Arthritis or muscle loss from mono anyone?

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hi to all,

Im new here and have been reading and following this forum for a few weeks now. I can identify with so many symptoms alot of you describe. One symptom i dont see come up much and one of my main and persistent symptoms is with my knees. a heaviness always present in them, a crunching sound going up and down the stairs and sometimes with walking. I have achy pains in my leg muscles but no severe pain. I can walk and try to get out everyday for an hour, i would have trouble bending down on my knees and with stiffness. my dr says ebv can cause arthritis and im wonderig have of you suffered with this?i know joint pain is common with ebv but this is mostly always present. also has anyone experienced muscle loss for this virus?

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3 Replies

  • Edited

    Hi Siobhan,

    When I had mono a number of years ago, I had a terrible phase like this with joint pain, and my knees were the worst affected. I remember feeling so down and also reading all these things about mono and arthritis, it got me so worried and I was already a number of months into the virus and just felt like I was losing hope. I really do empathise. I had weird joint pain, cracking joints and weird bits of bruising too with it.

    But I most definitely want to reassure you Siobhan that this WILL get better. For me, this was a phase that maybe last a month or a bit longer and then things really settled down and that pain disappeared. I remember reading at the time that mono can give you symptoms like a TEMPORARY arthritis - it's caused by the virus and not actually arthritis. Actually, looking back, it was shortly after that phase of joint pain and these issues that I really started to see a major breakthrough in my recovery, I often look back on it now as if that period was almost like the last phase of the virus, one final push of my body to get rid of it and once it had passed things really started to get better.

    I just wanted to offer you that reassurance, that this most definitely will be temporary and is normal during mono, I experienced it for sure. And also to give you hope that this could mean that the virus is entering its final stages and that your body is starting to get on top of it - I really do hope and pray that is the case Siobhan. Please hang in there as this thing does get better and there is recovery and full life and good health again after mono - and that's coming from me as someone who struggled with it for many months and found it so hard to see a way past it at times - so hang in there! I know it was only down to God that I was able to recover, I believe truly that God will get you through this too.

    Craig

  • Posted

    Thank you for your reply Craig, you are very reassuring. I do relate to alot to what you have said, as some of the symptoms i had in the beginning have eased. Im 5 months in and most days its just my legs i have issues with, and anxiety. Its the muscle loss on my quad muscle at my knee cap that scares me. my gp has seen it and said it can be part of the whole ebv package. just hoping to find someone else that might have had this symptom.

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