Out for 3 weeks

I've been on leave, or rather Medical Leave for the past 3 weeks. The cause: CHICKEN POX!! It's really weird that I got it just suddenly, out of the blue. One day I was working at a hotel with my team; the next day, I felt sick and had 2-3 blisters on my neck. A trip to the doctor confirmed my mum's suspicion. Of course...the moment it was confirmed, mum and sis alienated me as they both had yet to contract chicken pox. Only dad was brave enough to come near me. But then, he too was cautious despite already having chicken pox when he was young.

I had to carry down my matress and pillows to sleep in the hall. My clothes were kept isolated from the rest of the laundry; I was confined to my "side of the house". All in all, I was "cordoned" off to one side of the house.

Surprisingly, I did not feel itchy. My body temperature was haywire, I had no appetite (which is sooo not good as I am already thin!!), and all I did for the first week and a half was sleep almost the whole day long!! I only got up to eat (or rather nibble on some food and keep myself hydrated) and have neem soap baths. I also had my body painted with blended neem leaves with a bit of kunyit added into the blend. This practice may sound weird as usually, we just use the neem leaves to rub over ourselves to easy the itch and also sleep on the leaves to help cool our body. But when my brother got chicken pox and according to my aunt, his spots were like 'mutant pox'...she decided to blend the leaves and paint him with it. The result? The blisters dried quickly and there were no scars!! He now has beautiful skin.

Naturally, with me being vain and worried about having scars especially since my face seemed to bear the brunt of the disease, I followed and am still following the neem bath practice. I'm happy to say, the spots on my face dried rather quickly, fell off and now...although I can see faint scars, I'm fairly certain it'll all disappear as besides the neem baths, I'm also applying pure, concentrated vitamin E. As for the spots on the rest of my body, I'm hoping that the combination of neem soap baths and application of Franch Oil will help reduce the marks.

Contracting chicken pox when in adulthood only doubles the symptoms. Meaning, more spots, longer recovery period etc. My spots took about two weeks to appear fully and only in the 3rd week did it start drying and dropping off. I return to work on Monday and after being on leave for so long...I'm kinda dreading it.

But then...once I go back to work, it's only 3 weeks to the last week of December when once again I'll be off as the office is close for Xmas and New Year. So I can't really complain!!

And so...as I move on from my chicken pox experience, I'm looking forward to shopping for Xmas! Yippee!