Okay, so I lost :(
DanDan managed to pass chickenpox on to both me and Ethne. Monday and Tuesday I was getting shivers and at night I was getting lots of cold sweats. I'd just put it down to perhaps getting a cold or something and took Beechams Powders to help relieve the symptoms. Tuesday night I was supposed to be going to Milton Keynes as part of the Birmingham.pm World Tour, thankfully Nicole persuaded me otherwise. On Wednesday morning I looked a little "off colour", but on return from nursery with Ethne, Nicole's words were simply "Oh my God!". In the space of a couple of hours I started sprouting spots on my face, and not just a few. By the evening I was absolutely covered across my head, neck, front and back. There was in fact more red than white skin, and I looked something you might see in Evil Dead, Return of The Living Dead or Michael Jackson's Thriller video. I would have taken pictures, but they really wouldn't have been pleasant.
I went to see the doctor on Thursday morning, who said I was lucky to be able to get to him quickly, as he was able to perscribe an anti-viral to stop the virus replicating. Together with the anti-histamine, paracetomol and calomine lotion, the itchiness has been pretty minimal. The worst bit was those first few nights of cold sweats and shivers, and then my back muscles aching. Last night was my first night of sleeping several hours, previously I was managing about 30 minutes at a time. Ethne only came out in spots on Friday, and looks like she has got a mild case, so doesn't seem too affected. She's lost some of her appetite, as I did for a while, but seems not to be too bothered by the spots.
I'm still infecious for another week, which means I now have to cancel the Birmingham technical meeting, due to me having the projectors and doing two of the talks. The World Tour trip to London.pm is also under advisement, as I doubt I'll be well enough for the trip, but we'll have to see if any of the others still intend to travel down. Otherwise I'll be looking to reschedule the two dates.
It's been frustrating as there have been events this weekend I'm missing. My friends wedding yesterday, a day trip with my parents today and my niece's birthday tomorrow. And to make me feel even worse, my friend Petra flew into Brum from Austria for the weekend on her way to Ireland, and she can't stay or even visit us :( Talk about bad timing.
I do feel better in myself today, so hopefully that'll continue and it'll just be a matter of getting rid of the spots from now on. The doctor reckoned about 2-3 weeks, so I only hope I'm not introduced to any customers when I go back to work!
