Well, I thought our encounter with this virus was over. Until earlier this week, Quinn had spots that we thought were mosquito bites...that was until more and more of them started appearing. Then we thought...bed bugs? Nope. None of those either. So, we decided it was time to get him to the doctor.
What do you think it is?
Yep!
You guessed it!
He has Shingles.
I really wonder how many 13 year kiddos get shingles. Weird for sure!
I learned a lot about the virus today though. I knew the virus lived in the spinal cord and that it typically stays inactive. A weakened immune system or stress etc can cause it to 'wake up'. So it travels through the nerves starting at the spinal cord and then wrapping around to the front.
You can see in the picture on the left that Quinn only has a few spots on his back. But when you get around to the front (picture on the right), the nerves spread out and where you see the spots are the nerve endings that originated at the spinal cord. Does that make sense?
I'm so thankful we decided to get him to the doctor and didn't just assume it was an allergic reaction or something less significant. He now has to take 5 pills a day for the next 10 days. Lucky Quinn! But if it will keep them from getting worse, I'll be happy to remind him to take the pills.
Hopefully this will be the last time we encounter this virus in Quinn....but for some reason, I don't think it is.
2 comments:
Poor Quinn. This is scary. We experienced a similar situation just last week. Gillian broke out in little sores similar to this all over her belly and back and they started to travel down her legs and arms. The doctor first said it was chicken pox, but after further review, he decided it was a staph infection. We just finished her medicine last night.
I hope Quinn doesn't have any more episodes.
Poor guy!! Shingles can get really bad. Phil has had them a couple of times and luckily it wasn't too bad!! You just need to stop stressing him out!! Ha!!
PS I like your background...I need info about it!!
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