To think sometimes you have no choice but to leave the house with a chickenpox child?

[StopTheSundayBlues]

What do you do if you have no friends or family to help out and you have more than one child?

Be confined to the house for over 2 weeks as one gets it after the other?

By no friends and family, I mean literally no one.

What if you need to go to the shop to feed your bloody children?

I know why chickenpox is so horrifically dangerous. But honestly, some people have no real choice but to leave the house, do they?

Just get food etc delivered.

Large areas of the country do not have online delivery or takeaways.

@m0therofdragons ok good you posted the link. But I've seen others post the exact same link and in the same post say that if your kid gets the vaccine they'll increase their risk of shingles. I don't want people to not get the vaccine because they think they'll catch something else/worse.

Ok so I think I understand the vaccine thing now. If they offered a vaccine the take up would be low, some children would have it but it wouldn’t be enough to create herd immunity for those generations going into adulthood, and as it’s dangerous for adults more people would be more ill? Is that it ? So if your dc haven’t had it by say the end of school it’s a good idea to vaccinate.

Nutkins24

Exactly that

I understand what your saying OP but as someone who has a compromised immune system I completely disagree. It's hard hard for you having to stay in for two weeks but the last time I was in contact with someone with chickenpox I was hospitalised for almost a month. So yeah I think YABU, it's dangerous and you being inconvenienced isn't worth more than anyone else's health.

I still did the school run. Wrapped my 1 year old in the buggy and got on with it. My eldest had just started reception, I didn’t know anyone else to take him. He had to get to school somehow.

I think you use your common sense. You avoid public spaces as much as you can, at school perhaps ask another mum to walk your DC in, arrange for someone in school to walk your DC out/request to pick up early or late to avoid the majority, if you must shop then either ask an assistant to help you out and/or go at a quieter time of day if you can.

Where you can't avoid completely then warn those around you, those who are vulnerable will be thankful of that.

The risk is very minimal but it's there, you can always take steps to avoid and where you can't you can make others aware so they can protect themselves. I'm not sure why this country couldn't vaccinate as part of the schedule.

Whilst I do totally agree that there a some scenarios where it's impossible to avoid going out, some comments about it being minor do forgot those who are immune compromised

I am one of those. I had a kidney transplant last year and am on drugs to lower my immune system. Despite having chicken pox as a child, two weeks after my transplant I came down with shingles from a niece who came to visit and developed pox spots later that day (unavoidable!). I was hospitalised. It was three horrific weeks.

As the shingles vaccine is live, it cannot be given to anyone immune compromised.

I have recently also found out I am 5 weeks pregnant (planned and kidney team aware).

I am now even higher risk of infection to chicken pox and shingles that could cause more than 'minor' problems.

People need to consider this when downplaying the impact or consequences.

I do understand that a single parent with zero support, rural and no funds to online shop (or similar) would need to visit a shop for basics and I wouldn’t think badly of them. I do think badly of some of the blasé twats on here. I’m sure they’d feel differently if it were their immunocompromised child. I also do think some people are terribly dim when they blather on about chicken pox being most infectious before the spots come out. It’s as if they don’t get it that it’s about minimising risk and considering the health of others. Nobody expects anyone to guess if their DC may be incubating the illness but if you know they actively have it and you can avoid public places, don’t be selfish.

I'm going to say exactly what I said on a similar recent thread
During and after chemo I was told to stay away from anyone with chickenpox as chemo kills off any acquired immunity. In adults chickenpox can be life-threatening particularly with a compromised immune system.
OP do the best you can to keep your kids away from people whether it's staying home or putting the rain over over them in the buggy

raincover! Not advising you to shower them with rain.

I don’t think people realise the risk chicken pox poses to people who are immunosuppressed. It isn’t just people who have their immune systems wiped by chemo for cancer, although they are very very high risk. Do you know anyone with asthma, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Crohn’s, organ transplant recipient, Multiple Sclerosis or Psoriasis? The immunosuppressant medications (including steroids) put those at risk.

"Vaccination isn't given in the U.K. as there's evidence that those who've had the vaccine are more likely to have shingles. "

I wish utterly ignorant people refrained from giving any medical advice really. They are not aware in the slightest of the massive, devastating damage they can cause.

You can ONLY get shingles if you have ever been infected with the chickenpox virus. It is the SAME virus causing chickenpox and shingles, it is called the "Varicella zoster" virus, and causes both varicella ("chickenpox") and shingles ("Herpes zoster"). This is because, once you have been infected, the virus stays in your body for the rest of your life. This is precisely what being vaccinated protects you against.

You CANNOT get shingles if you have been vaccinated against chickenpox but have never suffered the illness, unless you were very immunocompromised at the time you got the vaccine.

@aurynne I've corrected my comment and included the nhs link

m0therofdragons, you still implied that chickenpox and shingles are different things. They are not, they are the same virus: you can only get shingles when you're an adult if you have ever had chickenpox as a younger person. If you were vaccinated as a child and never had chickenpox, you will NOT get shingles, because the virus has not survived in your body and settled in your nerves.

If any of mine get chicken pox i WILL be going out.

I’m part of a mainly American forum. The chickenpox vaccine is standard there, in pretty much all states you have to have had the vaccine before you start school. When I mentioned that the chickenpox vaccine isn’t standard over here they were shocked and thought the NHS’s position made no sense. I used to not really think about it. Two months ago my father had a transplant and is now immunosuppressed for life, so it’s something for me to think about in the future if/when I have kids.

So this is just a goady thread and your child doesn’t even have chicken pox, OP? All this hypothetical talk about having a single friend or family member on this planet, not being able to afford online shopping... all hypothetical?

What’s the point?

*NOT having a single friend...

@whatsthepointthen

If any of your kids get chicken pox you will be going out? As in purposely spreading chicken pox?????

A - it's necessary 2 weeks, it's a week from the last spots to appear and B yes people have to go out but it's essential your unwell child doesn't interact with others closely so in a buggy is best if small enough and minimum time possible. No deliveries when my kids got cp so no choice. We also took them out for a walk in the fields once feeling better.

I posted this on the vaccination thread but..

Here's a short story about immunosuppressed me. I merrily went on my way through school, uni, work. Kept getting chest infections and tonsillitis and had lots of blood tests. Doctors said all "normal"
Went to the GP with night sweats. Nice GP did more bloods, and opened every other 50+ blood test I had. Rang me and sent me straight to haematology

I have a condition called autoimmune neutropenia. Usually occurs in children who then grow out of it, I was diagnosed age 31 but likely to have had it for 8 years before that
I kill off my own neutrophils - under 0.5 is classed as severely neutropenic. Mine were 0.3. Neutropenic is what often happens to people on chemo
So once a week I inject a medication called GCSF to stimulate my bone marrow. This gives me a headache, fever, shivering, shaking, vomiting, fainting etc for between 12-36hrs. And I do that EVERY week, usually at night so I can get the worst of it out the way before work

I needed spinal surgery and had to have extra blood tests and be in a side room as I couldn't be on a ward. I go to haematology every 12 weeks for bloods and to get my prescription

People say oh well you should avoid people/groups/concerts etc. I don't get anything for this condition

Imagine suddenly being diagnosed age 31. You have to still work FT. Otherwise who will pay your mortgage and bills? And this isn't for a few short months, it's for life. Would you want to avoid groups of people, bars, clubs, restaurants, public transport, supermarkets... for the rest of your life?

I'm just a normal person that you would pass in the street that suddenly got hit with a diagnosis that even the haematologist was surprised at

But people seem to be "I don't know anyone immunosuppressed/it would never happen to me" like we are all bald sick looking people who wear signs around our necks

So this is just a goady thread and your child doesn’t even have chicken pox, OP? All this hypothetical talk about having a single friend or family member on this planet, not being able to afford online shopping... all hypothetical?

Just because something isn't true for my personal circumstances doesn't make it a very real thing and a valid thing to ask about How bizarre. So just because it doesn't ring true for me, it must be goady. How dare anyone ask anything about situations that don't concern themselves. The horror.

My first got chicken pox at 16 months old. We had been staying at my sisters house in another county and I noticed the first two spots when we were on the first of two coaches for the four hour journey back home, including a stop at a busy London coach station in the middle. There was a tiny newborn baby on the coach too, and I have never stopped feeling guilty about that, but there was literally nothing else I could have done as there was no other way of getting home, and I didn't realise he was poorly until we were already on our way. I think there are ways around staying home with them. It's only a couple of weeks and they can be so dangerous. Like PP have said. There's lots of internet shopping such as prime now and supermarkets.

I’m from the UK but live in the US. This means that my kids are vaccinated against chicken pox...but I have absolutely no one around to help out when my husband travels for work. I can’t tell you the amount of times he’s been away and the kids have got sick! I do a lot of online shopping, bill pay etc anyhow, but now I always have stuff in the freezer (especially frozen bread), have long life milk, and buy nappies and paper towels in bulk. Luckily a school bus picks up my older son for school.