Shingles without pain?

dancersmom
Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:01:32 +0000

Both of my Ds and I have had mild cases of shingles. Both of the kids got them at age
7. I got them at age 38.

My older D had chickenpox at age 4 and developed shingles thrree years later after being around an elderly aunt who had a nasty case of shingles. D developed a quarter-size itchy spot on her thigh. I had no idea what it was and was very surprised when the pediatrician diagnosed shingles.

Six years later I was running a bath for younger D, who was, coincidentally, also 7 at that time. D was sitting in the tub playing happily with her toys while the water ran in. When the water reached her lower back she jumped up screaming that the water was too hot. I was puzzled since she’d been sitting comfortably with her legs covered by the water for several minutes. I stuck my hand in the water and didn’t feel any excessive heat. D insisted that it was burning her. I looked at her back and found a quarter-size circle with tiny blisters. Shingles! D had been exposed to some neighbor kids who had chicken pox. I didn’t worry about it since she’d already had chicken pox around a year earlier.

Not too long after D2 developed shingles, I woke up in the middle of the night with a stinging sensation on the back of my left knee. I went in the bathroom to look and saw a tiny, little red spot. I assumed that an insect or a spider must have bitten me and went back to bed. Within a couple of days I developed a nickel-size itchy spot on my left thigh. The skin between the stingy spot on the back of my knee and the itchy spot on my thigh had a faint red line, but it didn’t feel any different. I didn’t go to the doctor, but I’m quite sure that being exposed to my D2s shingles set off a case in my body.

I really wonder what on earth was wrong with our immune systems. Neither of my Ds nor I had much bother with shingles; they cleared up in just a few days and there was very little discomfort. I’m just surprised that my basically healthy kids had them at all at age 7! And, I’m surprised that basically healthy me had them at age 38. I always thought they were strictly a problem for the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.