The human body is a truly extraordinary organism which, thanks to millions of years of evolution, comes equipped with numerous methods with which it can gross you out.
For instance, like this:
Guess who has chicken pox?
I spotted the first red blister ten days ago but I wasn’t too sure it was chicken pox until three days later when a few more popped up. The blisters initially numbered less than a dozen but they’ve pretty much erupted all over the place since then.
There are a couple of things I found surprising about chicken pox. Did you know it’s caused by one of the eight forms of herpes that affect humans? I think I can understand why the herpes connection is usually downplayed, though. Saying you caught the herpes virus instead of chicken pox is probably going to result in one of those long uncomfortable silences. Especially if you happen to be a kid.
“Li’l Timmy can’t come out to play right now because he’s got herpes.”
So, yeah, “chicken pox” it is.
Another surprising thing is that chicken pox can be much more severe in adults than in children. It wasn’t so bad in my case but I felt really — and here I hope I’m not intimidating you with medical jargon — “funky.” I had a fever off and on for a few days but nothing too severe. However, I did feel very uncomfortable and my energy levels were pretty low. You know you have a bad case of malaise when tapping the keyboard and clicking the mouse seems like too much effort.
The itchiness, probably the worst single symptom, was mostly manageable. It was especially bad at night and I sometimes found myself scratching without thinking. Thankfully, calamine lotion helped to alleviate the worst of it. The downside is the lotion dries up in pink splotches. Since I had blisters all over the body (including the face and scalp), I ended up looking like a special forces soldier camouflaged for a mission at the Pink Aisle in TRU.
It looks like it might take a few more days to clear up. I don’t exactly feel like doing cartwheels right now but my energy levels are higher and I feel less like a miserable bastard right now.
Anyway, if you haven’t contracted chicken pox, do consider getting vaccinated.
