Wow, I’m better off than I thought. I’m pretty tired, but at least I can get out of bed.
I’m a bit nervous about the whole danger of my spleen exploding thing, though, still.
Thanks for the sympathy/good wishes, **Septima **and RoniaBorkason.
I guess I’ll ask my loving family to rent me some movies. My little brother has kindly made (well, reheated) me some soup. He feels bad for me, even though it’s hard to tell since he goes into hysterics whenever anyone says “spleen.”
I was doubtful at first but the Prednisone was a lifesaver. I was actually a little disappointed because I figured the inability to eat would be a good way to drop a few pounds before the holidays…
Too bad I don’t know who gave it to me, I would have beat some ass as soon as my spleen returned to its natural state. (A sentence I never thought I’d utter)
Like I said, though, I don’t seem to be half as fatigued as most of the people in this thread were, so I’m feeling grateful.
I had Mono once. Now my place isn’t nearly so drafty.
Seriously, I have nothing to add having never had it, but reading the responses of people’s experience with it here, I hope I never do. The worst illness I ever got was chicken pox – and I was in my late teens when I got them. Mono seems like it would be worse because it lasts longer. I hate being sick.
Hope it clears up soon.
I slept roughly 23 hours a day for three weeks straight when I got it in high school. Luckily (or un- ), it was summer, so I didn’t have anything to miss anything other than my part time job. No idea who I got it from.
I had it during summer vacation while I was in high school. What a waste of two months. That’s pretty much how long I was sick. I remember that I was exhausted all the time - even lifting a cup all the way up to my lips for a drink was a huge effort for a while. My throat wasn’t bad, except at the very beginning, but the exhaustion lasted all summer.
I slept a lot, and read a lot. I had absolutely no appetite. I’d start to think maybe I was hungry, and Mom would get excited and make me anything at all I thought I could eat… but when it would be in front of me it would just look like to much work to eat it, and my stomach closed down into a little ball.
Oh, I meant to add that you should work with the school to accommodate your illness. This is not a bad cold you can just get assignments during. I left college a few weeks before finals, and arranged to have some time to study and then take my tests after I returned for the next semester. No one should expect you to keep up with schoolwork in your condition.
To quote my doctor almost 25 years ago, “LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU!” If you are the slightest bit tired, sit down / lay down / sleep. You need rest as much as medication.
Be wary of the secondary infection. I had hepatitis as mine. The doc said if I had contracted pneumonia and been as bad, I would be dead. (Sobering words). The message is that this is not a small thing & you need to care for yourself.
Wow, hope you get better soon. My friend had mono and was back to school in less than two weeks.
Does reading the Dope make you tired? Because I’m sure there’s enough reading material here for a long long time.
The Dope relaxes me, Autolycus, much like its homonym
Oh, I’m sure your doctor already told you this, but DON’T TOUCH ALCOHOL. Not even cough sirup. You’ll have to be teetolal for atleast six months.
I had it in college, and I stil amuse myself trying to figure out what happened during that week. The only incident I remember clearly was apparently a dream.
I could swear one of my roommates was asking me about my alarm clock. When I said something about it to her later, she had no idea what I was talking about.
Either that or she was trying to mess with me!
Yup, I had it in college, too. My throat hurt so bad that I ended up spending three hours two days in a row at the student health center being rehydrated by IV. I was grateful that it was only mono, not stereo.
I caught it when I was 19 from my roommate’s friend, who had nothing to do after his doctor diagnosed him so he decided to drop in and visit us :mad: Needless to say, I hadn’t had any physical contact with him but I was still “lucky” enough to be infected.
Doctors misdiagnosed me for six months and recommended exercise to overcome the fatigue problems I was having. I was sleeping 16+ hours a day but I forced myself to exercise, only for my symptoms to become more severe - eventually, I had to rest along the way just to walk from my bed to the toilet. After several months, I began to ache all over all the time and had severe joint pain. It took another two years to be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Nearly two years ago the BBC news site had an article in which scientists speculated about a link between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and brain injury caused by Mono (Glandular Fever) and given the similarity between Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Syndromes, I could believe that’s true.
Anyway, my advice is REST. Rest as much as you can and do not push yourself. The inactivity may frustrate you now, but it’s better than going through the decade+ of health problems that I’ve been dealing with ever since.
Yet another former mono sufferer. I had massive, debilitating headaches and not much of a sore throat. Took a couple of tries before my doctor diagnosed it. I was very tired, but couldn’t sleep very well (I’ve never been very good at sleeping). My roommate had a mild case just before I did; I think she missed a couple of classes and was back to normal in about 2 weeks. We figure we must have accidentally shared a glass or something.
I was off work for a couple of weeks, then went back half-days for about six weeks. I think it took a couple of years before I felt completely normal again. I was 39 when I had it. At least my timing was pretty good; I had it during the summer Olympics; watched much more of them than I’d ever intended to.
Glad the prednisone is helping. Hope you feel better soon.
GT
I got it in my first semester in college from being run down. I was sick for a month and it took me a month to recover. I also had a fungal infection in my throat and a case of tonsillitis as well. Fun stuff.
I remember the agony of trying to swallow anything at all. However, you must feed yourself as many nutritious things as possible, get a lot of rest and do not exert yourself. They gave me some sort of steroids to take orally–don’t remember whichkind–because I had liver damage. It was mono-hepatitis.
You have my sympathy.
You know, come to think of it, I too was misdiagnosed by the campus health center, and tried to keep going to classes. Like, go to one class, come home and sleep for four hours, go to another class, etc. Then sleep 15 hours at night. By the time they figured out what I really had, and I had to pack up my stuff to leave for my parents’ house, I was literally crawling around my apartment to get my stuff together, because I was too fatigued to walk.
Oh, and the misdiagnosis thing reminds me - after being told I had a bad cold, I went ahead with my activities as much as possible, including my interview for a Rhodes scholarship. I remember babbling like an idiot and wondering why the hell I was so out of it and acting so dumb. Then after I got home from the interview, I noticed a gland in my neck swollen to the size of a golf ball, and went back to the health center for blood tests.
And no, I didn’t get the scholarship of course!
My daughter had mono when she was a pre-teen. Her worst symptom was the sore throat. Our doctor advised that in addition to rest, it was vital that she consume plenty of liquids lest she dehydrate. If you’re sleeping 16+ hrs a day, during all that time you are of course consuming no liquids, and it’s surprising how quickly a person can become so dehydrated they are in need of an IV. This was especially true for my daughter since she was quite slim and did not have that much in her to begin with. We were also advised that it would be a good idea to be sure no one shared her (unwashed) utensils, cups and glasses, etc.
:eek: The idea of putting anything stronger than water or milk down my throat right now is making me shudder.
Six months? Nobody told me anything like that… nor was I told any of the effects would last six months.
Yeah. I vaguely remember that feeling. I don’t actually remember much of that summer, though. I am told it was filled with fevers of 105 degrees or better, living off coke Slurpies from 711 and pudding laced with Sustical.
The problem is that you WILL feel better later & your body can’t handle processing alcohol - especially if you end up with hepatitis as well.