Scenario:
Min (my sis) came home with a right sore eye about five days ago. She claimed it itches, and when she rubbed her eyes, it hurts a lot. Suspecting conjunctivitis, we started her off with spersodexoline (steroidal eye drops) and fucithalmic (viscous eye drops). The medication reduced the inflammation initially. Then three days ago, she complained of pain around her lower right jaw. Since she had no fever, Dad thought it was muscle ache, as she laughed so hard (over something I can't recall) the day before. The very next day, Min's affected jaw became swollen, and she complained of pain in her right ear. On examination, there was a swelling from the jaw to the back of the ear, resembling a 'horse-shoe'. Even the peri-orbital region of her right eye looked slightly oedematous *alarm bells ringing*
So what was the diagnosis? It turned out that the 'horse shoe' swelling is a classical presentation of: Mumps.
Now wait a minute. She had been immunized against the mumps virus before, so shouldn't she have attained life-long resistence? I then discovered that the MMR jab/boosters have around 90% protection.....so somehow Min was one of the unfortunate 10%. =(
Xiang (my bro) and I naturally panicked. Mumps is air-borne, and since Min is our sis....close-contact is inevitable. Donning face-masks and isolating her wouldn't help us much now, said Dad. Mumps has an incubation peroid of about 21 days before the patient becomes symptomatic, so yeah....we all have been exposed to the virus long before we realized it.
On a lighter note, Dad stated that since she had been vaccinated, she did not manifest all the classical signs of mumps. She had no fever, no anorexia, no bilateral parotitis...and hopefully will not have any complications. This is probably the reason why the diagnosis eluded us momentarily. Min was one of the 10% "breakthroughs" - meaning the virus managed to 'break into her immune system, and cause utter mayhem within' *gulp*
I feel sorry for her. Even sad. Min has not been in the pink of health for the past couple of weeks, getting one sickness after another before the latest revelation. Perhaps stress was her undoing - so many assignments to complete, school carnival's tomorrow, and her finals is just 2 1/2 weeks away [Would you believe that the school simply brought forward the exams, and informed the students just 2 days ago? To top it off, the school syllabus is still not finished, and the count-down was initially a month!!! Nuts. I would have gotten a sudden cardiac death should that happened in med. school...]
I guess all I can do now is to ensure she feels as comfortable as possible, hoping she will recover soon.
And now I pray the rest of our family are part of the 90%.....
