Back at the dorms…

Ms. Miller enters the room where the students have gathered and says loudly, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Your attention please! I need you all to quiet down and give me your full attention. And before you ask, Billy Cranston, gentlemen includes you." After a short laugh, everyone settle down and turns their attention to her.

"As you should all know by now two of your classmates, Jack and Tina, fell ill. Mrs. Smith took them to a local doctor and it seems that they both have the mumps. They are going to be alright, but they are pretty sick. They are being kept in isolation for a couple of days until they are well enough to travel."

"Unfortunately the strain of mumps that they have is very contagious and rather virulent. So I have some good news and some bad news for you all. The good news is that you will be getting the next week off from school." A few cheers go through the crowd.

"The bad news is that is because you will all be home in quarantine for a week. We will send homework packets to keep you from getting bored." This got some half hearted boos.

"Settle down now. All joking aside, this is a very nasty strain of mumps and you all have been packed in together like sardines all week, so we will be taking some precautions to protect your health and to keep it from spreading."

"The school has been talking with your parents and the doctors at Valley Care and they have come up with a plan. Since some of you may have caught the mumps and others not, Mr. Williams is passing out face masks for you to wear. You WILL wear them PROPERLY until you get home. This will hopefully stop any spread that hasn't happened yet." She looks around the group making sure that the students know that she is serious.

"Next, instead of taking you back to the school, the bus will take you all back to Valley Care. There you will be examined for signs of the mumps and may be given some medicine to prevent it or to at least make it less severe. Then you will be released to your parents."

"With all of you to check, this will take some time. As seniors, I expect you to show maturity, patience, and respect. The doctors and nurse have agreed to come in on their Saturday to care for you. You can show the Green Valley High spirit. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Ms. Miller" Came back a ragged chorus from the students and Ms. Miller could see that they meant it. They were good kids. She didn't mention that they were also bringing back a couple of cases gamma globulin and what that meant. Although from the looks on a couple of faces, she knew that some of them were expecting sore bottoms tonight.

"OK, are there any questions?" "Yes, Kelly."

"Why is this so serious? My younger brother had it last year and he said it wasn't too bad. My folks did make me stay with my cousins while he was sick, but it didn't seem like a big deal."

Ms. Miller turned to Mr. Williams, who was the health teacher. "Well, a few reasons Kelly, first when you get mumps after puberty, sometime it can infect ovaries in women and testes in men. It doesn't happen often, but your really don't want to happen to you. That is why the doctors might give you some prophylactic medicine. You should know what that word means, it was on last weeks quiz." That got him a few laughs and a few groans.

"Second, this is a pretty nasty strain. Tina and Jack are pretty miserable right now and will probably be that way for the next week or so. We want to keep that from happening to as many of you as we can. Finally, this is the best way to keep this from spreading further in the community. You are doing this to protect yourselves and the rest of the community. You are all starting to take on adult responsibilities. This is one of them."

"Any more questions?" "Sam Finch?"

"What about you Mr. Williams? Haven’t you been exposed too? What are you going to do?"

"Good question Sam. I am not sure yet. I guess that I will make an appointment with my doctor Monday. Or maybe Dr. Sarah will see me on last time. It's only been a few years." He smiled.

Taking this as a positive point to end, Mrs. Miller announced. "Everyone. Get your things from your dorm rooms, use the toilet, and meet back here in 20 minutes. We are heading out. And keep those masks on."

Back at Valley Care, Dr. Sarah addressed the other doctors and the staff. "First I want to thank you for all coming in on short notice. We have about 30 students who were exposed so we will have a lot of them to run though. Any thoughts?"

Dr. Kate offers up, "How about this? We pair one nurse and one doctor with a couple of exam rooms. The nurse brings the one patient back, gets them undressed and gets a weight, a temp, and a throat swab, and tags it. The doctor comes in does the exam, and then the nurse can come back and give the gamma globulin. The two extra nurses can float, helping to reset the rooms and stepping in for a cycle if one of nurses gets backed up because one of the kids panics about the shots."

"Do you think that will be a problem? They should all be around 18. Any needle phoebes in the list Amy?" Dr. Sarah asks.

Amy, one of the long time nurses who has been organizing the patient files. "No one too bad. They are mostly over it by that age. I have tagged a few who might be problems. Those are painful shots, and a few of the bigger students will be probably need their does split between two shots."

"Yes, try to bring in a second nurse for those if you can. I think that the two shots at once is going to be best. Anything else?"

Amy pops up, "Yes, I have a set of forms that I think will make the charting easier. I can make copies of them and put the patient names on them. You can fill them out as you go along and do the formal charting later." She handed Dr. Sarah the forms. "We use form 1 to record the exam and to sort them, number 2 is for the shot order, and we give them number 3 when we are done."

"This looks good. I think that it will help a lot. Oh and add the two teachers to the list. They may want to get a dose of the gamma globulin tonight instead of waiting to get into their doctors next week. I am OK with it as long as they get examined first." said Dr. Sarah.

Dr. Kate spoke up, "I agree. It might even help by setting a good example. I'll take one if they ask."

"Me too. Heck, I think one of them was former patients of mine. Any other suggestions?"

"Double them up in the exam rooms?" Dr. Jan jokingly suggested.

"That would speed things up, but I don't think that too many of them would like that. Alright people, let's be about it, it is going to be a long day."

A little while latter the bus of students arrives. The two teachers turn the students over to the nurses who are organizing them and handing out some sort of form. Mr. John Williams and Ms. Jane Miller head over to greet the doctors, who like the nurses are wearing masks.

Dr. Sarah notices the two teachers walking over to them. Both are in their mid to late 20s and don't look that much older than their charges. "I must be getting old", she thinks as she greets them.

"Sorry to dump all this on you all", Jane says as they the doctors. "We did at least bring presents" she says as she and John hand over boxes containing vials of mumps gamma globulin from the hospital in Columbus.

"Well it looks like you corralled them well. At least they all seem to be wearing their masks correctly. These vials will help a lot too, although I am not sure that the kids will appreciate that."

"Probably not. We've been working on the right order to treat them in. We don't want a screamer to set the others off but we don't want to wait too long on the more fussy ones and let them get worked up."

"I know what you mean. I think a couple are already aware of what's coming. They are all seniors though, so most should be OK. Is there anything that we can do to help? We can stay all day."

"Well if you could help keep them calm especially after the first ones start coming back from the rooms that would help. That is the best thing, unless you want to set an example." Dr. Sarah said smiling under her mask.

John looked at Jane for a second and then said, "About that. Jane and I were talking. It's going to be at least Monday or Tuesday before we can get to our doctors. And I assume that sooner we get dosed the better. Do you have a couple of extra doses?"

Dr. Sarah smiled big under her mask. "I'm sure that we have enough. We are going have to check you before giving you the shots, just like the students though."

John whispers a warning into Jane's ear. She turns a little red, but says "Yes, we should go first. We can be a good example to the students that way. Calm some of their fears."

Dr. Sarah hands each of them a form with their names written in. "We thought you might ask. I'll make an announcement and start with one of the calmer ones to finish out the first group of three.

Dr. Kate pipes in, "Take Billy Cranston. He's a smart mouth but he takes shots well and he's kind. I've seen him calm his little sister down when she gets shots at house calls."

Dr. Sarah addresses the group of students. "Hi folks. I hear you ran into some mumps. I know it's a little annoying and a little scary, so I want to tell you all what is going to happen. No surprises if I can help it."

"All of you have been exposed to two people with the mumps. Some of you probably have it now and some may be developing it. Mumps is a lousy disease and because all of you are grown, it can be worse than when you are little. It can affect your ovaries or testicles and be really painful. So we want to do every thing that we can to stop it from making you sick or at least less sick."

"We are going to give you a mini check up to see if you have the mumps and then we are going to give you something called gamma globulin. It's kind of like giving you immune system a head start on fighting the mumps."

"I am not going to lie. It's a shot and it's not a fun one, but this is the best way we have to prevent a much more painful course of the mumps."

"After that we will have you sit over on the well side for a while and then we will have someone run you over to your folks at the school. You will have to be quarantined at home for at least a week, but there is nurse there explaining that to your folks."

Looking over the students they seem somber. She sees a little fear here and there, but no panic yet.

"There are too many of you for me to see, so Dr. Kate and Dr. Jan will be helping out. We are going to be using the teen wing and the middle kids wings, so some of you will have to put up with the fun exam table paper."

She got a few laughs from that.

"OK. Let's get started. Since they need a shot too, your teachers have bravely volunteered to set an example and go first. And Dr. Jan bravely volunteered to take Billy Cranston first."

That got a few more laughs, even from Billy. The doctors went to unpacking the gamma globulin as the nurses brought the first three back.