I am wondering how many mono sufferers have had a similar experience to mine. I first got sick in July of 2012 and recovered uneventfully in less than three weeks. I was completely fine for a full year and thought that I was out of the woods. Then in July of 2013 I had the EXACT same symptoms come back. Enlarged spleen, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, aches, brain fog, headaches etc. However, it was with a negative monospot. For this reason, my doctors figured it could not be related to my mono. It’s like I had all the symptoms, but the test would not cooperate. I was tested for everything under the sun by the doctors at my University’s student wellness center: (Thyroid, lyme, EKG, blood sugar, West Nile, ANA, HIV) All have come back negative.
I came home in September when school was just too much. I later found a new GP who recognized it immediately as a “Chronic Fatigue post state” and said it would be 1-2 years before I was completely back to normal. I’m not sure where he got that timetable from. 9 months into it I feel the worst of it is over but the one symptom that has not gone away is the tiredness. I will be heading back to school in June and know I can handle sitting through class, just not any rigorous activity. Even though I am much improved compared to when I first got ill, it’s concerning me that this could last so long.
Has anyone else gone through having a recurrence tied to the same time of year as the original infection? how long did it last? Did it recur year after year?
Yes I have had a relapses or recrudescence of mono, but it they were a long time after the original illness, it is part of the herpes family of virus so it stays in your system forever- there is a currently debatable correlation between it and chronic fatigue. I get the obvious signs if I do any consistent overtraining or do a long race when undertrained. So for me there is not a same time of year event it’s just if I over do it. And this is just my perspective but-it is the tiredness, it does get better- but I get tired(fall asleep in a chair/car) so much easier than before
Eh, I don’t see a diagnoses of M.E. as all that helpful. I wish they would subdivide people with a lengthy mono convalescence from people who developed CFS/ME spontaneously.
I wanted to thank you for that link- that explains a lot
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I thought I had mono one summer…It turns out I was just bored…
I wanted to thank you for that link- that explains a lot
Glad you found it helpful.
Just curious - have you experienced M.E. symptoms?
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When I looked at the link for the international consensus criteria- I had several of the symptoms in each of the diagnostic criteria-it is an eye opener- I had thought prior to reading the link that I had just not ever recovered from my last mono outbreak 15 years ago
I see you are doing some sprint races- any sort of high intensity (high heart rate) is something that I just can’t do
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When I looked at the link for the international consensus criteria- I had several of the symptoms in each of the diagnostic criteria-it is an eye opener- I had thought prior to reading the link that I had just not ever recovered from my last mono outbreak 15 years ago
I see you are doing some sprint races- any sort of high intensity (high heart rate) is something that I just can’t do
You may also be interested in this doctor’s research:
http://drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/CFS_-_The_Central_Cause:_Mitochondrial_Failure
Four months after my initial lapse, I finally went to a naturopath - she put me on essentially the same supplements that Dr. Myhill recommends and within a week I went for a 20 minute walk/run - it was awesome to be able to have the energy to do it and not have a relapse the next day.
During those 4 months I doubted I would ever get back to exercising, let alone training and racing, because my regular doc had no answers.
After very slowly easing back into light training - and dealing with dwindling relapses in terms of severity, duration - I eventually entered a try-a-tri then a sprint, and by the end of the season I had a couple of podiums and a win, so, if turns out you also have M.E., there may be hope yet.
Should you try the supplement regime (I didn’t add the NAD coz I had a ‘flush’ when I first took it) I’d be interested to know if you find it has any effect.
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I’ll check out that link and give them a try- it’s certainly worth it. A concurrent problem I have is chemical and light sensitives resulting in migraines- so I haven’t tried any supplements, I’ll definitely let you know and thanks again