What symptoms may indicate mumps complications?
Hello! For most people, mumps simply means a few days of facial swelling and fever, after which they gradually recover. However, this illness can sometimes take an "unconventional path," leading to troublesome complications. If you or a family member contracts mumps and, in addition to the "swollen face," experiences any of the following symptoms, you must be highly vigilant, as these could be warning signs of complications!
Signal One: Severe Headache, Stiff Neck, Persistent Vomiting
The mumps virus can sometimes "go to the head," attacking our brain and meninges, leading to meningitis or encephalitis.
- Specific Manifestations:
- Severe Headache: Not just a typical fever headache, but a very severe, persistent headache.
- Stiff Neck: Feeling a very stiff neck, making it difficult to lower your head and touch your chin to your chest.
- Frequent Vomiting: This might not be vomiting from eating something bad, but rather projectile vomiting that comes on suddenly.
- Poor Mental State: The person becomes very lethargic, constantly wanting to sleep, lacking energy, and even appearing confused or disoriented.
- Photophobia: Finding artificial light or sunlight particularly glaring, always wanting to hide in dark places.
In summary: If you have a fever accompanied by a splitting headache and a stiff neck, you must go to the hospital immediately; this is not a minor issue.
Signal Two: Severe Abdominal Pain
The virus can also attack our pancreas, leading to pancreatitis. This is also quite dangerous.
- Specific Manifestations:
- Severe Upper Abdominal Pain: Sudden, intense pain in the upper abdomen, above the navel, sometimes radiating to the back.
- Nausea and Vomiting: Accompanied by severe abdominal pain, there will be continuous nausea and vomiting.
- Fever: Body temperature rises again or remains persistently high.
In summary: If you experience severe abdominal pain during mumps that makes you unable to straighten up, don't just assume you ate something bad; your pancreas might be "protesting."
Signal Three: Swollen and Painful Testicles in Boys, Lower Abdominal Pain in Girls
This is the most common complication of mumps after puberty, where the virus attacks the reproductive system.
- Specific Manifestations:
- Boys (Orchitis): A few days after facial swelling, one or both testicles suddenly become red, swollen, hot, and severely painful.
- Girls (Oophoritis): May experience lower abdominal pain, but it is less typical and harder to detect than orchitis.
In summary: If a boy's testicles swell while his cheeks are still swollen from mumps, it's almost certainly a sign of this complication. Although not fatal, it can affect fertility, so seek medical attention immediately.
Signal Four: Sudden Hearing Loss
In rare cases, the mumps virus can damage the auditory nerve, leading to hearing loss or even permanent deafness.
- Specific Manifestations:
- Sudden Hearing Loss: Suddenly feeling that sounds are muffled in one or both ears, as if cotton is stuffed inside.
- Tinnitus, Dizziness: Ringing or buzzing in the ears, or feeling like the world is spinning.
In summary: If you experience sudden hearing loss, do not take it lightly. This could be the virus attacking your ears, and immediate medical attention is needed to save your hearing.
Overall, mumps is a self-limiting disease, meaning the body can recover on its own. However, if any of the "unusual" symptoms mentioned above appear, it means the virus may no longer be content to stay only in the parotid glands; it has begun to "roam" throughout the body, attacking other vital organs.
Remember, do not self-diagnose, and do not try to tough it out. If you feel any new, very uncomfortable symptoms beyond facial swelling and fever, the safest course of action is: Go to the hospital immediately and explain your situation to the doctor!