Never knew how serious Mono could be

A little over 2 weeks ago I came down with a fever, headache, and body aches. Teledoc prescribed me antibiotics (Z pack) bc they thought I had strep.

A few days later, fever is climbing and I am just feeling worse. It got up to 102.8. I go to an in-person urgent care this time and they do Covid and flu tests which were both negative. They didn’t do a strep test, but looked at my throat/ears and said “oh you definitely have strep and an ear infection. The Z pack just isn’t strong enough to kill it”. They then prescribe me different antibiotics (doxycycline) and a steroid (dexamethasone). I feel better over the next few days and fever goes away…. Until the steroid ends.

I then develop the WORST sore throat and swollen lymph nodes all over, to the point where they hurt. A bit of left sided abdominal pain. Body aches coming and going and this feeling of being bruised all over. I’m sleeping constantly when not working and when I am working, the brain fog/fatigue is bad. After a few days of this and my tonsils getting worse, I go to ANOTHER urgent care. They’re not happy that the previous urgent care treated me for strep without actually testing me. They test me for mono and boom…. I finally have my solid answer.

Which don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful to have an answer and know what I’m dealing with. But man I had no idea how bad it could get. My tonsils are just getting worse and worse. I ended up going to the ER today bc I was concerned that they had gotten infected, an abscess had developed, etc. They ruled out all of that and gave me a steroid shot (absolutely amazing, the only real relief I’ve gotten) but said my symptoms may last through the next few weeks. The way the doctor put it was “your tonsils look very angry” and “mono just really sucks”.

It’s been over 2 weeks of this whole mess and I’m just mentally exhausted and so tired of being in pain. I am fatigued but the pain prevents me from sleeping well these past couple nights. I’m hoping to get some good sleep tonight with the steroids relieving pain.

I really had no idea how brutal mono could be. I’ve always just heard of people getting “really tired for a month” but never anything about the throat, fever, body aches, etc. I think the worst part is not having an end in sight. Knowing that it could last weeks or even longer.. not having a mental benchmark to think “if I just make it ____ days I’ll turn a corner and feel better!”

TLDR: mono sucks and I wish there was a solid timeline of when I will start feeling better as this would help me mentally to get through this