The Itchy and Scratchy Show

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson after the bout of flu I caught off the kids last year, but no, I still go to school and willfully hang around the kids. Hey, it's not like it's flu season now, right?

Wrong. The first sign that something wasn't quite right was the feeling of lethargy, oversleeping on a day I was supposed to be at work at 9 instead of 8:15. I thought I was just fatigued, but the next day I screwed up a class because the tiredness was really getting the better of me. The folks in school were nice though, and they sent me home early with half a watermelon after taking my temperature. Anything over 37.5 degrees warranted a trip to the doctor, but he thought maybe it was some sort of generalized bacterial infection and sent me away with some antibiotics and painkillers.

A persistent fever nearing 39 degrees made me go back to the doctor two days later, and by that time spots were breaking out. I thought it was a sign of an allergy to the antibiotic, however, the doctor took a good look at the rash and diagnosed chickenpox. Which is crappy, since this means that some kid in one of the elementary schools I was at last month gave me the virus and has prolly given it to the rest of his mates in school.

Anyhow I was told to stay at home and wait until the rash healed. I wasn't allowed to scratch either, to avoid crater-like scars that chickenpox can leave. As I was an adult (at least physically... I can't vouch for the mental bit), I was given the prodrug Valtrex (way to go GlaxoSmithKline), which gets broken down into the antiviral acyclovir in the stomach and gut.

It was during the first night with the rash that I completely regretted not getting the chickenpox vaccine when I had a chance back in Australia. The itch kept me awake for hours. I never had it as a kid, and I'd always thought it was because I was somehow naturally immune, since I remember other kids had it. It turns out the mechanism of herd immunity is really powerful, and I was just lucky. Or not so lucky, because it was only now that it struck. I had completely forgotten that this was a common infection among schoolchildren, and that the odds of exposure to the varicella virus was so much higher since kids here have a tendency to touch the gaijin teacher out of curiosity. Any would-be JETs reading this: GET YOUR SHOTS! I cannot stress this enough. A week and a half off work sounds like a relaxing time, but it can seriously cut into your sick leave or worse, your annual leave, and impact any vacation plans, especially if your contracting organization wants to be exact with your leave entitlements.

I was fortunate in that I was able to get my neighbour to help me procure the groceries I needed to survive a week at home. The rest of my forced confinement was spent watching a lot of downloaded movies and documentaries, catching up on numerous episodes of Doctor Who and fretting about the spots that didn't seem to go away. Oddly enough, the tube of Clearasil I brought with me did more good towards dissipating the rash than the horrible (and corrosive) phenol liniment the doctor prescribed me. Immense boredom also meant exercising my creative side and picking up the hobbies I used to enjoy when I had the time ages ago. I'll post the fruits (in more ways than one) of my boredom in the next entry.