The Disease Saga Continues...

For those of you just tuning in, a week ago, I took Jack to the doctor on suspicion of chicken pox. My suspicions were confirmed (despite the fact he's been vaccinated for it) in a most bizarre and hilarious chain of events. Since then, we've been cooped up in the house, losing our sanity, and waiting for the illness to run its course.

Then last night, David was giving Jack a bath and pointed out that Jack's pox had gotten worse but in a weird, different-looking way. I told him I thought it was probably just the virus pulling a Custer's Last Stand, but he said, "No, seriously, I think this is a totally different kind of rash." So I made an appointment with the doctor.

So once again, Jack and I were ushered in the "special" entrance, and once again, we were treated like we had West Nile Virus.

The pediatrician took one look at Jack's new outbreaks and said, "Um... this doesn't look like chicken pox... this looks like... shingles... but, I don't even know if that's physically possible."

A little epidemiology lesson: shingles is a re-activation of the chicken pox virus. It usually occurs when you're around 50 or 60, but it is possible to have the virus reactivate as early as a month after having chicken pox. It looks more like a rash, whereas chicken pox looks more like mosquito bites. It's apparently extremely painful, but usually not fatal.

Back to the story...

My pediatrician pulled out all her medical books, trying to see if it's possible to have the virus reactivate while you're still sick with the original virus. When she didn't find anything, she called the pediatric epidemiologist at Dell Children's Hospital.

According to that guy, it actually is possible to get shingles while you still have chicken pox. Apparently it only happens in about one in every MILLION cases of chicken pox, but it does happen.

So basically my child managed to get chicken pox even after he was vaccinated for it, and THEN he managed to be the one kid in a million who gets shingles on top of it. I really feel like the CDC should send someone out here to document this, as the odds of this happening have to be like one in a billion. (I'm clearly not a mathematician, so that's the best estimation I can come up with.) I'm really tempted to go buy a lottery ticket just in case we've fallen into some karmic loophole of beating astronomical odds.

So it seems that we'll be locked away in this house for about a month while this thing runs its course. If anyone needs me, I'll be in a corner rocking back and forth while Jack watches more Barney.