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So I have mono
GreasyKidsStuff
MOMMM!ROAST BEEF WANTS TO KISS GIRLS ON THE TITTIES!Registered User regular
MOMMM!ROAST BEEF WANTS TO KISS GIRLS ON THE TITTIES!Registered User regular
Last Thursday I was diagnosed with mononucleosis (however you spell it) after two or three days of pain behind the ears when swallowing. So the last two days have been spent with me in bed eating nothing but popsicles, yogurt, and soup, and drinking nothing but water, apple juice, and milkshakes.
I am currently prescribed some Tylenol 3 coated with... codene I think it's called? Anyways, I also have a rinsing solution to gargle with every few hours to supposedly numb my throat, therefore relieving the pain of swallowing.
Now I have found that both of these offer temporary (if any) relief at all. My tonsils are swollen to the size of grapefruits and they are covered in white... shit (look up tonsillitis on wikipedia to get an idea of what my mouth looks like. Keep in mind mine's worse).
I was looking if any of you intelligent people have suffered my fate and have any remedies that... well, work. I'm not looking for a cure, I know that I just need to ride it out and hopefully it'll go away relatively soon. But my god the stuff I was prescribed only does the trick so well. My mom suggested gargling with warm salt-water, and I might try that later.
Thanks a ton guys.
I am currently prescribed some Tylenol 3 coated with... codene I think it's called? Anyways, I also have a rinsing solution to gargle with every few hours to supposedly numb my throat, therefore relieving the pain of swallowing.
Now I have found that both of these offer temporary (if any) relief at all. My tonsils are swollen to the size of grapefruits and they are covered in white... shit (look up tonsillitis on wikipedia to get an idea of what my mouth looks like. Keep in mind mine's worse).
I was looking if any of you intelligent people have suffered my fate and have any remedies that... well, work. I'm not looking for a cure, I know that I just need to ride it out and hopefully it'll go away relatively soon. But my god the stuff I was prescribed only does the trick so well. My mom suggested gargling with warm salt-water, and I might try that later.
Thanks a ton guys.
GreasyKidsStuff on
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MH79, all I ate was toast, which sounds like it would be an awful thing to swallow but really isn't, and burning hot soup. It would be so hot that it would be painful on my lips and in my mouth, but when it hit my throat... oooohh, so good. I started off drinking really hot tea, too, but got tired of making it and just drank really hot water. Not only is the hot stuff much easier to swallow, it helps kill the infection. I felt a hell of a lot better after three days of that, plus bed rest. Don't get out of bed unless you have to. Good luck!
If anyone is depending on you to go to that show, figure out a plan B now in case you can't make it. You're probably going to be down for the count for the first couple of weeks, and you'll be pretty puny for a month or two.
When the doctor told you to rest, he meant it. Don't plan on going to a concert, don't plan on doing anything. You need to basically sleep and eat for about a month or you're likely to relapse. I moved to a different state at the tail end of mono and it was a terrible, terrible idea. Stay in bed, nap whenever you feel tired, eat soft foods, and drink lots and lots of peppermint tea.
If it's at all possible, go stay with your mom for a little while and get taken care of. That's what moms are for!
A little background on mono, if you haven't looked it up yet. I had my tonsils taken out when I was six years old, so I didn't have them when I had mono. But what I can tell you is that the biggest danger is really the spleen. It can swell pretty large, and the biggest danger is that it can rupture. Hence you need to rest and don't exert yourself. In my case, my liver got part of the infection too, which made it very hard to eat anything.
Eat liquid and soft food. I know it sounds like it might hurt, but some non-diet soda might help to keep some sugar (and thus energy) in your body. Cottage cheese or yogurt should be fairly easy to swallow and get some protein in your body, but be careful of anything fatty as it can put more of a strain on your liver which is already probably working pretty hard.
I missed a week of University, but I made up for it with a doctors note.
I even went back to work, because it's impossible for someone to replace your shift and I needed money. It was right when I was at the tail end of the symptoms, so by my next shift the next weekend I was pretty much all better.
I get sick all the time, but that's because my tonsils need to go, but for some reason mono's symptoms didn't last that long at all for me.
water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And I agree you might have to skip the concert. The more you exert yourself the longer the recovery process will be.
The fact of the matter is that all of this is bad timing cuz Friday is the concert, and Saturday is my 18th birthday
Yeah this is shitty timing.
When you've got mono, you've just gotta suck it up and let it do its thing. Rest assured the REALLY shitty part will be over soon enough, but consider yourself down and out for the count for quite a while.
It is shitty timing, but you have no idea how many times I've seen this play out. Its either their 18th birthday or their 21st birthday and they either have mono or the flu. Also you're not going to that concert mate. Mono can take weeks to months to run its course. When my mom had it she missed an entire semester of her senior year of high school. The last person I knew that had it was out for six weeks. These are somewhat extreme cases, but being out of it for a month is not uncommon.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I'd also like to agree with them on the topic of no booze, no concert, no physical exertion..take it easy.
When I had mono it was awful, I made it through with minimal talking, gargling salt water, honey/lemon concentrate, popcicles, throat numbing medication, medication, and lots and lots of sleep.
Keep in mind mono has been known to have lingering effects for up to 3 months after it's "over"
As for food I recommend cottage cheese.
Also, stay away from toast..that's just lunacy.
The reason people are recommending toast is that it's part of the standard 'BRAT' diet for people with sick stomachs: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It's one of the foods that I would generally recommend to a sick person. I agree that it might not work very well for the OP, but the best advice I would give is to just try it and see how it goes down.
Arch,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_goGR39m2k
That sucks that you got misdiagnosed. They did the bloodtest right then and there, and I knew I had mono within fifteen minutes.
water spirals the wrong way out the sink
*cough*bullshit*cough*
Actual advice: you can get sore throat spray over-the-counter (I like Vicks) that temporarily numbs your tonsils enough to get food down and get to sleep. You shouldn't be using it constantly, but it was a lifesaver for me.
Any tips on the whole sleeping thing? Someone mentioned earlier they woke up every hour or so, I am definitely suffering from that. Usually every two hours. And since that's the minimum time I can leave between mouth rinses, I usually get up and gargle for a minute. And every four hours I take a painkiller. But I still wake up with my mouth feeling like somebody took a shit in it and my ears still hurt
In other news, I may also have a sinus infection. The doc originally prescribed antibiotics last Tuesday, which I think was for such a situation, but when we found I had mono, he took me off of them. Now I've gone through a box of kleenex in three days. Ugh.
Kill me.
Something that's really rough, because that is really good at killing off an infection and lessening the pain. Ok don't get absolutely rat-arsed but you get the picture.
Actually, if you can get your hands on some Ferna Branca. To my knowledge it's an Italian spirit, that sorts you out right quick.
Take one shot of it, and then half an hour later take another shot of it. It's not going to cure you (at least it shouldn't, it might) but it'll definitely make you feel somewhat better.
This is bad advice. Don't do this.
Depending on what antibioitics and what painkillers he's on, this goes from a bad idea to a phenomenally bad idea. Chances are at least one of the two drugs is already doing a number on his liver, and drinking when your liver is down is not good. Regardless, gargling salt water is far more effective than socking back shots of hard liquor.
Mono is a viral infection and your body will eventually get used to just having it around. It is similar to the chicken pox for example where it says in your blood for the rest of your life but your body develops an immunity and stops reacting to it.
Best you can do is tough it out. Take some painkillers (mine stopped working after 3 days) eat and sleep if you can. Sleep will get you over it faster and you are blissfully unconscious and unaware of the pain.
Good luck!
You are going to sleep non-stop. You're going to barely be able to move. Depending on how fast you recover, expect to be sick and out of work from anywhere near 1 week to 4(+!) months. It sucks, but you do not want to have major surgery because your spleen exploded from lifting a 3 lb box.
Drink plenty of fluid, and slurp some soup. You'll have a hard time eating anything solid for the duration of your mono.
Cancel all your engagements in the foreseeable future and do not do any drinking whatsoever until you are recovered. Even if alcohol doesn't interact with your medication - which could kill you - it impairs your immune system and that is the absolute last thing you want right now.
Do not engage in any physical exertion. Your spleen is swollen and will probably get worse, you don't want it rupturing (a very real danger).
The throat pain is intense for a limited time, but the exhaustion will likely be around at varied levels for a month or more. You're going to be going to be early for a while.
Take time off work. Any job that won't give you time off because you're sick with mono is not a job worth having. Realistically, you can expect about a week or two of downtime, but it's absolutely not uncommon to be out for half a year, or more. Also, the fatigue, depending on your overall health, could last many, many, many months more.
In short. Rest, Drink, Eat, Sleep, No work until you're 100% better. People who go to work that aren't 100% better but they "feel good enough" often relapse.
Now, I ended up dropping out of college, and spent 3 months lounging around home feeling miserable and sick. It was so bad that it was all I could do to walk down to my computer and chat on irc.. I'd sleep on and off all day in that chair, then my mom would help me back to bed.
What she ended up feeding me that was an old ukrainian folk remedy was beet and apple juice. She took one part beet, and 3 part apples and pureed them in the juicer, then I drank that. It didn't do anything for the pain, but it gave me a good nutrient boost.
As to the alcohol idea, that's just lunacy. Mono makes your liver and spleen swell. Do you really think you want to put more work on something that's already getting the shit kicked out of it?
For the sore throat I just used a ton of that numbing throat spray. The doctor also gave me a prescription of toradol.. that helped too, of course, then I couldn't feel anything at all..
Really really take care of yourself. The single worst night of my life was lying in the hospital in the middle of the night staring at the tracheotomy kit they left in my room because my throat was so swollen that I'd choke on my tonsils everytime I drifted off to sleep. Sleep deprived for 4 days, sick, in the hospital, and thinking that at any moment they're going to rush in and cut my throat open... yuck.
Take it easy, and get better.
Take it easy for at least a couple of months. I moved after 2 months of having mono — thought I was over it — and ended up relapsing hardcore. It took me another three or four months of sleeping 16 hours a day and being exhausted the rest of the time before I felt okay again. Whatever you want to do, it's not worth it.
He got it, and he started to feel better after about a week. After another week, he had essentially returned to his typical, fairly active schedule. He went out to a concert one night and played a game of basketball another day. At the end of the week, he got to take an ambulance ride from work when his spleen ruptured and it needed to be removed.
Despite it being relatively common, this is a pretty serious illness. Don't do anything stupid like go right back to work lifting heavy objects and/or bouncing around at a concert. Also, drinking while you're sick is perhaps the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard, even aside from the possible interactions with medications.
Rest and keep your internal organs internal.
When I had it (missing year 2000 New Year's Eve parties!), I felt horrible for a couple weeks, then was tired for the next month. Extremely hot/cold liquids were great, as was soup.
This! Seriously, you need to take a couple of months because it take that long to really heal, even if you are feeling better, or your tonsils are clearing up as you mentioned. Relapsing sucks, because if it's still part of the initial infection, the relapse takes long to recover from, usually because you did something like exerting yourself unnecessarily which did some damage which now has to be healed.
As Trowizilla mentioned in her story before to, keep in mind that you likely very contagious right now, so going out is putting other people at risk, too. Plus, your immune system is compromised as is, so are at high-risk level for secondary infections.