Did you ever get the chicken pox?
Yes
No
Had the vaccine
Did you ever get the chicken pox?
Yes
No
Had the vaccine
i’m not even kidding, until i was like nine or ten years old, i thought the chickenpox was one of those imaginary diseases people used to tell us about to scare us into washing our hands and staying away from sick people. i don’t know a single person around my age who has ever had chickenpox
I literally do not know if I got it or not. When I was like eight (long before the vaccine existed) it went through the church and everyone got it, and I wrestled with a kid who'd have been contagious at the time. I got a single weird bump that could as easily be chicken pox as a bug bite (mom insisted it wasn't and that I needed to go play with the poxy kids some more, but nothing more came of it).
So either I was exposed to chicken pox repeatedly without ever getting it, or I got the world's least symptomatic case of it,
I should, uh, really look into that shingles vaccine in the next decade....
I thought FOR SURE I'd never had the chicken pox. Despite my parents best efforts. And I mean that completely truthfully. Before the vaccine existed, parents would organize chicken pox parties - when one kid they knew got it, they suddenly had playdates with every other kid in the community. Because everyone wanted to get infected as young as possible. Now, thank gosh, the vaccine exists and we don't have to do it that way anymore. But anyway, despite my parents best efforts I never got the chicken pox - no symptoms, no itching, nothing. So when I went into health care, they made sure we were up on our vaccines and I was like "for sure I need the chicmen pox one" but the school insisted I go for blood work. I was SHOCKED when it came back with antibodies. Like, WHEN!? When did this happen?? (The real answer is thst I was obviously non-symptomatic. But that doesn't stop me feeling like my world shifted 2 cm to the left that day.)
Which is all to say....technically yes, but also kinda no?
I was born in the 80s. I had chicken pox twice, and was the youngest case of shingles my Dr ever saw when I was 12. Luckily I haven't had shingles again. I was very glad my kids could be vaccinated to lower my risk.
And when I was a kid and everyone got it? I knew kids who were hospitalized and needed feeding tubes - did you know you can get it in your throat?
I had them when I was 9. It was so fucking miserable. My family sat at my bed for hours, doing cold leg wraps to bring my fever down, and I screamed every time because it was so cold that it hurt because I was so overheated.
And then I was shivering for hours. And please let's not go into the scratching.
Please, don't hate your kids and give them the vaccine
Still have an indentation on my forehead from it. And I’m itching just thinking of it. Gods, it was miserable. I got it on my tongue and that was a whole level of discomfort and disgust.
If you are young enough to still get it, or if you have children of your own, please please get the chickenpox vaccine. People brush it off as a minor childhood ailment, but it is a herpes-family virus and can have serious complications. My oldest child and related kids got it in the 90s before the vaccine came out, and while most of the kids were just itchy and uncomfortable, one of the girls ended up hospitalized for a week and nearly died when it traveled up to her brain and gave her encephalitis.
My younger child was fully vaccinated and still got chickenpox, however it ended up being an extremely mild case that caused only a few spots and no itching.
Vaccines are one of humanity's peak achievements. Please take advantage of that! And if you're in that age group like I am, get your shingles vaccine!
If you are too old to have gotten the chickenpox vaccine but not old enough to get the shingles vaccine: I have anecdotally heard from a good friend that you can still get the shingles vax if you walk into a pharmacy and slap down the money, the insurance simply won't pay for it.
But having had both a sister and a husband go through adult onset shingles: If you can afford the one-time payment, it is absolutely worth it to not have to experience shingles.
Costco Pharmacy charges $207 for it.
