I thank you for your keen fecal analysis.
Lemon balm is a gentle antiviral* herb, and is often used by herbalists on a rotating schedule with other antivirals to try and fight viral infections, including mono. It’s got a particular affinity for herpes simplex, and has research showing it to be effective at helping heal lip sores and a 1999 German Study found it to be useful on genital sores, as well.
So, when I was an herb student, I had two cases of mono (“Epstein Barr,” at that point) within six months. Or maybe it was one that lasted 9 months, no one was sure. Anyway, I was thoroughly sick of the whole thing (so to speak). We happened to be harvesting lemon balm, and I ate some of it, and it tasted really good. I started putting it in my salads for the taste, and then one day about two weeks later (I was feeling quite a bit better by then), I thought, “huh…Epstein Barr is a herpes virus, although it’s not HSV. I wonder if lemon balm will fight it? Hey…I wonder if lemon balm will *prevent *it?”
So I started a small daily dose of it just for shits ‘n’ giggles. There are no known contradindications for lemon balm (two theoretical ones: perhaps sedatives and perhaps thyroid medications - not to be taken lightly, but also not reported in actual people, only in theory), and it tastes good, and you can eat/drink/apply as much as you want. It’s a traditional wild green/salad herb, so for some people it’s just food, like basil. There have been no reported adverse effects that I can find in the literature.**
So, here I am. I take about two doses daily - either tea or tincture or, in season, munching on some fresh leaves - and that was my last Epstein Barr outbreak - 6 or 7 years ago now. I can’t swear the two are related, of course. I don’t have the money, tools or knowledge base to arrange a double blind placebo controlled study, nor do I think anyone else has done one for this particular virus. But when you’ve had more than half a dozen outbreaks in 15 years***, you’ll eat *socks *if it might help.
Ask The Herbalist article on treating mono with herbs.
List of some studies of lemon balm for various therapeutic uses.
*Kucera LS, et al. Antiviral substances in plants of the mint family (Labiatae). Tannin of Melissa officinalis . Proc Soc Exp Biol Med . 1967;124(3):865.
Herrmann EC Jr, et al. Antiviral substances in plants of the mint family (Labiatae). ΙΙ. Nontannin polyphenol of Melissa officinalis . Proc Soc Exp Biol Med . 1967;124(3):869.
**Cerny A, et al. Tolerability and efficacy of valerian/lemon balm in healthy volunteers (a double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study). Fitoterapia . 1999;70:221-228.
***For clarity - I’ve been diagnosed 5 or 6 times, with doctors arguing whether that last one was #6 or a very long #5. I’ve *felt *like I had it an additional 4 or 5 times but not had the money/energy/motivation to be diagnosed for those. So I usually claim 5 or 6, unless I’m feeling really whiny.
OH, and **Scylla **- Traditional Chinese Medicine is simply *obsessed *with poop as a diagnostic tool. Frequency, color, texture, does it float or sink, break apart or stay together, what time of day do you poop…it’s a little OCD.
To get larger, firmer poops, you eat more fiber and drink more water. That’s pretty much it. Insoluble and soluble fiber. Hay is a good start, 'cept for people not being able to eat it. But lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and beans. (Note: if you suddenly ramp up your fiber intake all at once, bloating, cramping and diarrhea may occur before your system figures out what the hell to do with all these sticks and twigs. Increase fiber *slowly *for less intestinal distress.)
I had mono back when I was 18.
I am not one to go to the doctor unwarranted so I was at the point where I couldn’t swallow anything, not even water, before I got checked out. They took a blood sample and told me that they really didn’t need to do the test, they were pretty sure it was mono. So they gave me a prescription and sent me home. My folks went to the drugstore for me and picked up the pills.
Now what kind of pills would you give a person who couldn’t swallow liquid? How about ones that were the size of peanuts? What about peanuts that were in the shells?
The brilliant doctor gave me pills I could not swallow to help with the fact, that I could not swallow :smack:
So after many failed attempts of mixing chopped up pills in ice cream and various other soft palatable and not so palatable mixtures we went back to the doctor. Then I got an IV inserted into my arm and had to go to the hospital 4 times a day to so I could actually get the medicine (and liquids for that matter) into my system.
So a few days later I was feeling much better and I really wanted to get the damn tube out of my arm so we went in for an update. I could take the pills by this time so the IV was gone! But the doctor still didn’t like the coating on my tonsils.
Here is a word from the wise. If a doctor ever tells you that he is going to “massage” you tonsils, run. Run far and run fast.
He proceeded to take out a tray of torture devices that looked vaguely familiar, while I opened my mouth and had flashbacks to the last time I watched the dentist scene from Little Shop of Horrors. He picked, and prodded, and swiped, and swabbed until I vomited whatever food I had been able to force down all over his lovely white coat.
Served the bastard right.
Oh yea have fun with that whole mono thing. 
You know, Scylla, there are more, er, more direct ways of increasing flexibility “down there.”
I’ve only had halfo, but then again, I’ve always been an underachiever.
For the love of God, please be shy and embarrased about it.
Let me tell you the story of an old coworker, let’s call him Bob
A.Bob was a nice normal looking guy I got to be friends with. However as many people drawn to the progamming field, Bob was not very adept at socialization. He had no intuition, and a complete inability to notice what other people were feeling or thinking. He had no empathy and was completly oblivious to interactive clues
B. As near as I can tell Bob grew up in a family where poop was important. I assume from a very young age Bob’s poop were analysed by Mom and Dad and a pronouncement was made. I can only assume that around the dinner table, a daily poop report was expected, with any variations from standard, described in detail for group discourse, and diagnosis. Id imagine any unexpected poop qualities from a sample taken in the home were displayed for all present to weigh in on.
When you combine A+B you end up with my friend Bob. Bob talked about his Bowel Movements. Always “Bowel Movements”. Never Poop, Shit, BMs, Laying cable, leaving the kids in the pool, droppin’ the deuce, or making butt babies. “Bowel Movement” was used as an almost revered phrase. Bob never picked up on the fact that no one else talked about their bowel movements, and didn’t particularly like to listen to his. At first I assumed he was doing it to be the wierd computer geek freak stereotype, but I figured out that he was dead serious. He casually talked about his in great detail as though it a description of a new car. Several Bob incidents in particular:
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Once our department director sent out an email asking if we could have a meeting at 2:00 for a presentation. Bob replied all “I can’t be there from 2:00 to 2:30. That’s when I Have a bowel movement, will the first half of the meeting be available as a slide show?”
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On friday bagel day I went to get a bagel, and as I went by Bob I asked if he wanted one. As I approced the bagel desk Bob yelled out across the office “But no sesame seeds, I stopped eating eating them to see if the quality of my Bowel movements improve.”
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After making mention that I didn’t feel well. He requested the details of my last bowel movement including time since previous, diameter, viscosity, color, and smell. He fully expected me to enage him in a discussion and attempt to diagnose why I was feeling sick. He simply didn’t believe me when I said i hadn’t looked.
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In a crowded food court I decided to get lunch at one of the pizza by the slice places. Now the pizza didn’t look very good really, and pretty greasy for even those kind of pizza places, but it was the shortest line, and I was starving. Bob looked over from another line an announced to the room in horror. “You arn’t going to eat that are you? That is going to give you weak and soft bowel movements for days?”
Stay shy about your poop, don’t become a Bob.
Poor baby.
I came down with mono while I was student teaching and had to quit. When I returned, I got a better supervisor and a better school. You never know.
We took a vote here at the Dope and it was almost unanimous that we hope you get well soon, kiddo!
No more scoop on the poop, though. You made me toss my tea cookies.
Love, Zoe
Scylla, I’ll send you a “get well” blimp.
I got the Mono as a Junior in college. Had been feeling tired as hell for a few weeks until I got strep throat as well. Then it was a week in the school hospital.
I had Mono as a sophomore in high school. It was a very serious case of it, because they’d incorrectly diagnosed it as tonsilitis and gave me medication that actually made it worse. The whole back of my mouth and throat was covered with giant white and red lesions. I was in hellish pain and couldn’t swallow anything but tiny bits of food at a time (I lost about 25 lbs in 2 weeks.)
I convinced my doctor to give me a good-sized supply of Vicodin, and spent a few weeks in an opiate induced stupor. I was also gargling Lidocaine regularly. It made it a little more bearable but eating solid food was still nearly impossible. Eventually they injected me with some kind of miracle antibiotic and the mono went away in about one day. All the pus drained out of the lesions, and the next day I was pretty much back to eating normally. I don’t know what the fuck it was that they gave me, but it worked.
I don’t know what it was either, since mono is viral and antibiotics are not effective.
The doc I had gave me penicillin (at my mother’s demand) and I found out quickly I was allergic to that. So not only did it not help, I turned purple from head to toe as the capillaries throughout my body burst. Talk about unpleasant! :eek:
I have no idea what it was. The nurse looked down my throat, looked shocked at all the huge white and red growths everywhere, and said “you must be in real pain.” Then she gave me an injection. That night, the pus started to drain out, and the next day the pain was about 50% gone. Within the week, I was back to normal.
I had mono in second grade, and I guarantee you I wasn’t kissing anyone. I missed six weeks of school and am still a bit surprised I didn’t get held back.
I recall being so incredibly exhausted I couldn’t even blow my nose and the snot just oozed out instead. Yeah pretty gross.
The one good outcome of mono was that my mother caught it and thought it was lung cancer. She quit smoking then–so if nothing else, there was that.
Sounds like maybe you had a bacterial infection secondary to the mono. The injection helped clear that up, and that’s what was causing you the misery at that point. If your mono cleared up at the same time, it was a pleasant coincidence.
Never did get sick. Wife is still down. I think she resents my vigor.