aceman626

Hi all.

It's too last minute to go to the doctor so I thought I'd ask here.

So I am going home for the holidays in 2 days. I already bought my tickets (expensive!! cannot change date) so I am going on this trip regardless.

Just now my sister, who is already home, called me and said she got chicken pox.

My sister is 36, I am 32.

I am 99% sure I had chicken pox when I was 7-8 years old. I also had a few bouts of shingles (zoster) as a teenager and early 20's.

As you may know, the chicken pox virus stays in your system, and is reactivated later in life as shingles. Shingles is probably not as bad as pox, but still very unpleasant. So chicken pox and shingles are closely related....basically the first time you get the virus it's chicken pox, then later re-occurs as shingles multiples times in your life.

Now here are my questions:

1) If I had chicken pox when I was a kid, will I become immune and stay immune to chickenpox forever? Even if live with someone that has a chicken pox outbreak?
2) Even if I am immune to chicken pox, if I get in contact with someone that has chickenpox, will it activate my shingles?
3) If I had shingles, that means I had chicken pox for sure right?


Thanks!