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So I think I have mono.
Fagatron
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Looks like I contracted it from this girl I am seeing. She has never had it but her boyfriend before me has and the internet leads me to believe that this means she is probably a carrier.
I am suffering from incredible fatigue, when it first started to set in I slept for almost forty hours, with like, an hour or three of wakefulness in-between after I woke up for water or peeing. I've also got a pretty bad fever if I don't dose with Tylenol, nausea that comes and goes, and I threw up this morning. Got some gnarly tonsillitis/swollen lymph nodes going on in the back of my throat, and the lymph nodes in my armpits are all swollen too.
I am not dead yet even though I kind of wish I was, and I don't have health insurance or the money for a doctor right now. Is there any horrible ailment [besides mono] that might be just waiting to kill me that has all these symptoms?
I already know about the spleen thing, I am just trying to figure out if I am going to die because my intestines are plotting mutiny somehow or something.
I am suffering from incredible fatigue, when it first started to set in I slept for almost forty hours, with like, an hour or three of wakefulness in-between after I woke up for water or peeing. I've also got a pretty bad fever if I don't dose with Tylenol, nausea that comes and goes, and I threw up this morning. Got some gnarly tonsillitis/swollen lymph nodes going on in the back of my throat, and the lymph nodes in my armpits are all swollen too.
I am not dead yet even though I kind of wish I was, and I don't have health insurance or the money for a doctor right now. Is there any horrible ailment [besides mono] that might be just waiting to kill me that has all these symptoms?
I already know about the spleen thing, I am just trying to figure out if I am going to die because my intestines are plotting mutiny somehow or something.
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Even if it's "just" mono...get to the goddamn doctor. In the meantime, don't do anything more strenuous than eating and drinking and/or staggering back to bed.
Even if it is a free clinic type situation. I got mono, lost thirty lbs in a week. Came within a few days of organ failure. Nasty, nasty, nasty shit.
I have like three memories from a month long period. Everything else is blank. Seriously f'd me up. Not something to play around with.
From what I gather there's no cure for mono aside from "Sit it out and hope your spleen doesn't asplode." so I don't really see the point. I've been keeping food and fluids in me so far so the weight loss shouldn't be a problem yet.
Depending on your financial situation, some hospitals and/or states will suck up the cost of a hospital visit. I was hospitalized last year for three weeks while I was unemployed and had no savings. I ended up owing nothing in the end. This was my particular experience in Massachusetts, and let me stress, this may not be true for you, but your life isn't something to mess around with.
Be thankful mono's the only thing you got.
They have tests for those. Get tested tested once, then again the week later if it shows up negative (mono takes a while to read positive in such tests)
Also get tested for std's. Play it safe. Flu like symptoms and chronic fatigue are symptoms of the 'Magic Johnson.'
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
I put it off and before I knew it, I was in the emergency room and ended up staying overnight with an IV stuck in me, which obviously costed more than a doctor's visit.
How are your glands? Is there swelling underneath your jaw? The fatigue is cause for concern regardless of if it turns out to be mono, but seriously, you should see someone. Is there no way you can borrow money from a friend or family member, or set up a payment plan with your doctor? Mono can wreck some terrible damage if you just try to wait it out and it ends up becoming worse.
Edit:
This is also a terrible mindset. As Kerbob pointed earlier, mono can lead to organ failure in extreme conditions. Don't just think mono is something like a common cold, it can get very serious.
Weaboo List
I just went through this exact same thing, but have easy access to cheap clinics. Good luck.
Nah man, everything else is good on that front. We have both been tested for the usual suspects and by "girl I have been seeing" I meant "girl I have been dating for the past two months."
Swollen as fuck but not much I can really do about that. How can I tell if all my organs are betraying me? I guess I will see if I can find a way to see a doctor but when I say there is no money there is no money.
Which is why I haven't done anything yet. Why see a doctor when they are just going to charge me for a test that confirms the obvious and instruct me to do what I'm already doing?
Worst part about this is that I'm expecting a call from my recruiter in the near future about going to MEPS there's been so many fucking setbacks already, this is not welcome.
To the best of my knowledge, the only way you can tell is from a doctor's visit or pain in certain areas. I definitely know how it goes with having medical issues without having insurance or money, so if you really REALLY can't go right now, all I can really recommend is: lots of rest, no physical activities, lots of fluids, and acetaminophen.
Again, I extremely recommend seeing a doctor due to my experience, but if you really can't then you need to do your best with conserving energy and keeping yourself well hydrated (Gatorade is great, in my anecdotal opinion). I'm also not a doctor, so again please be careful.
Hope it works out, mono is not fun at all.
Edit: Just realized my Gatorade recommendation conflicts with Pojaco's experience (Gatorade has a decent amount of sugar) but it's what worked for me.
Weaboo List
I've just been drinking a loooooot of water.
Oh also no physical exercise (cardio - 4 weeks, contact sports - 8 weeks (this is what the doc told me)) or else your spleen could burst. Yeah that wouldn't be pleasant.
Watch for white plaques on the swollen stuff in the back of your mouth. Bacterial superinfections are very common and you may need antibiotics.
Also, if you feel like your tonsils and adenoids are sticking into your throat to a noticeable degree go to a doctor. You will likely be given some steroids to shrink your swollen glands. Technically steroids suppress your immune system and you will likely be sick an extra day or two but breathing is more important.
All I ate for about a week was soft serve ice cream (was living in the dorms at the time).
Best quote ever was from the doctor at the student health service "Avoid alcohol, falling down and getting hit by a car." wtf, are there people out there that don't try to avoid falling down and being hit by cars when they don't have mono?
Also your sleep schedule will likely get completely messed up. I got to the point where I was sleeping for 3-4 hours and then up for 1 hour. I second the advice to take it easy even after you are starting to feel better and not sleeping 20 hours a day.
In the end though; your life, your health, your money. Your choice.
Go to the Doctor. Even if it is expensive, go to the Doctor. Your health has to come first. Without it you can't work, live, or anything. Worry about the cost after the fact, you can always find more money, you can't find more life.
You should stop assuming things. I've been unemployed since August, until March I was looking for work and running my own small business of sorts to make what little money I could. All my savings were gone by November, I was homeless the first two months of the year, and all the business I was doing has dried up since as people's wallets have shrunk. Moved back in with my parents in March on the condition that I was joining the Army, that's already taken about two months longer than it was supposed to.
Called the "Clinics" up here. Cheapest I'm going to be able to get anything done is $80 plus diagnostic fees. I don't have that much money, my parents don't have that much money, and even if they did they are kind of douchey and probably would not loan it to me.
No, I just haven't gotten to that yet as I feel real bad about getting healthcare via a method that's extremely draining on the hospital and state government.
Gonna see if I can scrape together the money for a trip down to San Francisco first, there's a clinic down there that is actually free that I used when I was homeless.
Who do you think funds the free clinic down in SF?
Donors and the Medical School down the way for the resources, doctors volunteer their time.
Nobody is going to think you are a leech and if anybody does, they're not human.
So I called them back, said that I'd really just like an appointment with them and if it gets worse I'll seek medical attention elsewhere before then. She put me on hold like three different times and suddenly instead of next week the soonest appointment they can schedule me for is July 9th and I am pretty sure they are just trying to make me go someplace else because she immediately referred me to the other places again.
I think I'll go up and see my uncle tonight, he used to be a physician's assistant, and if he thinks I need to I'll see if the hospital can help me out without spending more money I don't have, I am not optimistic about this.
By some odd, backward, retarded line of reasoning, you don't want to turn to a system that is put in place to help people in your exact situation.
How many more people need to tell you that your LIFE IS POSSIBLY IN DANGER before you go to the fucking hospital?
Simple solution that doesn't involve you waiting around like an idiot and possibly dying:
Walk in there. Tell them you think you have mono. Tell them you can't afford to pay for the visit but you fear for your health.
Except I don't really fear for my life? I have a pretty goddamn good idea what is going on with my body and know about the complications that I need to be watching for. Medical reassurance that everything's going to be okay would be nice, but while I feel like death, I know I'm not dying. I haven't even lost any weight yet. I'm not even in any real pain besides the fact that my tonsils feel like they've achieved sentience and are seeking freedom from my throat via burrowing. Acetaminophen fixes that and the fever, lots of rest and fluid seems to be taking care of me besides that.
except that you should? i know that you're confident about your self-diagnosis mixed with internet doctorin' but you really should at least TRY to seek the most immediate medical attention possible. better safe than sorry and all that.
If the doctors say I don't have mono tomorrow I will eat my hat.* Potentially fatal organ damage and asphyxiation do not just happen without warning. However, pain in my side, going to doctor. It'll put my girlfriend at ease at least.
*when I am no longer horribly ill
I don't know your relationship with your parents, but (assuming they can afford it) would they really deny you the money? If cost is a burden, that would be my advice.
When I finally got in (Emergency Room) he said he thought it was probably strep just because of how goddamn swollen my tonsils are, but that it was weird that there was no spotting. Did a strep culture and a mono spot. Quick culture came back negative and the doctor was all "Yeah so we will wait for the second one and call you with a prescription for antibiotics if it's positive --- oh wait mono spot just came back you have mono." Then he was all "Welp I would explain this to you but you knew what you had when you came in and you seem to know all this stuff anyway don't get punched in the spleen and keep doing exactly what you are doing m'kay? Also here is this prescription for horse ibuprofen."
You guys suck at advice. Now I have to figure out this shit with MediCal to keep the ER Bill from rising up and strangling me to death in addition to being sick. Only possibly beneficial thing that came of this is now I have a doctor's note that says I have mono if I get the call too soon.
No, I'm pretty sure that I was going to do exactly what I am doing. Getting into the military does me no good if my spleen ruptures during Basic because I didn't tell anyone I had mono. In fact I'd be a lot worse off because then I have a contract that's no good anymore because even if they don't hang me for lying about shit I'm probably not going to complete Basic or make AIT at my scheduled date with an asploded spleen. Not to mention there's no way I'm passing a physical at MEPS until my tonsils aren't the size of plums anyway.
Thanks for knowing me better than me though bro.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is they should have some kind of social worker you can talk to in the hospital that will make the fees really low.
At least you got a script though, that's a little something. Here's to good health (raises Lazy Boy IPA to you)
You can get mono other ways that kissing, I got it from sharing a drink with a family member. But, even if she did get it from her ex, it has an incubation period of 1 to 2 months...that means 1 to 2 months before you show any symptoms. They've only been dating about 2 months, and they could've been 'fooling around' before that. It's very possible she got it from her ex and passed it onto him, some people are fortunate enough to not have symptoms from it.
EDIT: I'm very tired...I think I may have missed the sarcasm in that post. ;-)