DS15 Has Shingles!

[Bearvet]

DS15 has been complaining of pain in his left arm for a few days. A rash broke out over the weekend - we thought it was poison ivy. But it never itched... Today I asked him to have the school nurse look at it and she freaked out - wrapped his entire arm in gauze and called me. She thought maybe a severe case of ringworm.

Luckily the Doctor could get him in within the hour and he diagnosed shingles! DS had a friend over this past weekend who said he had shingles before and thought it looked the same. I guess I should have listened better! I looked it up online at the time and DS didn't seem to have the typical symptoms. Now I feel like a bad mom for not going to the doctor sooner!

He's on an antiviral medicine and caladryl lotion with Extra Strength Tylenol for pain. He'll stay home tomorrow and hopefully things will scab over quickly (shingles itself is not contagious, but if someone who hasn't had chicken pox or the vaccine is exposed, they can get chicken pox). It's 95 degrees here and he'd be miserable wearing long sleeves. Shingles also is typically on the chest, back and/or neck - his is only on his arm. I had no idea that kids could get shingles!

Has anyone else had a child/teen get shingles? How long did it last? Was it painful? I really had no idea about it!

 

[terribm]

I had them when I was 9. I don't remember alot of pain from them then. I had them again a couple of years ago and the pain was terrible and lasted for a long time. I think the older you are, the more affected you are. BTW, I am 38.

Hope he has a quick recovery.

 

[minkydog]

Poor kid! None of my kids has had it, but my DH had it a couple years ago. He went to bed with what he thought was a boo-boo on his back and woke up at 6am with a long line of blisters snaking around from back to front. It really can come on that fast. He was miserable with it. The antivirals did shorten the time,but he still had to live with it for about 2 weeks. Hopefully, your son will have an easier time with it.

 

[liamsaunt]

Oh that is awful! I hope he feels better soon. I think the younger you are, the quicker you recover from shingles. So hopefully he will be back to 100% quickly.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I contracted shingles when I was 17... at WDW!

For the first several days of our trip I was on edge. I couldn't even stand to use my bath puff - it made my skin crawl. My mom would be a mom and try to comfort me by rubbing my back... I think at one point I was ready to bite her!

I finally discovered a golf ball sized rash on my belly at the tail end of our trip. EVERY doctor we talked to said there's no way I could have shingles - I was too young.

Finally, an ER doctor back home diagnosed me. I did miss 3 days of school (Wed-Fri) By the following Monday I was good to go. The outbreak wasn't that bad, and once the meds took effect I did a lot better. The rash took a few weeks to completely go away.

HTH!

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I had shingles at age 17, as a senior in high school. At the time I had no idea what the heck they were! I had a horrible raised rash all over my left side, and it freaked me out. At that time, my parents already stopped bringing me to doctors. Age 14 was my last medical visit; after that, my parents didn't see my medical issues as their responsibility. Even if I complained about anything, my mom just told me that I wasn't taking good care of myself (keeping clean, eating healthy, etc), and I needed to try harder. They made it very clear they weren't going to help me with anything - it was my problem, not their's. So I never told my parents about the rash, since I knew they would be dismissive, and probably criticize me on top of that. Why my parents chose to be like this is beyond me.

I remember debating going to the school nurse, since I still had access to medical care at school, but was embarrassed. I also debated walking to the next town to an immediate medical center (8 miles down a highway) but I had just a little bit of babysitting money. I finally just bought the biggest bandaids I could find, and just covered the rash up daily. It took a week for the rash to "crust"; then many more weeks for it to dry up and heal. The scars I could see for years following. But it healed and I was thrilled I didn't die or anything.

Only years later when I flipped through a medical book did I finally figure out it was shingles. It amazes me that shingles is something that is considered serious enough to warrent medical care (antiviral meds), since I had nothing but big bandaids!

 

[dezimber]

My nephew had it in High School. He didn't complain much about it and dr. okayed him to return to school the next day. It lasted a couple of weeks.

Someone I grew up with at our church had it during his college years and was temporarily blinded when he had shingles. He did have some vision loss permanently.

 

[kacaju]

My dd10 had shingles this past June. She had theis weird 5 spot rash looked like a 5 on a dice. She showed it to me and I didn't think anything of it. Then a few days later it spread from her belly to her back. Dr cultured it and yes it was shingles.
She had about 3 days of pain ad a fever. then she was fine.
I was told by the Dr. that if you have chicken pox when you are younger then 1 year, you have a higher risk of getting childhood shingles. My dd was 6 months when she had chicken pox.