Wegeners and Chicken Pox

[dunkie2202]

Question and I hope someone knows the answer...
The one thing my doctor said to me after finding out I had Wegeners was stay clear from ppl and kids who have chicken pox or shingles.... I didn't ask Y

How dangerous is it for us???????

I'm still on Cytoxin had third dose friday, just found out last night that my son, grandson and future DIL (whom live with us) had a visit last weekend with her family and her two younger sisters have chicken pox. They went down there because I didn't want the little one around me after chemo for three days.

My Grandson turned one yesterday and so I've had very close contact with him. Argghhhhhhh
I sent him away to protect him from contact with me and perhaps he's now brought something back to me.............

[DEE]

not 100% sure but i was give a list of times when must inform medical team and contact with chickenpox was one of them , i seem to remember them saying they needed to give treatment to protect you
hope this is of some help i always work on if i dont know ring the people that can sort it for me
has work on several occasions
hope things work out for you to DEEx

[dunkie2202]

Thanks Dee, I think I'll ring the doctors today and ask their advice. Better to be safe than sorry hey.

[marta]

Hey Dunkie, I don't think they can do anything to protect us from chicken pox/shingles (same family of viruses) once we're on the 'cocktail' because the vaccine for it is a live vaccine and our bodies can't handle a live vaccine. Also when adults contract chicken pox it hits us way harder than kids and can have nasty complications that are hard to deal with even if you're not on our particular cocktail of goodies. I think this is why they tell us to stay clear. Because they're viral the only way to protect people is with vaccines and once contracted all they can do is keep an eye out for complications and let the virus run its course while alleviating the symptoms. I definitely think you should see your doc and let him/her know that you might have been exposed. They'll probably end up keeping a close eye on you for a bit - the virus' gestation period is 2-3 weeks so if you've been exposed it'll take that long before you see any symptoms.

Hope that you feel nothing yucky for the next several weeks and your fears don't come to fruition.

[jola57]

Hi Dunkie, I assume none of you had chicken pox previously. Like Marta said watch for signs and let your doc knoe that you may have been exposed.

[dunkie2202]

Hi Jolanta, I've already had chicken pox as a kid. I didn't catch it when my four boys had it 19 yrs ago. I've heard that you can get it more than once and I surpose that we would be more inclined to catch it with no imunnity. But I will let my Dr know its about. Marta funny you mention our cocktail of goodies, one of the tablets they put me one from the start is Valtrex ( the one prescribed for shingles ) I take it daily so I guess there's probably not much else I can do but fingers crossed.

[marta]

Hey Dunkie, I think you're pretty safe if you've had it before and didn't catch it when your boys had it. I think once you have the antibodies in your system you're playing on the safe side of the fence. I guess there is weird anomalies that might make you catch it more than once, but I think you've used up all your 'strange, crazy odds' by catching WG, so I'm thinking you'll be fine on this particular front. Besides if you've got all your bases covered, you shouldn't be worrying about this as stress is proably more dangerous than the virus by the sounds of it. Take care and go and throw your feet up and have a doughnut (pred Marta is projecting).

[andrew]

I had a similar issue a year or two ago when a friend's kid had whooping cough. I was told by my doc to stay well away from them. Within that same conversation we discussed things such as mumps and chicken pox, both of which I had as a kid. Doc explained it as my immune system, after going through the wringer like it does with WG, would have completely 'forgotten' that I'd had these and I'd be an odds-on favourite to pick them up again. I think the same would apply to most/all of us.

[elephant]

That is what I was told too by a immunologist. I worry about it often because I have two small kids and I don't know if my children's friends has been immunized (MMR). I was told that if I got the measles that I would be hospitalized, it can get in the lungs. Basically it can kill us. One reason why I don't work in the hospitals anymore.

[jola57]

We can get anything and everything, we are immunocompromised