Hooray!

Yesterday, I e-mailed my doctor.

Dr. B,

Wow, shingles suck. I stopped getting new blisters last Friday, so I think the antiviral helped. The pain is still significant, but not bad enough I can’t manage it. The only way out is through, right?

My real question is about being contagious. The day after I found the beginning of a rash and the day before I came to see you, I knit a hat for my neighbor’s newborn. I haven’t given them the hat because a neighbor who gives a newborn chicken pox is the worst sort of neighbor.

Are there any guidelines about being contagious? If I wash the hat in hot water and machine dry it, does that kill the virus? Am I better off just pitching it? What about the remaining yarn? Does the virus stay live on it? For how long am I contagious, until the rash is completely gone or longer?

Thanks!

This morning, he called me and assured me that the person would have to "have their nose right in your rash" for it to be contagious. Do to the placement of my rash, this is highly unlikely. He reassured me the hat wouldn't give the baby chicken pox. I asked if just to be safe washing it in hot water would kill anything that happened to be on it. He said if the yarn could handle it, washing it in hot water was fine. Overkill, but fine.

Obviously, I'm going to wash and dry that booger, and then I'll probably ask Andrew to wrap it instead of me because there's no harm in being careful. Better crazy than a contagion, right?*

Let's take a moment to thank my doctor for allaying my fears and praise God I used acrylic yarn.

*I think I've just stumbled upon a t-shirt design for OCD folks.