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I was diagnosed with mono today. Apparently I contracted it sometime around February, and my doctor said I should expect to feel sick until late May or June. I am in my last semester of college, and I have a thesis due in early May, which I am really behind on because I've been so sick lately. My doctor said that all I can really do is just take good care of my self; sleep a lot, eat well, lower my stress level, but because of school this isn't exactly an option for me. This isn't to say that I won't take it easier, but I can't exactly take it easy. For those of you that have dealt with mono, what are your suggestions? What made you feel better? What foods should I be eating? Should I take any supplements? please help me, I'm so upset.

I had it, but I was a senior in high school so I wasn't really concerned about having to get work done and i was psyched that I got to miss a lot of school. that's not much help really, but my advice would be to tell your professors or your advisor and ask for extensions if you need them.

Definitely ask for the extensions. I had an extension on some stuff because of a surgery and I walked with my class in May even though I didn't finalize my work until July. My diploma was withheld until I finished, but I still had the May graduation date and was able to put that for jobs. It wasn't a big deal at all! I'm sure your department can help you with something similar.

My roommate got mono through shared headsets for the body pump classes he taught. He fought taking it easy until it got a lot worse and his doctor made him arrange to telecommute.

Hope you feel better soon!

I got mono around the same time frame a couple years ago--in January. I had to withdraw from my courses by February, and I was flat on my back until April, not back to interacting with the world until May or so. On the other hand, my fella got it last summer and was out for 12 days then back to biking around town.

Just take really good care of yourself. Good, nutritious food. Sleep as much as possible. Get extensions. Have people take care of you if that's possible.

And get lots of good movies!

I had it a few years ago and didn't get hit too bad, but my boyfriend at the time--we were living together--got it a lot worse than I did--more fevers, lost more weight, had to take it easier longer. The only thing I was doing differently was taking these intense vitamins called Pharmaton (this was pregan) and drinking Pau d'Arco tea since I'd heard that's supposed to nourish the spleen. I don't know if it actually made a difference, but apparently something did.

I had mono while I was writing my dissertation. It sucked, but at least I was done with coursework when it happened! Work was slower than normal but I still managed to accomplish a lot, with frequent naps in between.

Can you just do a lot of the work at home in bed? Also, eat lots of Italian ice. I've had mono twice...

i had it and there was no question of even trying to push through it- i had just about enough time to call my advisor and have him take care of everything- i was down for the count, and lost about 3 months, no memory whatsoever. My mother tells me i was in her house, but i could have been in a storage unit for all i know.
Don't push it, it can push back really hard. take care.

LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR! Really, do, they're not telling you this for the fun of it. I laughed at my doctor when he told me I had to take a month of uni with shingles. 14 years later and I never got back to finish my degree. Viruses effect people differently but with the wrong combination of factors they can turn into chronic conditions. Once someone loses their health they realise nothing was worth it.

Tell your University and take any help they can give you. No point in having a degree if you're too sick to use it.

*stops waving big scary finger of doom*

I had mono but it didn't last a month. I cannot imagine that. I'd do whatever your doctor says because it's completely miserable.

thanks for the advice everyone. I got an extension on my thesis until the beginning of September, so now I have significantly less school work to worry about and can focus on getting better.

Yaaayy! Get well soon! xxx

get better! my son had it last year and it lasted months. fortunately he was in preschool so he wasn't missing much except for fingerpainting.

I am reviving this thread because my 19-year-old son was diagnosed with mono this week. The poor guy wasn't feeling great last weekend but when I got home from work on Monday his whole face was very swollen and he looked awful.

Luckily he was finished uni for the year and can hang out on the couch for a while. I have emphasized to him the need for rest but he has absolutely no energy or appetite.

Any tips from those who have been there?

And quiggles - are you still here? How did things work out?

I've had mono twice - it sucks.

Make sure he eats - that was always the hardest part for me. I had zero appetite and I was way too tired to make any effort to cook anything. Looking back, I kind of wonder if that was why I was sick as long as I was. He might not feel up to eating three meals a day, so if he's eating less than that, I'd try to make sure he gets as much nutrition as he can get out of what he does eat and a multivitamin probably wouldn't hurt either.

He should go for the steroids if he's puffy. I suffered the worst weekend of my life waiting to get to a doctor because I thought I didn't need them. I had the worst sore throat of my life that immediately got 95% better after my steroid shot.

Ugh I though I was going to die when I had it. I survived off crackers and gingerale until my mother MADE me eat a salad. It hurt to swallow. I went to the doctor and got on the scale fully clothed with my heavy jacket on and was still down in weight, and that was BEFORE I was diagnosed.

This was similar to my experience. I've noticed that it really affects people differently... I'm pretty sure that when I had it I got it from my boyfriend at the time, and he was just kind of tired/lethargic for a couple months. When I got it, I basically had the worst throat swelling I've ever experienced in my life and these gross sores on my tonsils, which lasted for about a month. The first time I went to the doc it was misdiagnosed as something else and they gave me an antibiotic, which also gave me an insane rash. It was GREAT! I literally could not swallow anything that wasn't soft or liquid because my throat had totally closed up on one side. I also didn't have anyone around to take care of me that summer, so after the second doctor's visit I basically just hid inside my house until I ran out of yogurt and popsicles. It was awful but obviously I recovered.

Arisaig- Your son is lucky to have you around to take care of him. Make sure he has lots of soft foods to eat (applesauce, soy yogurt, ice pops, juice etc). If he seems reluctant to rest maybe bribe him with some passive entertainment? Like get him some new DVDs or video games or something? If the swelling increases then talking to your doc about steroids is a good idea. I had no idea that was an option when I had my mono, but if I had it probably would have eliminated 90% of the discomfort.

Update - he is feeling a lot better, about two weeks after he first got sick. He even went for a (very short and slow) walk last night. He has an appointment with the doctor next Tuesday.

I bought just about any drink or soft food that I thought he might like - seriously, my fridge was bulging. Yogurt, smoothie drinks, 33 kinds of juice, puddings, chocolate milk, ice cream. He said he wanted soup so I made him broccoli and then Arabian lentil from AFR and pureed the heck out of them. Those went down well and are so nutritious. Even when his throat swelling went down he found it hard or unpleasant to swallow.

He is now eating solid food but picky, so nothing spicy or acidic. He is quite skinny anyway so we will have to try and fatten him up when he is better.

Thanks for all the input. So many people have told me scary stories of how it took months for them or a person they know to recover. He is lucky he is at home and has finished his school year and doesn't have to work this summer so if it takes him months to get back to normal it is not such an issue. On the other hand he had been thinking of travelling around this summer and maybe spending some time in Montreal so this has put a crimp in his plans.

One thing I would say is that when I had it (I was 18) after I started getting better, my doctor said "You'll probably be depressed, take these" and put me on anti-depressants without really checking if I was depressed. I would recommend not doing that as it led to 10 years of treatment for depression.

Mat.

I'd rec green smoothies, green juices and as much raw food as can be comfortably managed. My throat was almost swollen shut, at least in the beginning, but I had to bite the bullet and take prednisone because I could not even comfortably swallow liquids. After one round of having to get IV hydration at the hospital, I changed my tune and said OK to the pred.

I also took well calculated but high doses of high potency vitamins I had to get straight from a naturopath. That plus the green juices and smoothies really did the trick and within a couple of weeks, I went from sleeping 12-14 hours per night, and still feeling drowsy and in the dumps, to sleeping 6-8 and being back to myself and full of energy.

I had no appetite at first either but I just ate some nutritious things that tasted good to me, but ate them over and over...for example, mashed sweet potato with sea salt and a good chunk of earth balance...applesauce...soft tortillas with refried beans...and vegan ice cream.

So, just an FYI- it isn't always scary. Maybe its my hyper immune system, probably from years of shitty allergies keeping it roaring, but I only took a 1/2 day of work off when I had mono, and that was to go to the docs for the testing. I didn't take any other days off. I probably should have, working in a shop @ the mall, but I didn't feel that badly so I just didn't think about it. Sure, I went home after work and slept a lot, but I even went to a concert the night of the testing (I don't think the results were in yet so I didn't know I had mono, just that my tonsils were big enough to be touching).

Anyway, I was pretty much back to normal after a week or 2, it was similar to the flu, if that. I just really enjoyed freaking out my friend having him feel my spleen & staring @ my touching, white pocked tonsils. Actually, that's one thing, one of my tonsils never quite recovered and is larger than it would normally be and I get more occasional tonsil stones.

I apparently even got it again (you can get other strains again apparently) but barely felt anything, just got tested because an ex had it so they gave me the antibiotics; they said that since it had been 10 years the old antibodies shouldn't have been that strong so it was a new one.