To be honest, I never really knew that much about Mono. I mean, I had heard of it of course, but never had gotten the impression that Mono was really that big of a deal. And I certainly never gave any thought to the possibility that my own children might contract Mono at some point. But that’s exactly what happened.
SYMPTOMS OF MONO
About six months ago, my daughter, who was fourteen at the time, began complaining of a lot of muscle aches in her back. We weren’t overly concerned, as she had been growing like a weed for several months. I attributed the muscle aches to her intense muscular and skeletal growth. She had also recently started her first job, which happened to be at McDonald’s, and so when she began sleeping a lot more than usual, and complaining of being very tired most of the time, I attributed the fatigue to the fact that she was still getting used to the physical activity associated with her new job.
The fatigue and muscle aches persisted for about three months before I began to really wonder if these symptoms were being caused by something other than growth and work. During those three months, my daughter would also complain of headaches, but headaches are very common in our family and since my daughter’s stress level had risen due to exams and her new job, I wasn’t alarmed by the headaches. However, after three months of these symptoms, my daughter developed a headache that lasted for nine days straight, and became very severe. At this point, we took her to the doctor. She was diagnosed with Mononucleosis, or Mono, at that time. Shortly thereafter, we learned that a fellow employee had recently been diagnosed with Mono as well, and had been using the same drive through headset that all of the other employees used, including my daughter. We believe this is how she contracted Mono.
Other symptoms that my daughter experienced, were loss of appetite, nausea, sensitivity to sunlight, and mood swings.
DEALING WITH MONO
This is when I began to learn quite a bit about Mono, and the severe symptoms it can cause. That particular headache, lasted for more than two weeks, and even after it faded, more came along almost daily. My daughter happens to be allergic to Ibuprofen, so finding a way for her to manage the pain was almost impossible for us. She received a prescription for 4 days worth of a strong pain medicine mixed with a muscle relaxer, but because these are habit forming, we did not want to continue to ask for prescription refills. Tylenol usually didn’t even touch her headaches. We learned to keep them minimal by allowing her to sleep almost constantly, in a darkened room. To give an example of how extreme her fatigue was, just going out for twenty minutes with her Dad to drive up to a local fast food restaurant to pick up lunch, completely exhausted her, and she slept for the next seven hours. For approximately two months, she didn’t have enough energy to leave the house.
Sleep and rest is the only way to get well from Mono, and my daughter subsequently missed a great deal of school due to the illness. Even though she had skipped a grade during elementary school, and taking Junior classes as a Sophomore, she missed so much school due to Mono that she is currently attending an alternative school to make up a full quarter of credits. She’ll go back to her regular school next term, but Mono has really affected her in this area.
As the illness begins to loosen it’s grip, the fatigue does begin to diminish, but this happens very, very slowly. After six full months, my daughter, now fifteen, is just beginning to physically get back to normal. However, when she overdoes it, as she has been lately with sports, the glands in the front of her neck swell up again, and she suffers from subsequent fatigue.
Mono is a more severe illness than many people believe, and requires extreme amounts of rest. Mono will likely cause your teen to miss a lot of school, and you will need to be prepared for that. My daughter missed about two months, and the principal at her school commented to me that students with Mono were typically set back an entire semester. Stay in touch with your doctor, provide whatever safe pain relieving medications that you can, and an environment in which your teen can rest as much as they need. Mono can affect a teen severely, and will likely affect everyone in the home to some degree. Rest assured though, that it will pass, and life will get back to normal.
