Mononucleosis, commonly known as mono is a horrible little virus that generally afflicts teens and young adults. Children can get it, but the symptoms are often mild to nonexistent and adults have in all likelihood already built up immunities. Mono is characterized by an intense feeling of weakness and a lack of will to do pretty much anything, also known as fatigue. Also common are fevers and all that comes with fevers, fever dreams, hallucinations, a poor day overall. As well as a swelling to the glands in the neck and the tonsils, which leads to a severe sore throat, especially when swallowing.
There are many ways that mono can be treated the primary one is to simply rest. Mono eventually goes away on its own, to a certain extent which will be discussed later, so simply resting throughout will help to exacerbate the process. However the amount of rest required will depend, so bed rest may be required which can lead to missing school, work or that hot date on Friday night. Also the feeling of fatigue can last for weeks or even months, but bed rest will probably not be required for that large an amount of time.
Fevers from mild to severe can be a debilitating symptom that can do more damage to that social life than the fatigue. We’ve all had fevers and found ourselves talking to Bugs Bunny and King Henry VIII about the state of taxation in Morocco before passing out for six hours just to escape that feeling of burning up and then freezing. But fevers are one of the bodies more ridiculous, and potentially harmful, ways of healing so technically it’s not necessarily a bad thing. However to achieve relief from a fever there are certain drugs that advertise fever relief. Otherwise plenty of food, water and rest should help clear it up… eventually.
The worst symptom of Mono is assuredly the sore throat caused by swollen tonsils and glands. The swollen tonsils cause severe pain when attempting to swallow, so the act of eating, drinking and even talking in some cases becomes so excruciatingly painful that it simply can’t be done. I lost 11 pounds (since I’m American and don’t understand the metric system) when I had mono because I could not force myself to eat for 4 days. The pain can be alleviated somewhat by gargling salt water, I’m not sure how this works but it does, throat lozenges and pain relievers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, Advil and Tylenol respectively. The swelling in the glands can also be reduced by prescription medication from a doctor. Which I highly recommend getting since the swelling is the worst part of the disease.
Mono is, in my own humble opinion, one of the worst illnesses to suffer from, and once you get over the symptoms the virus never really goes away. You can never go through it again but the virus remains in the body and sometimes becomes active to be passed on unknowingly. But with proper care Mono is a relatively simple disease to get over.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/infectious-mononucleosis-topic-overview
