Bad case of Mono

[hankster]

Lily and I are here with James at UT Medical Center this morning. He was admitted Friday with Infectious Mononucleosis.

 

He came down with a sore throat a couple of weeks ago, and I had Lily take him to his pediatrician.

 

There, they swabbed his throat, diagnosed Strep and gave him a shot of penicillin. Said he'd be feeling better in 24 hours..................... 48 hours later, he's much worse.

 

It's Saturday, so I call the pede, and am connected to an oncall Nurse, who gives me the answer I'm anticipating. "Take him to the Emergency Room".

 

We did, and there they gave him a blood test and diagnosed Mono. They gave him a shot of steroids to shrink the swelling in his throat, along with a scrip for pain meds, and tell us to follow up in a week with the Pede.

 

5 days later he is even sicker when we take him to his appointment. As soon as the doc takes a look at him, he says he needs to be admitted to UT Medical Center.

 

Well here we are, and he's feeling well enough, that I expect them to discharge him this morning.

 

As we all do these days, I've read up on this illness on the internet in the last few days, and found out it can be a serious illness, with weakness and general fatigue lasting as long as a year. It's a virus, with no medicinal cure. The body's immune system finally takes care of it.

 

.

Back when I was in HS, I heard of it referred to as "Kissing Sickness", and knew a few people that had it, but didn't remember them being so sick.

 

Anyway, hopefully the worst part is over, and he'll feel well enough to start his senior year, a week from tomorrow.

[Zhou Zhou]

I remember back in school, too. I'm sure the worst will be over soon, but you're right about the symptoms lasting a long time.

[Amaro]

I had this happen to me 2 months ago. Its very scary when you read how easy it is to get it from someone that has it. I had a sore throat for about 5 days and felt this was not normal at all. I finally decided to go to a walk-in clinic and have them figure out what was wrong. I was in serious pain, I couldnt eat, couldnt sleep, it was unbareable. They swabbed my throat to check for strep and it came back negative, so the next step was a blood test and it came back positive. I was relieved to find out what I exactly had. They gave me some medicine that was suppose to suppress any other symptons. I was surprised to hear as well that there was no cure out there for this virus and it will stay with you for your entire life. I told the doc, im not leaving here till you give me steroids for my swelling, and sure enough he gave it to me.

 

Im glad your son is doing better, its not something anyone should experience.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Amaro (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

Hank, I hope the boy is getting better, my nephew had that a few years ago, it is a rough one to deal with.

[Kyle]

Sorry to hear this! I remember being hospitalized for a couple of months with mono when I was young (20 years ago). I hope he gets better soon. I remember feeling week all of the time, not really wanting to do anything other than sleep!