shingles and baby

uggh......

you've got to be freaking kidding me....

shingles....

who the heck gets shingles at 32?  i'm pretty sure shingles is only for super old people, right?  (please... no comments about 32 actually being super old)  WRONG!!!  this girl right here - she has shingles, and it sucks!

i started noticing last week the left side of my abs were super sore, and so was the left side of my back.  i thought maybe it was from those 40+ crunches i decided to do on a whim of feeling like i needed to get my butt back into shape.  but i hated the thought that 40+ crunches could make me that sore.  i kept telling D that it didn't feel like the typical workout soreness, it felt like my skin and fat were actually aching.  but heck - who doesn't want their fat to ache, maybe that means its going to disappear ;o)

well on friday i noticed what looked like a spider bite.  just a few on the left half of my body - a few on my stomach and a few on my back.  by saturday morning it looked more like a rash, and D joked around asking why i was playing in poison ivy.  went over to my parents house about an hour later because my mom had an amazing garage sale find for baby C she wanted to share (we will keep that for another blog post - because it is freaking awesome!!)  i showed her my rash, and she couldn't help but mention that she thought it looked like shingles.  darn!!  now that she mentioned it i knew i had to go get it checked out, because i really didn't want to risk giving a 9 month old chicken pox.  off to urgent care i went. 

the doctor walked in, gave me one look and said... it's shingles!!  yipee!!!  he asked if i've been under any stress or if i'm getting enough sleep.  ummm... i'm a new mom.  i would say there is a small amount of stress and lack of sleep that goes along with that.  duh!!

he explained to me that once you have had the chicken pox as a child, it doesn't completely leave your system.  it remains dormant in your body, and if/when your body becomes run down and your immune system is compromised the virus can come back in the form of shingles.  it is more common for older people because they are often already immunodeficient, but stress and exhaustion can also exacerbate the virus.

of course my first question was "what about breastfeeding?"  he said that everything was okay in terms of breastfeeding, and in fact the antibodies i was creating would be passed on to C through my breast milk.  i would need to take extra caution in making sure that i didn't let the shingles rash touch C's skin, and i would need to take extra precautions to keep my hands clean.  the doctor and my lactation consultant cleared me on the medications i am taking, and i am just making sure i create an extra barrier using my old belly band from while i was pregnant.  i wear it beneath my normal clothes.

the pain hasn't been nearly as bad as it could have been.  the worst part is that my little guy wants to be near me at all time.  mainly, he just wants to crawl all over me.  i'm like his personal jungle gym.  when he rubs up against the areas that are affected it really really hurts.  keeping him away has been really hard.  i'm hoping that the rash will be gone in just a few more days and i can go back to tickling and cuddling my little guy!!