-two hours of initial symptoms, it can terrorize your nerves for months.
The bad news is that a great majority (as in near 100%) of adults have the virus due to the highly contagious nature of chickenpox, but the good news is that there is a varicella virus vaccine that has been available since 1995.
The bizarre news is that even with the vaccine many parents still insist on throwing so-called 'pox parties' so that their children can contract the virus 'naturally'.
Let's get something straight: the vaccine, like all vaccines, is not 100% effective and, with this particularly vaccine that does contain a live attenuated virus, there is a small risk of contracted chickenpox.
Having said that, the chickenpox contracted by the vaccine is milder and less harmful to your immune system and your nerves than catching the virus naturally.
I like to think of The Walking Dead: everyone on that show has the zombie virus and will become a zombie after they die.
The varicella-zoster virus will find and infect you (for life) eventually.
While some lucky ones will always be immune or otherwise unaffected, the vast majority of us will be hurt by the Lazarus-like varicella zoster virus.
Therefore the slight risk of contracting a mild version of this virus via the vaccine that, due to the contagious nature and the fact that it is still in our communities, everyone will most likely contract, hardly seems that risky.
The fact that about 98% of those who get the vaccine will not get chickenpox and therefore never suffer shingles makes that small chance of developing the illness from the vaccine seem even less significant.
Having suffered chickenpox and shingles and watched my mom do the same, I cannot fathom why this herpes virus is brushed off so easily by some.
Herpes viruses are mean enemies to our immune systems that cause itching, burning, scarring, flu-like symptoms, brain damage, and death.
The medical community can only treat, not cure, outbreaks of these viruses, but you can take measures to prevent one very common herpes virus from taking hold of your child's body or, at the very least, from harming it as bad as catching it 'in the wild' would do.
Nearly 100% of us born before 1995 already have the virus.
Let's do everything we can to make sure the generation born after us suffers less than we did.
There are other rites of passage in childhood that are much better than invading the body with a godlike virus that never, ever dies.
The ache quickly developed into a terrible burning sensation, resembling a bad sunburn.
It was overly sensitive to touch and even my hair felt like tiny needles grazing an open wound.
My son took a picture of the back of my neck so that I could see what was happening.
Staring at the raised oval shaped rash on the camera I had a sinking feeling that, at age thirty-three, I had somehow managed to reawaken a virus that had laid dormant in my body since I was seven.
The rash on my neck was just the beginning of this indestructible virus that was revealing itself through my nerve tissues.
The itching and slight burning feeling that I had been mildly annoyed with on my shoulder and chest produced raised bumps that I had brushed off as strange bug bites when I first noticed them.
Within a day of the appearance of the 'bug bites,' the burning nerve pain had traveled from my neck to my shoulder and chest and down my right arm.
It basically felt like I was on fire with intervals of sharp stabbing pain.
The doctor confirmed that I had shingles, or rather herpes varicella-zoster virus, or, as I like to call it: chickenpox reloaded.
Varicella-zoster virus first appears in many of our childhoods as an itchy annoying pox that some feel is a part of some initiation of adolescence.
It may seem like a harmless, albeit unpleasant and somewhat torturous, week off of school (although thousands do end up in the hospital and at least one hundred die of this 'harmless' virus), but it is a lifelong parasite.
Once you have varicella-zoster virus, it is with you forever.
Chickenpox may seem like it is over within a week and the symptoms may be gone, but the invincible virus is just taking a nap, until something like stress or old age resurrects it.
After a long sleep, the virus is rejuvenated and seemingly stronger and meaner than before.
It is no longer a simple pox - it is now an uncontrollable burning sensation that attacks nerve tissues as well as inflame the skin with rashes and blisters and, for some unlucky folks, leads to post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) that can torture nerves for years.
The newer, energized version is called shingles and, if not treated within seventy-two hours of initial symptoms, it can terrorize your nerves for months.
The bad news is that a great majority (as in near 100%) of adults have the virus due to the highly contagious nature of chickenpox, but the good news is that there is a varicella virus vaccine that has been available since 1995.
The bizarre news is that even with the vaccine many parents still insist on throwing so-called 'pox parties' so that their children can contract the virus 'naturally'.
Let's get something straight: the vaccine, like all vaccines, is not 100% effective and, with this particularly vaccine that does contain a live attenuated virus, there is a small risk of contracted chickenpox.
Having said that, the chickenpox contracted by the vaccine is milder and less harmful to your immune system and your nerves than catching the virus naturally.
I like to think of The Walking Dead: everyone on that show has the zombie virus and will become a zombie after they die.
The varicella-zoster virus will find and infect you (for life) eventually.
While some lucky ones will always be immune or otherwise unaffected, the vast majority of us will be hurt by the Lazarus-like varicella zoster virus.
Therefore the slight risk of contracting a mild version of this virus via the vaccine that, due to the contagious nature and the fact that it is still in our communities, everyone will most likely contract, hardly seems that risky.
The fact that about 98% of those who get the vaccine will not get chickenpox and therefore never suffer shingles makes that small chance of developing the illness from the vaccine seem even less significant.
Having suffered chickenpox and shingles and watched my mom do the same, I cannot fathom why this herpes virus is brushed off so easily by some.
Herpes viruses are mean enemies to our immune systems that cause itching, burning, scarring, flu-like symptoms, brain damage, and death.
The medical community can only treat, not cure, outbreaks of these viruses, but you can take measures to prevent one very common herpes virus from taking hold of your child's body or, at the very least, from harming it as bad as catching it 'in the wild' would do.
Nearly 100% of us born before 1995 already have the virus.
Let's do everything we can to make sure the generation born after us suffers less than we did.
There are other rites of passage in childhood that are much better than invading the body with a godlike virus that never, ever dies.
Source...