Day 23 of Chicken Pox - The End

I think I can pretty safely say that I have finally beaten the Pox which in no way originates from Chickens. All the scabs have fallen off, meaning I am now fully healed. All very well, now that should be the end. But it is not. I thought I would get Chicken Pox, then after a few weeks I would be back to my normal self, with no evidence of ever having it and be fully immune to it. Well, I am as immune as any person who has had Chicken Pox, of the Chicken Pox virus. The answer to that is ‘Reasonably’. There is no evidence, assuming you don’t count a body full of scars and dents, and then there is not any evidence. As for being back to my normal self, I am still feeling slightly depressed and still have not regained full energy.

To quote a slightly famous band that a few people have heard of, "Scars are souvenirs you never lose" - Goo Goo Dolls. I very much agree with that statement. In fact, the now hardly seeable scar on the back of my left hand is a souvenir of the time I jumped a barbed wire fence for reasons I cannot remember. However, a big dent to the right of my nose, which is one of many ‘souvenirs’ of me getting a childhood illness late, is not one I particularly want.

I have been told by friends that ‘Chicks dig scars’. These are the same ‘Chicks’ that people talk of, that don’t want ‘fit’ guys and also judge humour, intelligence and kindness over appearance. I am pretty much living proof that girls will almost ENTIRELY judge you by your appearance and NOT on your intelligence, kindness nor humorous qualities. These are the friends that think lying will protect you. Anyway, I have drifted off subject – CHICKEN POX!

I am yet to try bio-oil, partly because I cannot be bothered with the hassle, so I cannot inform you as to whether it will help with making some of the scars disappear. I am not of the illusion that bio-oil will make the dents disappear, because that is not what it does, but I ASSUME that it will help in making them less obvious. I know it is completely different to someone having their face deformed after a car accident or an attack from a dog, but I can slightly empathise with them. There is something very odd about looking at your face in the mirror and it being different, however slight they may be. I have roughly 7 dents/scars on my face, of varying size, and every time I look in the mirror, I now stare at them, in the slight hope they will disappear (it never works).

However, it is my fault. I scratched. I loved it. Still I scratched my Chicken Pox, and that is what has left these scars. Every spot that I didn’t touch healed quicker and better. The ones I scratched and touched and played with, took longer to heal, and left a mark. It is a mark of satisfaction as I like to refer to them as. Scratching Chicken Pox is like a woman eating a bar of Chocolate. You enjoy the sensation for a few seconds until you realise you’re going to put on a small bit of weight/be left with a scar.

The moral of this story – DO NOT SCRATCH!

Still I am suffering from a lack of energy (well, less than normal) as I am finding that walking up the stairs at school, a once easy task, is now painful and completely tiring; getting to the top of two flights of stairs never used to make me out of breath and sweat. Apparently, it is normal to feel drained for quite a while after getting Chicken Pox if it was quite severe, which I assume mine must have been.

Assuming I did have Chicken Pox quite severely (I don’t know how you tell), then I will be fully immune to any future attacks from Chicken Pox (excluding Shingles). This is a relief in some ways. I didn’t want to have kids that had Chicken Pox in many years to come, and have to avoid them for a week to protect myself. Chicken Pox really did worry me. Ironically, I didn’t want to get Chicken Pox at an important time in my life, for example about 3-4 weeks before my 18^th Birthday and in the middle of A-level exam period. I was also rather worried that I might go my entire life without getting Chicken Pox, until I was 80, when it would probably kill me. Forgetting its inconvenient timing, I am absolutely relieved to have finally gotten it.

In case you are wondering, I have now got everything school-related finally sorted. I will be retaking the last year of my Photography course, and as a result, continuing on with my ICT coursework, to get a ‘fantastic’ grade, as opposed to an ‘okay’ grade. Essentially, I have a pretty easy year ahead of me – a contrast to the hectic, first year of University I was expecting. Anyway, that is all good news, if you forget all the bad stuff such as my life being put on hold a year because of a childhood illness.

I am now nearing the end of this blog post, which is the final update to this blog. As of yet, not a great deal of people have looked at this blog, but it will continue to sit at the corner of the Internet, waiting to be found by anyone who types the right words into Google. If you do have Chicken Pox, whatever your age, you have my upmost sympathy. Being 17, you get to ‘appreciate’ how bad Chicken Pox really is for people who have it, whereas when you’re 6, it is just a week off school and you pay not much notice.

Remember this Chicken Pox suffers; you will get through this horrible illness. To use an overused cliché, ‘There IS light at the end of the tunnel’, believe me. It will drag on for days, and you will hate it, and it will bug and irritate you, but it will end. You will look at your face in a few weeks, and be amazed at how bad you looked. You won’t even believe it, and you will look back at it all as if it was a dream.

Just one more message to anyone reading this who has Chicken Pox – I do hope you get better soon and it doesn’t screw your life up too much.

Much Love

Stuart

www.im-called-stuart.blogspot.com