Yes folks, I've got it ... the kissing disease. May I just start by saying that mono has quite the stigma attached to it! Everyone turns their nose up at me and gets all uppity when I say that I have mono ... it's not cancer or AIDS or something it's just mono! Lets start from the beginning:
Last week I started noticing that my throat hurt but only on the left side. I distinctly remember telling several people this on Thursday fearing that Max had somehow given me his tonsillitis through osmosis or something. Then by Saturday it was incredibly difficult to swallow, and I could see this giant lump in my throat. I called a nurse on my insurance she just told me home remedies to get through the weekend until I could go to the doctor. Saturday night is full of inspecting all of my friends' throats and them inspecting mine to see what 'normal' looks like. (sidebar: Brittany has a dagger hangy ball as do I, Gaby's is all long and wide, Evan's is really short and nubby, Scott's was pretty normal, and Maxy's throat is so disgusting right now because of the tonsillitis). Monday rolls around and everyone at work looks at my throat and freaks out thinking it is disgusting. I go to the health center and show it to them, they make me wait for about half an hour for a nurse to look at it, she looks at it and informs me that it is either mono or strep. Well my rapid strep test was negative and I could hardly believe mono since I felt fine other than the throat. So they ran a blood test ... MONO! I actually said, "WHAT!?! how is that possible I FEEL FINE!" The nurse just giggled, apparently I have a slight fever, hugely swollen glands and giant tonsils, all indicative of mono. The blood confirmed. So thus far I still feel fine, I'm not exceptionally tired or sick or anything, I just can't work out because my immune system is really down and my spleen is ready to rupture if I get hit or work out too hard. AND I can't drink until I'm over it. Thats like six weeks ... SIX WEEKS. Now I know that doesn't seem like a lot, and I'm not an alcoholic or anything, but 80's night is just not going to be the same if I'm not a little tipsy! I guess it's work it though if I can get back to normal faster, and I don't want my liver to freak out and give up on me at such a young age. So thats the skinny. Also I've had to kinda warn people that I might have given them mono. Some have taken it better than others, most people are unconcerned about it, Scott had a freak out thinking that we were sharing drinks, but other people have been OK. Actually sometimes I don't think I give people enough credit about stuff like this. That being said, I have had my fair share of people freak out and demand that I not get anywhere near them. FYI you can only spread it through "intimate contact with saliva" so most everyone is safe! Easily the best part of the whole ordeal though has been that at the health center they gave me a pamphlet called, "so, you have mono: taking the next step" haha, love it.
OK, well that is your update on my communicable diseases for today haha. Enjoy your hump day.
PS, I Google image searched "mononucleosis" and this picture came up, how appropriate.
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