I didn't know chicken pox could have such serious complications - worried sick!

[Sugarmagnolia]

DS has chicken pox. So does his best friend. It was kind of cute at first because they've done nearly everything else together since they were born. We figured they could spend the week off nursery together. Except now she's in hospital with cellulitis in her face - it's a really serious infection, she's on 3 different types of iv antibiotics and not getting any better. Apparently it is a known complication of chicken pox and I've never even heard of it! I'm just sick with worry (for her - my DS still seems to just have chicken pox so far, although he his feverish and miserable today). Has anyone else ever heard of this? How soon before she'll start to get better?

Cellulitis is an infection of the skin. Usually occurs where a wound allowa entry of infection. Can occur without wound. Not sure about recovery I am afraid.

I know an adult who had cellulitis and made full recovery pretty quickly, don't know about children having it though. Have you googled it? I think chickenpox is an awful virus. My DD had it really badly, in her eyes and ears and it led to a really nasty ear infection afterwards. In the US they vaccinate against it...Hope your DS's friend gets well very soon

My uncle had this (cellulitis) - all I know about it is that it can be severe. Poor guy - he developed it three days after his wife died, was in hospital the night before her funeral and had to go straight back in for more treatment as soon as the funeral was over

He is fully recovered now though. Poor ds's friend! Hope she gets better soon.

I know they vaccinate in the states - my dad is a doctor in the states and ever since our kids were born we debated with him whether we should get our kids vaccinated over there for chicken pox. In the end we decided not to because, after all, everyone knows chicken pox is not a serious illness, and you get better immunity from the illness than the vaccine. Also, my DH read that they are now questioning whether there is higher rate of shingles in adults who had chicken pox vaccine. It's not really been around long enough yet for long term effects to be known. Except in all the times we talked to my dad about this he never once mentioned there ARE potentially serious side effects! Now he says, "oh yes well that's why we vaccinate".

So she's no better today but the docs say they excpect to see an improvement soon. Can someone tell me why if she hasn't responded to antibiotics for 3 days she sill suddenly start to get better soon?

It could be a matter of finding the right antibiotic - and waiting for the level of the antibiotic to reach a therapeutic level.

Cellulitis of the face is nasty but try and trust the doctors, and I hope she gets better soon.

I debated whether or not to give my children the chicken pox vaccine, but we live in a country where not many children get vaccinated, and the evidence seemed to suggest that it's best to get chicken pox naturally, and only vaccinate if you live in a country where all kids are vaccinated.

In the US our children would be vaccinated against cp as is said below. Perhaps all parents here should consider paying to get that done. I've had 5 children, all of them get it including the twins not too long ago. No complications but some cases worse than others, worries over them contacting pregnant women etc.

Once they get the right antibiotic she'll be fine, I'm sure. Cellulitis is nasty but eminently curable (have had it myself from an insect bite). Sounds like she's got it bad though, poor sausage. It's generally only a hard-to-resolve problem with elderly people who don't heal very quickly/have compromised immune systems.

to be honest even if we had known about this i probably would not have had my kids vaccinated. But it would still have been helpful to KNOW that this was a potential complication as we would have gone straight to the doctor rather than sitting around all day wondering why her face was looking all red & blotchy.

going to see her tonight.

My son had cellulitis on his leg aged 7 months.
It healed after the antibiotics but has left an odd scar around the size of a 2pence peice on his thigh ..he is now 14
Hope the little girl is better soon ....dont worry about your son it must be rare

dd2 has chickenpox too - she had a v high temp last night which wouldn't go down and was complaining of a v sore throat, sore neck etc so i took her to the out of hours dr..apparently there are plenty of different complications you can get with the pox because of the blow your immune system has had - things like tonsillitis, bronchitis quite common and even more serious things, so worth getting checked out.

(she's much better today )

thanks NotanOtter - I'm not worried about my son, he's still a bit whiny but otherwise ok. I hope she doesn't end up with a scar as the infection is all around her eye.

Wow, it's been a really cr*p few months. I lost my grandpa, DH's grandpa seems to be getting senile, another friend lost a baby and now this.

Well, just to say, she seems to be getting better finally.

Glad to hear she's getting better.

thanks belgo