Tell me what you know about mono...
 

So, my boy is now in the hospital with mono. Near as we can tell, this started over a month ago, but no one caught it and every doctor he saw treated it as something else. (And you know he's got to be pretty sick for a boy to see a doctor 3 different times. Either that or his girlfriend's nagging him :p )

So anyway, apparently a lot of numbers are up, his spleen enlarged, but from what I can tell from dear old Google is that this is pretty normal and I shouldn't be worried...

But it's me, so I am...

So what I ask of my dear TFPer's is if you could share your stories of mono with me, so I don't stress out too much. Thank you! :icare:

Well I don't personally have experience with the illness but a close friend of mine had it when I was a teenager. It's mostly only transmitted by saliva so if you wash your dishes well and don't share utensils the rest of the family may very well stay clear of the illness. The virus can actually stay in your system indefinately but does not cause any new symptoms after about 4-6 weeks. My friend seemed to be tired and sleep a LOT, LOT, LOT for about 2 months. She seemed fine otherwise. I think the biggest risk with the enlarged spleen, which as you said is common, is that you avoid contact sports or any blow to the spleen which can rupture it at this time. But if you figure that you feel like crap and tired anyway you probably won't be behaving very actively and risking that anyway. My friend recovered without being in the hospital at all during her illness but perhaps her spleen wasn't quite as enlarged. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with this illness as well and had been feeling extreme fatigue for months. Her health is shaky anyway and the virus was able to cause symptoms for longer because her immune system was too weak to overcome the virus in the usual time. She has since recovered but with her situation the Dr warned of a "relapse" or recurrance of the symptoms though this is unlikely even in her situation.

This is all I really know about the illness. Since you looked things up on the internet you very likely may have read the info at WebMD. But here's the linky anyway. It is pretty thorough and I believe reliable.

I got Mono my senior year of high school. Unfortunately I also wound up with pneumonia and bronchitis and ended up in the hospital for about 4 months. I missed just about every enjoyable senior activity. =( Although my friends and girlfriend did throw a mini prom for me in my room, hehe.

I got mono the same week that Metroid Prime for the Gamecube came out.. :D

I slept, and played video games, for a good week. My girlfriend of the time never ended up getting it, which was weird.