Colleague came to work with chicken pox!

[thumbelina03]

Last week a member of my team came to work with suspected chicken pox. I don't share an office with her, but I had close contact and she was in and out of my office until approx 1pm when she announced she "thought" she had chicken pox. I sent her home immediately. I'm currently 8-9 weeks pregnant. I called my Mum who said she didn't think I'd had chicken pox. I then called my GP surgery and was asked to come in to have my bloods taken as a priority. This was on Tuesday of last week.

Since then I have chased my GP surgery and they seem to have lost my results! So I have no idea if I am immune or not. I am going in again tomorrow morning to see what is what as I thought if you didn't have immunity to it you had to have an injection within 4 days.

I've been in touch with the staff member and she informed me her GP said it was 75% likely to be chicken pox, so I said she wasn't to return to work until she had been given the all clear.

Work can be a bit funny, but I am reluctant to go back into the office in case a) she's infected others b) others may be carrying it and c) I don't know whether I am immune. I just don't want to take any risks at the moment.

I feel a mixture of anger with both member of staff and my GP surgery at the moment. My DH thinks I should be going back into the office tomorrow, but am I overreacting by wanting to check everything out first?!

Come on. I've not asked my parents re chicken pox and I'm pregnant. It's not even crossed my mind until I read this post.

Me either! (Although I do know I've had it because I still have chicken pox scars on my forehead...)

Gillybeanz - it’s amazing how different the advice is.

The GP told me I should send him to school (until it was diagnosed I didn’t even have an inkling it was shingles, who even heard of a 4 year old with shingles!!). I looked up the official advice which said to send him. But the school were very unhappy to have him and sent him home.

Oops, not gillybeanz, bananasandwiches. Sorry

I think it's a mother's responsibility to inform her grown-up children if they had chickenpox as kids or not

What about those of us who lost their mother as a child?

I don't understand why the OP is getting such a hard time, the colleague clearly had a strong feeling it was chicken pox, otherwise they wouldn't have talked about it in the office so openly, it was so irresponsible of them to come in knowing someone else was pregnant.

OP, I know it's earlier than you might have liked but perhaps you should tell your work you're pregnant?

Chickenpox is at its most contagious before the spots appear, so she would have been unknowingly contagious for a week or so previously anyway. Hopefully the GP will give you some clarity and find your results, they should really ask you about it at booking to check your immunity as you could come into contact at anytime with chickenpox. I hope everything goes well for you, im sure baby will be just fine

This happens all the time to women who have young children already and are pregnant. The GP won't put much importance on it which is probably why the results haven't been prioritised.

When I got mine they came back eventually saying you seem to be immmune- so you either are immune or you've got it right now 😭 Useless.

I can't imagine missing work over it though, it's no big deal. You'll be fine Op. congrats on the pregnancy

Just because you've had chicken pox doesn't guarantee you're immune. I thought everyone knew that?!

I hope all is well with you!
I would be so upset with that lady as well. I totally get it.
I work with someone whose daughter is always ill, and she sometimes brings the girl to work (we have a friendly policy like this), infecting everyone around. I actually stopped talking to her now and trying to hang around as far from her as possible. We have 2 pregnant ladies at work except for me and one, who works with her, is ill all the time thanks to the daughter spreading germs. If you think you're ill with something contagious, stay at home!

My son, nieces and nephews had chicken pox when I was pregnant, I looked after them all and my baby was fine.

Firstly given that you are at your most contagious before the spots come out given that she was probably infectious (and at the peak) the two days before you were likely to be in close contact with her anyway. And at the beginning its easy to ignore the first couple (I know I did as an adult with the first on my shoulder I thought it was a blister from carrying something). She may well have started them appearing during the morning she was in (was with me and my daughter). It must be mild though if her GP cant diagnose

So that in terms of going back - chicken pox could be anywhere

Now where you do have an issue is with your GP - chase them you do need to know

When l had shingles, my work quarantined me as l worked with a pregnant colleague who hadn't had chickenpox.

I was off for a week.

I am a bit astounded at some of the responses here - I thought this was suppose to be a supportive group and for a first time poster I wasn't expecting some of those comments, which come over as harsh and downright patronising.

GP surgery have lost my blood test results - still none the wiser. I think I have every right to be concerned that my baby could be born deaf and blind. Checking with my mother had never even crossed my mind as I hadn't even thought about it.

First and last time post Mumsnet!

Can the surgery redo the test?

I’m sorry you don’t feel supported, I can see why you’re worried about it.

The chance of you catching it are small, and the chance of passing it on is even smaller, but I completely understand why you would be worried.

Hopefully you’ve escaped it this time and you can have the vaccination once baby is here so that if you have another baby you needn’t have this worry again.

I know people whose child had it whilst they were pregnant - obviously they couldn’t stay away from it, but everything was okay.

Good luck, all the best.

I’d ask the surgery to re do the test just so you know in future. One of my fiends (teacher) has no immunity to CP (even after having it as a child) and is signed off for the first 7 months of pregnancy - the LA will not let her teach.

Thumbelina - don't disappear. Mumsnet has changed over the last few years with some really rude posters, which is why I rarely start a debate or pose a question on here as somebody is usually quick to point out you're being pathetic or not acting rationally. There are obviously lots of super women users who don't need support / empathy etc and have it all together (!!) I usually use BabyCentre as I have found you get a lot more support there than here with posters who actually speak to one another politely.

Hope you get your blood tests results back soon so you can relax and have your answer.