Rashes and Blisters and Pain, Oh My!

For those of you who I haven't talked too already, I have shingles!  And for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a form of the chicken pox virus.  Anyone who has ever had chicken pox is susceptible to breaking out with it at some point.  Basically it started out like an itchy splotch that I thought was some kind of bug or spider bite.  It has now turned into painful blisters all over my chest, back and under my left arm.  It's not that big of a deal except that if you have not had chicken pox you can catch it from someone who has shingles.  

Now, if you had asked me two weeks ago how I felt about my kids getting chicken pox I would have said, "no big deal.  Everyone used to get chicken pox.  I've had it, all my brothers and sister and husband and his brothers and everything had it.  Everybody has had it, it's no big deal."  Well, suddenly the possibility of it is looming over head and it's a little unnerving.  It's not so much that I'm concerned about the actual disease, although there are complications in about 1 in every 1000 people to get it, as it is I just don't want to basically be responsible for the suffering of my kids and also we are flying to Texas in a couple of weeks and after doing a little internet research I found that they will not let you fly if you have active chicken pox.  Which sort of brings me back to one of my basic objections to the chicken pox vaccine in the first place.  If you've had the vaccine and you are on that plane it shouldn't be a concern and if you've had the disease it also shouldn't be a concern cause you would be immune.  I'm not saying I think you should be able to fly with chicken pox, I know that's crazy.  I'm just saying they maybe should do a little more work on the vaccine before unleashing it on the public.  Anyway, the point is.  I have shingles and if my kids come into contact with one of the blisters they could get chicken pox and we won't be able to fly to Texas.  

That being said, I am being super careful.  As careful as I really can be considering where the blisters are.  With Lennon still nursing it presents a particularly tricky problem.  I am having to just be sooo careful when he nurses and wear shirts that fully cover my arms and chest at all times.  During the hottest summer month this is especially fun.  Yesterday we had a little scare.  I noticed during Lennon's bath that he had a bit of a rash under his chin on his chest.  He has been prone to skin irritations since birth and under different circumstances I wouldn't have thought twice about this rash, but I then showed it to Shelby and he seemed convinced that it was indeed chicken pox.  I honestly thought it was probably heat rash or something cause he's had it many times in the past, but still was a little worried about possibly dealing with a baby with chicken pox for the next 10 or so days.  I decided I would take him in to the doc this morning just to check it out.  Luckily, when he woke up the rash was almost totally gone.  Disaster averted!  The bad news is that even though that was not chicken pox, there are still plenty of days left that I will be contagious.  Here's hoping the kids don't get sick now and we get to come to Texas as planned in August!