I thought I’d never had chickenpox, until in my mid-30’s I got what a doctor told me was zoster sine herpete - shingles without the rash. A small number of people just don’t get a rash from that virus, and apparently I was one of them.
Fast forward 10 years, and I’m having another outbreak of this, in the same place as always. Right side of my head feels like furrows have been clawed into my scalp and my right eye hurts like it’s on fire. In my head. My regular doctor is out, so I see another one who is, naturally, skeptical about this no-rash shingles. So I have her do a blood test for varicella antibodies and … it’s negative. I was right all along. I’d never had chickenpox despite multiple exposures (and twice as a preschool teacher, even!)
So now I’ve no idea what this shingles-esque pain I get in the same place every 6-10 months is.
