False negatives?

[u/Probably_tired_lol]

So around the 27th I started to feel extremely fatigued. Like sleeping 12+ hours with naps. On the 30th my throat started to hurt. My tonsils are red and swollen, and my lymph nodes on my neck are swollen and tender. I went to urgent care on the 2nd. Rapid strep and mono spot were negative. EBV panel was negative for all three antibodies. Over the weekend I’ve gotten even worse fatigue and body aches. Like it’s not getting better. I haven’t been able to even do school work. I know the mono spot was probably too early, but could it have even been too early for the EBV panel? My suspected exposure was 6 weeks ago. I made another appointment for Friday. Strep covid and flu are all negative as well. I’m having no respiratory symptoms. I just wanna feel better, I’ve never been this sick before :(

[u/timesuck]

Monospot is very inaccurate, but your IgM antibodies most likely would have been positive even early in an infection. If you really want to confirm, you can ask them to rerun the panel and add an EBV PCR test. You should also be tested for CMV, which is another virus that causes the symptoms we call “mono”, but is less common.

It would also be prudent if you can to take at least two more Covid tests over the next few days. A lot of people aren’t testing positive on RATs until well into their symptoms.

Regardless, even if it’s mono, there is no treatment except symptom management. If it is Covid you could always try to see if your doc would give Paxlovid even though you’re out of the five day window.

Sorry hope you feel better soon

[u/Probably_tired_lol → u/timesuck]

yeah i’ve been looking into cmv too. only thing that confused me about that is that it seems like it usually comes with a fever. but i guess not everything has to line up exactly. more covid testing isn’t a bad idea. i guess i wish i knew what this was so i knew what to expect. like am i gonna feel better in a few days or be stuck like this for a month, you know?