Shingles can be confused with herpes, so it may not be a relapse....just an outbreak.

I got mono my freshman semester in college from a sorority sister (no....it's not like that!! We shared a coke before we knew she had it). I was sick for over a MONTH before anyone figured out it was mono. I was treated for a throat/upper respiratory infection twice....soon as I didn't take an antibiotic, the symptoms came back. I was so sick I thought my throat would swell shut and I would suffocate. I was sleeping until 1pm in the afternoon, going to bed at 8pm, and never heard my alarm. Even my roommate said that she would try to wake me up and couldn't.

Finally when I got diagnosed, I was told not to return to campus for a minimum of 3 weeks. So I went home to mommy. I literally slept on the couch for 3 days and don't remember anything from those three days. Nothing. And missing 3 weeks of classes was a bitch too.

Afterward, I've never really returned back to my original level of energy. And when I get stressed, I get tired and get that mono feeling again. My doctor told me that the virus can become active again....just depends on your body and the stress it's under. It's just lovely.

PsychTau

once you have had mono, you will always test positive for mono.

Can I just vent?

I HATE when people call mono the kissing disease, cause I certianly did NOT get it from kissing. My bf at the time had mono when he was in high school, and he was the only boy I was kissing. Nor did he suffer a replase at any time we were dating.

My doctor thinks I got it from my roommate, who was SUPPOSED to use plastic knives and plates for 3 months after she got mono, but instead decided she was going to resume using the apts plates after 3 weeks...without telling anyone. I never knew she was using them, and since I was the only person who never had mono in the apt- BAM, I get mono.
That or somehow I got it from one of my pole vaulting teammates, who proably coughed on a pole or the mat or something, and I got it that way...cause I never shared waterbottles.

Either way, I made it 21 years without mono...and then missed most of my senior year because of it. I went from mono, to strep, to upper respitory infection, to pnemonia and a really bad asthama attack in a week. And I wondered why my asthma doctor insisted I get a flu shot this year...

End vent.

When I was in high school, the entire girl's basketball team got it. How? They shared a tube of chapstick.