Social media influencer Simone, also known Si Si, Shoffman was 38 weeks pregnant with her daughter when their two year old son, CJ, contracted meningitis. This was a rare and extremely unfortunate complication of chickenpox. Whilst still under the care of a paediatrician, CJ is making good progress and showing signs of making a full recovery.
Our son CJ contracted chicken pox just before his 2nd birthday. He became very unwell and by his actual 2nd birthday we took him to the GP - they told us he had an ENT infection and gave us antibiotics. He didn’t pick up and by 4am the next morning something told me to get him straight to hospital. His temperature was not controllable with calpol, he became almost non responsive and started to show photophobic signs.
When we got to hospital they took his bloods and his infection markers were over 300. They confirmed meningitis after carrying out a spinal tap. This was all an extremely unfortunate complication of chickenpox. I was just under 38 weeks pregnant at the time.
We were so anxious and because of the rarity of the case the hospital had to be advised by another hospital with an infectious diseases unit (St Mary’s).
Seeing your two year old constantly injected and given so many drugs was distressing and we didn’t know what the long term implications would be. Luckily he seems to have made a full recovery but we are still under the care of a paediatrician for follow ups to check everything is on track developmentally.