Chicken pox in adults HELP!

[Grrmum]

We have a DS who is 5. He was exposed to chicken pox last Thursday, played all afternoon in an enclosed space with a child whose spots came out two days later. So, he probably has it unless he has some sort of immunity or whatever.

DN (17) has lived with us since he was 12 before that he was brought up by his GM. As soon as I found out I asked him to check with GM what happened with his chicken pox - she has just got back to me and she is SURE he hasn't had it.

What should I do? Should he get the vaccine?

I'm not sure what to say about vaccine, but having had my 40 yo DH get chicken pox from our young child last year, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It took him 3 months to recover properly. A younger 20-ish colleague got it too (it was going around) and was poorly and off for three weeks, but recovered much better with no longer term effects. A 17 yo would probably fair better so might be better to get it over with now? I think it only gets nastier if you contract it later in life. You can get the vaccine in the first couple of days of the spots showing and it does apparently reduce the effects (we didn't know this at the time!).

DS got chickenpox last year (after being exposed multiple times) then DH (also exposed multiple times) finally got it 2 weeks later. So first off don't panic. Your DS and DN may not even get it. I won't lie. As a nearly 40 something DH was quite unwell. He was in bed for 4 days solid, hardly ate, slept loads and his rash was much worse than DS. The thing to watch out for in adults is development of complications eg pneumonia. DH got anti virals within 24 hours of spots appearing which shortened the duration. He had 2 weeks off work and physically wasn't back to normal for 3 months - easily exhausted, looked ill, quick to pick up other bugs. He is very fit usually. Probably best if your DN rings his GP for advice about the vaccine or if he does get it then ask about anti virals asap (need to be given quickly to be effective). Think incubation can up to 21 days so you have a bit longer to wait to see if either of them get it.

I had it at 15 and it was horrible - I had never felt so ill. I was off school for two weeks - much of that time really poorly. This was 30 years ago so no anti-virals etc just paracetamol, and as I had spots all down the inside of my throat I couldn't take those.
Definitely ring GP for advice - if it can be avoided, I would recommend it