Mononucleosis Archives

Mono?

My sister has been diagnosed with mono (the 1st blood test was neg. and they asked her back because something was peculiar with her liver readings...2nd test was positive for mono)....this illness began approx. 3.5 weeks ago and she has had 3-4 bad days, then 2-3 good days and this cycle has continued. She has bad shooting pains in her head which then travel throughout the body...headache, fever, achy joints (esp. lower legs), fatigue and nausea....what is going on? She is beginning to fall apart mentally b/c she is so afraid of feeling bad all the time. She is 26 years old and suffered from anorexia nervosa (18-19 years of age) and she is on the thin side. Please help!

Follow Ups:

• Re: Mono? Connie 11:27:15 11/24/03 (0)
• Re: Mono? (Archive.) Walt Stoll 07:22:39 11/24/03 (0)
• Re: Mono? Jessica 12:38:22 11/23/03 (0)

In Reply to: Mono? posted by Amy McCarthy on November 23, 2003 at 11:14:50:

I could be wrong about this but I seem to recall that while in college my boyfriend's big brother contracted mono. His own frat boy lifestyle resulted in him not taking as great of care of himself as he should have. Apparently, mono can effect the liver in such a way to bring about hepatitis. Thus, this is a hepatitis but it is not caused by the hepatitis viruses. The mono infection coupled with his own lack of self-care led to a hepatitis which in turn caused jaundice so severe that it was upsetting to see him. He ended up having to take a medical leave for two semesters as this all happened at the end of his fall semester.

In Reply to: Mono? posted by Amy McCarthy on November 23, 2003 at 11:14:50:

Amy,

This is typical of mono. Monocular hepatitis and an enlarged spleen are very common with this. Also, this usually lasts about 6 weeks even in those most of us would consider to be of average health. Your sister sounds to me to be of less than average health so it might last 3 months.

This is information that is the responsibility of the attending doc to provide!

Walt

In Reply to: Mono? posted by Amy McCarthy on November 23, 2003 at 11:14:50:

Hi, my son had mono when he was in the army and was in the hospital for a whild and then they sent them in on leave for 2 weeks because he was too ill to get through his training. Will he went back still sick and he was ill long enough so that they said he could get out of the service if he wanted to. But he didn't want to get out so he finally was able to get through the training. But I know it took a months before he go over it. So it might take a while for her to get over this.