Skin Care and Chicken Pox

You remember that horrible week when your friend came down with the chicken pox in first grade. You just knew that you would be next, and indeed you were. It started with just a couple of red dots on your arm, and by the time you woke up the next morning, you were covered in them, and certainly itchy. Your mother went right to work with a strict skin care regimen to help you out with your chicken pox. The idea was to make sure that the chicken pox didn't become more virulent than they already were, but at the same time to make you feel less itchy.

If the skin care regimen worked like it was supposed to, you wouldn't scratch your chicken pox, and thus the chances of you having scars left over would become considerably lower. So, the first thing that your mother did in the way of skin care was to get a couple of clean, cold face cloths and submerge them in cool water. Next, she made you lie down in the tub, and put the cloths on the areas of your body where the chicken pox were the worst. The reason for this was that the cool water would lessen the redness, while at the same time taking away some of the discomfort.

This process was repeated a couple of times, over a period of about forty-five minutes. Then, she dried you off and let you go take a nap. The funny thing about having chicken pox for you was that despite feeling a bit more tired than usual (which came from your body being busy fighting off the infection) you felt just fine. You were fascinated by your spotty appearance, and had fun taking the week off from school. However, the chicken pox were not your friends, and the idea was to get rid of them, not let them get any worse. You mother took you to the doctor, and he said that is was a good thing that you didn't end up with chicken pox on the inside of your body as well as the outside, because that could lead to dangerous side effects. Your mother knew that the final step in the skin care regimen for your chicken pox was to help them start to dry up. You'd know when you were "in the clear" so to speak when the chicken pox turned into scabs and they dropped off.
So, she made you get in a lukewarm bath, and she began pouring in something extra. You wondered if you were going to have a bubble bath, but your mother said no, you were going to have an oatmeal bath. An oatmeal bath? Isn't oatmeal just supposed to be for eating? Your mother said that yes, it usually was, but when a person gets the chicken pox, the oatmeal can help dry them up and make them go away. You were pretty happy that you didn't feel itchy anymore. The bath worked, because in a couple of days you were back to school and chicken pox free.