Got chicken pox when I was 21, was not fun. I'm 50 now and still remember them like they were yesterday.

Not to be nit picky here but I think I'd rather have chicken pox.

I recall chicken pox being worse in the sense that the discomfort was more acute at its peak, but at least it typically runs its course over a fairly limited duration as your system fights it off and recovers; you just kinda strap in and wait it out and it sucks but then you're done. When our kids brought the lice home, it was way worse in the sense that you're under an open-ended siege with all the laundry and bedding and furniture and carpet treatments, and it's hard to know if/when you'll ever finally emerge from the infestation...