Mono sucks balls

[KaiineTN]

I'm in the middle of week two and up until today it was thought to be a bad case of strep. Pretty fucking miserable I must say. Can't eat, can't drink, can't sleep... If only complaining had healing powers.

Anyways, who here has had it? I'd be interested in hearing how it went for others. How long did it last for you? When during its course was it the worst? Tell me a mono story~

PS - steroid shots in the ass aren't fun

[Gypsiyee]

i had it when i was super young, 11 or so.. lasted about 2 weeks. i don't remember much of it, i slept for most of the 2 weeks.

[Arlos]

I had it when I was really young too, like 8 or 9. Lucky me, I had it and pneumonia at the same time. Like Gyps, I don't remember much of it, I think I spent 3-4 weeks in bed asleep. (was summer vacation, joy. heh)

Just take it easy and sleep a lot, not much else you can do.

-Arlos

[araby]

I've never had but /heal

[10sun]

I had it in the summer of 2006 at the age of 24. First two of weeks were miserable for me because I couldn't do anything & I wanted to be at work. I just felt drained. Mentally coherent, but physically unable to do anything because I was exhausted... a lot of the time I didn't even have the energy to go to the kitchen to get anything to eat & when I did have the energy, I really wasn't that hungry. That kinda compounded the problems I guess. It lasted about 6 weeks for me. Early June through mid July.

-Adam

[KaiineTN]

I noticed something rather disturbing today. My tonsillitis is finally starting to clear up after about a week and a half, but now I have giant craters in my tonsils. Apparently it's not much to worry about from what I've read, but man it looks nasty. I hope this hasn't set the stage for chronic infections or tonsilloliths. Has anyone noticed large holes on tonsils? Will the holes shrink? As is, it would be incredibly easy to get food and such stuck in there, which definitely encourages bacterial infections.

[leah]

so i know you're miserable and all that but . . . can you give me mono? please? i want a couple weeks off work and to drop like 10 pounds of sickness weight hehe

seriously though, take care of yourself. sorry you're feeling so poopy

[Evermore]

Leah. You do not need to drop 10 lbs.

[Gypsiyee]

I noticed something rather disturbing today. My tonsillitis is finally starting to clear up after about a week and a half, but now I have giant craters in my tonsils. Apparently it's not much to worry about from what I've read, but man it looks nasty. I hope this hasn't set the stage for chronic infections or tonsilloliths. Has anyone noticed large holes on tonsils? Will the holes shrink? As is, it would be incredibly easy to get food and such stuck in there, which definitely encourages bacterial infections.

I didn't have that, but I figure I'll share something gross with you that I had once that super freaked me out

About 5 years ago, I was at work and my tongue started cramping really bad.. i thought well this is odd, who gets tongue cramps?! But I mean it was to the point I couldn't eat it hurt so bad, I tried not to even talk lest I have to move my tongue.

So of course I go to the bathroom and try to look at what's going on with my tongue, and underneath are these little stick looking things with whiteheads at the top of them.. they looked very similar to a pink coral polyp or something of the like. I thought it was odd, but maybe just an infection so I went about my managing duties.

Later that night, probably 1am or so.. my friend Amanda and I go to IHOP. I can't eat and she asks me why, so I tell her that my tongue keeps cramping and I show her these little things under my tongue. She's of course wickedly grossed out, but we get a good laugh out of it and then I go to the bathroom to look at the polyps again - I play with them with my tongue in the mirror to see if they hurt, and one bursts!

IMMEDIATELY, within .5 seconds, the cramping in my tongue has gone away but now I'm looking in the mirror at the left side of my throat which has now swollen to the size of a softball, and the left inside of my throat feels like someone has taken an oversized melon baller and scooped it out.. in spaciousness and in pain. Literally my throat felt hollowed out, and it was noticeable to look in the back of it and see an emptiness.. as if something had actually pushed the side of my throat outwards to cause the swelling on the outside and the hollowness on the inside.

It was the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced - it happened about 4 more times, but now I haven't had it happen in a couple years. When I went to the hospital thinking something was terribly wrong, they had no idea what it was and basically just had me sit in the bed until the swelling went down. The first thought was an infection from my tongue ring, but then I had the issue about 5 months after my tongue ring was out

Not a fun ordeal, but definitely interesting

[Tossica]

yuck

Sounds like a scene from a Cronenberg movie.

Take pics if you ever get one again.

[Gaazy]

Ya, from the sound of it it could rival the good ole wtftit

[Gypsiyee]

nono it didn't look nearly that gross, but it was definitely kind of uck. the things that were under my tongue were only like a centimeter tall, if that. when it burst it was similar to like.. popping a pimple that's been waiting to pop for ages and has a whitehead on it just ready to blow, but the thingy had less goo than a pimple even

i definitely make it sound heaps more disgusting tho don't i

[araby]

I got the basic gist and never actually read what caused them but it sounds like your salivary glands were clogged.

[Gaazy]

Hmm no sorry that sounds pretty nasty! Wftit didnt bother me much, just made me stare sideways for a couple hours at it

[Arlos]

Since we're trading "omfg I was sick" gross stories, here's mine. Was a few years ago now, but it put me in the hospital for 8 days, and I came really close to losing my left leg.

Anyway, what it was is an infection called Cellulitis. Basically a staph infection that gets into the inter-cellular regions in the tissues of the leg. Mine, when it hit, left me as nauseous as food poisoning; I spent like 3 hours puking, followed by chills so bad that I couldn't get warm even in socks, sweats, sweatshirt, while under 2 layers of blankets plus a sleeping bag.

After that it seemed to go away, just it felt like I'd sprained my ankle, and it hurt to walk, etc. so I ignored it for a few days. Then I noticed my leg starting to swell up, and this blotchy red area that was getting higher and higher up my calf. So, off to the doctor I went. They diagnosed the problem, gave me IV antibiotics, gave me a prescription for Keflex, and said come back in a week if it wasn't better.

Well, a week later, it was no better, and the blotchy red area was nearly up to my knee, and it was starting to hurt quite a bit, cause of how swollen it was getting. At that point, they rushed me through admitting and stuck me into the hospital ASAP. Took 3 days of escalating strength of antibiotics, before they finally got to Vancomycin, which is literally the antibiotic of last resort. If that doesn't work, there are no drugs in existence that will do a damn thing to stop the infection. By this point, the red area had gone up about a third of the way up the back of my thigh, my leg was swollen to 2x the size of the other one, and the pain was so bad they had to give me morphine.

After that point, it slowly started to get better, but as the drugs started to kill the infection, I got these huge pus patches all over the leg, some of them as big as a medium-size hand. Within a few hours of showing up they started to tear open, and I had to have my leg wrapped in a towel 24x7 that they kept having to change every couple hours as it would soak through. Stunk to high heaven, and was about the grossest thing I've ever experienced.

Anyway, if the Vancomycin hadn't have worked, they would've had to remove the leg at a point somewhere above the infection line, or death would've been inevitable. Even though it did work, the infection had done so much damage, that some of the tissues were pretty close to going necrotic (thus all of the pus patches, which was the body flushing out all the dead crap). Had that happened, it would've meant gangrene set in, which would've also meant losing a big hunk of my leg. The guy in the bed next to mine was there for almost the same thing, only his didn't respond quite as quick, and he lost half of his toes.

All in all, no fun whatsoever. Can only recommend that if anyone else notices a similar painful red patch that slowly expands on a leg (or arm), get into a doctor post haste.

-Arlos

[Darcler]

I had mono for about 3 weeks my Jr. year, I think it was. I didnt get any shots, just a pill to take 1x day. I used paper plates and plastic forks, changed my toothbrush once a week. It was close to midterms, I was too tired to pay attention in class, but they did excuse me from after school practices.

I dont have any gross medical stories.

[Drem]

Since we're trading "omfg I was sick" gross stories, here's mine. Was a few years ago now, but it put me in the hospital for 8 days, and I came really close to losing my left leg.

Anyway, what it was is an infection called Cellulitis. Basically a staph infection that gets into the inter-cellular regions in the tissues of the leg. Mine, when it hit, left me as nauseous as food poisoning; I spent like 3 hours puking, followed by chills so bad that I couldn't get warm even in socks, sweats, sweatshirt, while under 2 layers of blankets plus a sleeping bag.

After that it seemed to go away, just it felt like I'd sprained my ankle, and it hurt to walk, etc. so I ignored it for a few days. Then I noticed my leg starting to swell up, and this blotchy red area that was getting higher and higher up my calf. So, off to the doctor I went. They diagnosed the problem, gave me IV antibiotics, gave me a prescription for Keflex, and said come back in a week if it wasn't better.

Well, a week later, it was no better, and the blotchy red area was nearly up to my knee, and it was starting to hurt quite a bit, cause of how swollen it was getting. At that point, they rushed me through admitting and stuck me into the hospital ASAP. Took 3 days of escalating strength of antibiotics, before they finally got to Vancomycin, which is literally the antibiotic of last resort. If that doesn't work, there are no drugs in existence that will do a damn thing to stop the infection. By this point, the red area had gone up about a third of the way up the back of my thigh, my leg was swollen to 2x the size of the other one, and the pain was so bad they had to give me morphine.

After that point, it slowly started to get better, but as the drugs started to kill the infection, I got these huge pus patches all over the leg, some of them as big as a medium-size hand. Within a few hours of showing up they started to tear open, and I had to have my leg wrapped in a towel 24x7 that they kept having to change every couple hours as it would soak through. Stunk to high heaven, and was about the grossest thing I've ever experienced.

Anyway, if the Vancomycin hadn't have worked, they would've had to remove the leg at a point somewhere above the infection line, or death would've been inevitable. Even though it did work, the infection had done so much damage, that some of the tissues were pretty close to going necrotic (thus all of the pus patches, which was the body flushing out all the dead crap). Had that happened, it would've meant gangrene set in, which would've also meant losing a big hunk of my leg. The guy in the bed next to mine was there for almost the same thing, only his didn't respond quite as quick, and he lost half of his toes.

All in all, no fun whatsoever. Can only recommend that if anyone else notices a similar painful red patch that slowly expands on a leg (or arm), get into a doctor post haste.

-Arlos

wow

[Gypsiyee]

his is 10x more disgusting than mine! nothing quite as sexy as gigantic smelly puss patches of flesh that you have to rewrap every couple hours lest you soak yourself in bodily fluid.

arlos you win!

[Drem]

some guy at the hospital just got a new heart valve because he didn't brush his teeth.

i'll let you guys figure that one out

oh--don't forget to brush your teeth

[Arlos]

Normally I have a pretty good immune system; I hardly ever get bad colds or bad flus, etc.

But hey, when I get sick, I don't fuck around! rofl.

-Arlos

[Tikker]

I can't even think of anything to make up that sounds that gross

[araby]

some guy at the hospital just got a new heart valve because he didn't brush his teeth.

i'll let you guys figure that one out

oh--don't forget to brush your teeth

what you're referring to is actually what happens when someone has gum and bone problems and they have an infection in their gums, which causes bone loss and tooth loss. If that infection (which most people are unaware of) is not removed and treated the bacteria can get into the blood stream and go to the heart or brain, sometimes resulting in death.

People who don't brush their teeth, or have severe calculus (tartar) buildup from not flossing or brushing, or not visiting their general dentist every six months will end up with gum and bone problems in their mouths.

If there is an infected nerve, which is where an abscess comes from (in the case of a toothache) the same thing can happen.

[KaiineTN]

Oops. I haven't seen a dentist in over 4 years.

[Gaazy]

Not even for a regular cleaning and treatment? Wtf we even do that in West Virginia (most of us) haha

Unless you dont have dental insurance or something, which I could understand then of course, why not? Its like an hour every 6 months of your time. Its even an excused hour of work for most people haha, i go on Saturdays though so I dont have to leave work.

Then again, I brush my teeth at least 3 times a day. I HATE that sweatery-tooth feeling and I get it a lot since I dip a can and a half a day ><

[KaiineTN]

I haven't had medical or dental insurance since high school.