10 weeks in, my journey so far!

Hi everyone,

I've been wanting to make a post here for a while! On my worst days, scrolling through this forum and seeing all the posts from people going through the same thing as me made me feel less alone.

I wanted to write about my last 10 weeks. Specifically, my symptoms (I'm a 23-year-old woman, by the way), my (slow) recovery, and my advice/what I'm learning.

(This will be a bit of a long post, so I apologize in advance!)

To get right into things, around mid-May I started having an unusual amount of headaches and fatigue. I'm usually the most energetic person in the room, so this was really odd. As the week went on (with my first symptoms experienced on the Monday), the fatigue got worse and worse - to the point where I literally couldn't leave my bed. I was also experiencing intense brain fog at the time. I felt dissociative and out-of-it, like I wasn't fully in my body, if that makes sense. I knew something was wrong.

The next Monday (so a week later), I thought I was feeling better, but when I got out of my bed the room started spinning. It was dizziness like I never experienced before. I immediately fell back down. When I turned my head too quick the room span. I called my mom, who's a nurse, and she insisted we make an appointment for a blood test.

A few days later, after my test, I was still feeling very out of it. The brain fog would come and go and the feeling of malaise lingered. I had no energy and wouldn't leave me bed. Sure enough, a week after doing the test, my results were in and I (of course!) had mono. I was shocked at first, because when I think of mono I think of swollen lymp nodes, an enlarged spleen, and tonsilitis/inflamed tonsils. I had NONE OF THAT! It just goes to show this virus really does show appear differently in everyone.

I was really glad to know that it was mono and not a brain tumour (as Google had suggested). I was also glad to find out that my blood test was showing that I'm not actively contagious, so the "worst" of the illness already came and gone. With that said, there are four main stages to mono, and after you're done being contagious it can take months (sometimes years!) for your energy to come back (as I'm sure most of you know all too well).

The last 10 weeks have been so hard. I've had good days and bad days. I realized yesterday that I'm probably having 70% bad days and 30% good days now, but there was a time (the week before and after the test) when it was all 100% bad days. It's so easy to get frustrated with this illness, but there's also a lot to be learned from it, so I wanted to share what I've learned here:

1. You're still sick even if you don't have physical symptoms. This has been a big one. Because I don't have swollen tonsils or an enlarged spleen it's easy for me to forget I'm actually battling a virus. My symptoms right now are brain fog, fatigue, malaise, confusion, and painful headaches that come and go. It doesn't look like I'm sick when you see me, but I feel the sickest I've ever been. Reminding myself that my body needs time to heal is so important.
2. Make sure you have good sleep hygiene. Everyone knows mono as being a virus where you spend a lot of time sleeping. But are you actually sleeping? Or just laying in bed? I know for most of the last 10 weeks I've only been getting 7-8 hours a night because it's hard for me to sleep in. Forcing myself to take naps has helped me feel better. Also - if you ARE sleeping for longer, are you actually sleeping deeply? Or are you restless? Ideally you enter REM for the best, most healing sleep.
3. It's OK to get frustrated, but have faith you'll recover. This is the most frustrating virus I've ever encountered. I've had days in a row where I feel great and then BOOM - I'm bedridden all over again. It sucks to not know exactly when you will be OK. You are at the helm of a virus in your body and you just have to let it run its course. Journal out your thoughts or call a friend to vent. Get your feelings out in a healthy way! But try not to stress, because stress weakens your immune system and you absolutely don't want that!
4. Ask people around you for advice. A few days ago, I made a Facebook status asking my friends/family if they've had mono and, if yes, how long it took them to make a full recovery. It was so comforting to see people I know admitting to having it and admitting to making a full recovery. Of the nearly 20 comments, the answers ranged from two months to one year (with the average being three - four months). It gave me hope that I'll get out of this place eventually, I just have to take it a day at a time.

So there you have it! The things I've learned over the last 10 weeks. It's been such a bummer to spend so much time in my bed, away from my loving partner, unable to go for picnics with friends, or take a trip to the beach. But I have faith it won't always be like this. Just as my friends have gotten better, I know I will and YOU WILL TOO!

Also, here are a list of supplements and vitamins I've been taking, just in case anyone's curious:

• Vitamin C (1500 mg once every two days)
• Vitamin D (1000 mg every day)
• Echincea and Zinc spray (six sprays every day)
• Lauricidin (three scoops every day - I've been taking it for three weeks now)
• B12 (one tablet once a day)

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