Recatching chicken pox as an adult/ shingles

[Badbudgeter]

I have 8 yo twins who have just both had chicken pox. Annoyingly one after the other. They both had chickenpox age three as well. Over the last 4 or 5 days I've been feeling a bit grim sore throat and swollen glands with a bit of a headache. Odd tingly/ burning sensation on the right hand side of face/ neck. I've had chicken pox as bloodtest when pregnant confirmed immunity ten years ago.

Tonight I've randomly popped out with half a dozen spots (all on the right handside of face/ neck/ chest/ shoulder) I thought you didn't get shingles from being exposed to chickenpox it was a dormant thing that resurfaces if you are run down so I'm wondering if it's possible to recatch chickenpox. Especially since the girls already had it if it's maybe a slightly different strain of virus. It quite possibly doesn't work that way so please feel free to enlighten me if I'm being an idiot. I've already had to take loads of time off work so am very stressed about the idea of waking up tomorrow looking poxy.

It's very rare to truly catch chickenpox twice in someone who is not immunosuppressed, so the chances of both of your children and you all recatching the virus is minuscule. I wonder if your children may have previously had a different illness such as impetigo which can be mistaken for chickenpox, and thus may not have had immunity. You can be asymptomatically shedding the varicella virus for days to weeks before developing symptomatic shingles, so you probably gave them chickenpox, rather than them giving you (with blood test confirmed immunity) shingles.

You are right in that you can't "catch" shingles - it is the reactivation of a dormant virus in your system.
But, if you have been run ragged looking after sick kids, you could be run down and/or sttessed enough for the virus to break out with a shingles infection.

Sounds very much like my experience of shingles. The affected area feels sore and almost sunburnt. If you catch them early then you can get antivirals prescribed.
Hope you feel better soon!

Chickenpox has ripped through their school throughout March ( a third of children mainly in the lower years have been off) so they've certainly been exposed. DTD1 who came down with it first had a very mild case age 3 and so I thought maybe I'd misdiagnosed her. I was really surprised when DTD2 came down with it afterwards as she was properly poxy age 3.

Maybe I'm just coming down with something else.

Yes it's been tingly followed by an odd type of sunburn type sensation like it's hot and tight. Am in Scotland and it's not been great weather so no chance of actual sunburn. Will keep an eye on things and if it looks worse/ more rash in the morning I will ask doctors surgery about anti virals.

I have had chickenpox twice, once as a child with my sisters and once as an adult. Second time round was grim, I would deffo see if you can get antivirals

Dts had chicken pox twice, first mild second bloody horrendous.

Yours sounds like shingles op.

I've had chickenpox as a child, shingles and then chickenpox in my 30s. I'm a medical marvel. Shingles was the worst.

Seriously all this "you can't get chicken pox more than once" and on this thread alone there are so many people saying they have. They need to update their research!

Haha me too!

I've had chicken pox 3 times , twice as a child and once as an adult and I've also had shingles. I don't believe at all that it's as rare as some people make it out to be.

Ds has had chicken pox once but only had a handful of spots so I'm also fully anticipating him having it again in future.

I've had chicken pox once and shingles twice. Shingles on the right side of my face both times was very painful...sunburn, pain and twanging like I was being flicked by an elastic band. GP gave me antivirals on day two and it switched off the pain like a light.

Crikey I hope I too am not a medical marvel.

U can get chickenpox lots of times, my neighbour child who has no underlying health conditions has had it 5 times.
Yours sounds like it could be shingles, get it checked by the pharmacist.

The bell shaped curve never quite touches 0 on the X Axis, which means that 1 person in 10,000 could be run down and have shingles at the same time their kids catch chicken pox - as strange as it may seem.

Looking at it the other way, it’s impossible for there never to have been a situation when a parent had shingles when their kids had chicken pox.

My friend caught Shingles vaccine. He was not impressed!

I am feeling better this morning so possibly not shingles. I was pretty ill a few years ago with nerve inflammation/ facial paralysis and internal shingles was one of the theories. They did blood work and I’ve also had previous infections of glandular fever/ Lyme disease too so I suspect I’m a reservoir of old diseases waiting to resurface when I feel run down/ immune system low.

I have had chicken pox twice, once as a child and once as an adult. My GP told me that it was common as there are different strains of the virus.