I'm thinking I've got chicken pox as an adult?!

[mamahanji]

Posting here for traffic.

I had chicken pox when I was a toddler. Today I've woken up and I've got a few spots on my wrist and shoulder and back or neck, maybe 10 spots in total. They are itchy and look like little blisters. Just like chicken pox.

What on earth is it?

CP didn't itch when I had it as an adult. I wasn't ill at all, tbh! Though with CP, you're normally feeling unwell before or as soon as spots appear (if ill at all).

Insect bites itch a lot, though.

OTC oral antihistamine?

Heat rash?

What about Shingles?

Have you had a sore throat in the last week?

Funny place to get the first chickenpox spots. My first thought would be insect bites.

It is possible to get chicken pox as an adult, and some people do get it twice, but those sound like much more typical places for insect bites or some kind of contact rash than chicken pox - the first ones most often appear somewhere on the chest, I think.

You can definitely get it twice. I had it as a child and then caught it off my DD on my 30's. Ended up hospitalised with it. I'd say those look more like insects bites though.

I'd say insect bites to be honest - CP usually starts on the torso - but you can get it more than once

Potentially scabies or bed bugs?

I had chicken pox as an adult and they came out all at once, full coverage. If it's insect bites or scabies, the main thing is if they're in any kind of pattern or clustered around any particular body part- you can usually come up with a shortlist by googling.

Thanks everyone. I'm not used to insect bites. I've barely been bitten before so not adept at recognising them.

I do have a sore throat at the moment.

I do get hives a lot though so maybe it is a reaction to something.

If it's pox, you'll know by this afternoon, the spots multiply rapidly.

I had chicken pox as an adult - I was 27.

My very first one was on my arm - in between my wrist and my elbow - got it at about 2pm - by 6 I was smothered in the buggers - and when I woke up in the morning I was covered head to toe.

They itched like buggery and I felt like death - high temperature etc.

I understood that it is very rare to get them twice - about a one in a million chance and that most people are misdiagnosed one time?

I got mine from my daughter who was v.young at the time..

... but my brother got them a year late - when he was 32 - and he hasn't got a clue where he picked them up from.

He was worse than me - chicken pox is AWFUL as an adult - I really hope that's not what you have got!

I've found two more now.

Really hope it isn't. I've got a toddler and a preschooler with croup and I already feel like crap.

I got it first time aged 35. However both DDs had it weeks before so I knew what it was. Unlike many adults my case was extremely mild. I had lots of spots but only one day feeling rotten as I got prescribed antivirals over the phone literally on day one.