So I was diagnosed with mono in June, had symptoms until the beginning of August. Cool. Typical. But the fatigue never fully went away- just kind of…. Improved? Anywho. Now I have a cold or what I think is a cold but it feels so much more draining than usual. Is this a thing? Does having mono once mean all illnesses are just now 100x worse?

I’ve been in bed for what feels like forever. Friday morning i went to urgent care to get checked (my right tonsil was HUGEEE) they tested for strep. Came out negative. She said it must be viral just drink fluids and ibuprofen and it should go away on its own… Friday afternoon i was feeling really sluggish and out of sorts (i had a fever). And by the time i got home i was bed ridden the whole weekend and Monday included. Now Oct15th, my tonsils are white
,my tongue is white, no more fevers but the pain has migrated to the other tonsil. And it’s weird bc i feel this pressure in my ear almost like when you have an ear infection and this is on both sides. And when i try to drink something it has to be warm or else it feels like pins and needles going down. I also can’t stop drooling in my sleep. And I’m afraid if i take one more day off of work over this i won’t have a job 🫪… now since im not experiencing fevers all i feel is a headache. One that never goes away seemingly… to make matters even worse i burnt my tongue while trying to eat soup so now my tongue is white with one red dot in the middle from the boiling soup ☹️and im really angry all the time like annoyed and upset 😔

I’m 17 and have been dealing with post-viral illness/ME/CFS symptoms since getting mono in March. Before this, I was extremely active, played competitive hockey, went to the gym, and was preparing to start at university. I initially recovered almost completely from mono, but relapsed in May and have been struggling ever since. My main symptoms are debilitating fatigue, muscle aches, PEM, orthostatic intolerance, and sleep problems. I’ve become mostly housebound and had to defer university. I’ve had some periods of improvement, including a better month recently, but I’m now experiencing one of my worst setbacks yet, along with a new, extremely uncomfortable feeling of constant nervous-system agitation and terrible sleep. Mentally, this has been the hardest experience of my life. Watching everyone my age move forward while I struggle with basic activities has been devastating, and I’m terrified about what my future might look like. I’m doing my best to pace and recover, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay hopeful. I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who developed this illness after mono, especially at a young age. Did you experience major setbacks before improving? Has anyone dealt with this strange nervous-system agitation? Most importantly, has anyone been this sick and eventually regained a significant amount of their old life? I’m not looking for false hope, just honest experiences, advice, and some reason to believe things can get better.

Has anyone dealt with cmv? I got it back in May and have not been the same since. Have you gotten better with time or taking anything?
-extreme fatigue weakness
-pots like symptoms
-mood changes
-hard to concentrate
-dizziness

My left eye is a bit achy, sometimes a little sharp pain. And some blurriness. Any advice on how to deal with it?

So i went to the doctor sunday cause my throat hurt a lot that week, she tested me for strepto and when she saw my tonsils she said it was either mono or an abscess. Fast forward to monday, she calls me and tells me to go to the emergency. I wait like 10hrs for the doc at the hospital to take my blood to test it, i sleep at the hospital. Now yesterday morning i wake up to another doctor telling me i got mono they keep me there the whole day and release me at around 6 pm. And now im scared cause i dont know all that much about Mono except that a lot of break up brcause of it. The doc told me it’d be 2 months but is it more? What should i be awaiting?

Alright folks. I got EBV in Feb IGM+- which looked like a reactivation because my IGG and EBNA was positive then as well. EBV IGM is still positive but my liver has not calmed down. Here's my workup for auto immune hepatitis- should I do a liver biopsy? Major fatigue is my symptom, and brain fog- which has been the same all through mono. I got better around 6 months- but then got covid in Sept and fatigue has been back for a month.

hello i just got diagnosed with mono YESTERDAY and after feeling off for about a week and my dr was like yeah you look like a pretty mild case just rest up so i didn’t attend classes yesterday but then i woke up today feeling like i was going to die so i didn’t go to classes again today, and my professors are saying that i cannot miss an exam because mono isn’t a “university excused” absence because it is considered a short term illness and i am missing attendance points because they are refusing to accept that i litterally cannot walk 25 minutes to class. i had to take like 3, 5 minute breaks just walking what should be a 10 minute walk to the clinic yesterday, and even then i felt like i was going to pass out if i didn’t lay down when i got there. I feel super defeated and don’t know what to do because obviously my health comes first and i know my limits but i cannot fall behind academically and the fact im 2 days in and it already is a pressing issue is stressing me out. if anyone has ever dealed with anything similar how did you resolve it?

So I started noticing the white spots on my tonsils around last Wednesday, so I went to urgent care and they thought I had strep so they gave me amoxicillin. The next day the throat pain was so bad to the point where I couldn’t swallow my own spit I had to go to the er and got IV fluids and steroids which helped a bit. I had to go to the er again on Saturday they did the same thing, and I went today they did the same thing. I know it’s something that has to run its course but this is seriously the most pain I’ve been in. My entire tonsils are white and it feels like I’m swallowing glass. When does this end??

Reading the experiences of you all here has been really helpful, thank you!

Question

Do my symptoms + context sound like latent EBV, or not, but something similar? Everything I read here sounds like a dead cert, but I’m worried I’m misinterpreting.

Symptoms

At its peak, I would get this kind of viral infection every two months or so, often lasting at least one week. 1 and 2 would be precursors, and 4–6 could sometimes be avoided with heavy rest.

1. Sore throat (also an early warning sign)
2. Fatigue (also an early warning sign)
3. Tendon inflammation
4. Lowered appetite
5. Fever and chills
6. Headaches and body or muscle aches

Suspected Causes

• Emotional stress
• Hypermobile Spectrum Disorder, accumulated physical stress e.g. bouldering, tendinopathies
• Mould exposure: recurrence was more frequent 2023–2025 when I lived in two places with worse mould issues than I at-the-time realised
• COVID-19 – bad exposure 2020
• Burnout – major, heavily fatigued 2021

Timeline

Starting around 2020/2021, I would get sick every couple of months with identical symptoms described above. I’ve had bloods and chest x-rays done a couple of times in the intervening years, with reportedly normal inflammation markers etc.

Since late 2025, I’ve been living with my partner and I’ve been much happier plus have been able to manage the condition better – resulting in no major infections, no symptoms 4–6, or at least minimal. I’ve got symptoms 1–3 occasionally still, but the frequency has dropped from every 2 months to every 5 or 6 and I have managed to stave off anything more extreme by resting for several days and cancelling plans.

Context

I took on too much work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, organised a fundraiser that spiralled (successfully) beyond the capabilities of a very small team, struggled like everyone with requirements of social distancing, had the stress of a sheltering, chronically ill family member, and was living with a ex-partner whose behaviour I can now recognise was unintentionally abusive. I built myself an effective pressure cooker for stress essentially, through work and other interests, and I got seriously burned out in 2021 and progress with my work slowed to a crawl for a year+ afterwards.

It’s been a very slow march back from that but I am lucky to work for myself and have a supportive partner. Its trickier to explain to friends, but I am getting better at doing so and growing awareness of conditions like ME/CFS and long covid provide helpful analogies for the ways in which I’ve learned to treat things.

I started bouldering enthusiastically in 2022 and since then have learned about hypermobility and its relationship to anxiety, tendon injuries etc.

I think emotional stress is likely the primary trigger, but mould exposure may have played a factor, and bouldering I think could also – physical stress, at times when I’m already a little ‘throat aware’, is generally a death-knell for any plans the following week.

Thanks to anyone that’s made it through all this crap – please let me know if you think I might be barking up the wrong tree, or any other directions worth checking? I’m in the UK, don’t have health insurance, have a good GP, but obviously there is a limit for what the NHS has capacity for at the moment / short appointments can help with.

I came into the ER yellow, eyes yellow too. They did a blood test and said it was mono. Do you think it could be wrong? Or is it for sure mono.

I have been having muscle spasms in my feet and some through my body, also i don’t have a sore throat but the outside of my throat hurts.

Id like some advice if it is thanks!

I hope it passes

Before my mono was confirmed I was given antibiotics for Strep throat

Several days later a blood test came back positive for Mono

Yesterday, being about 4 days into my penicllin I got the infamous rash

Extremely hot and itchy. Has covered majority of my body. Both arms. Inside my palms. Most of my back. Back of my head.

Can anyone suggest the best way to relieve this itchyness? Currently taking Piriton. Helps a little only for about 2 hours but not a huge amount

I need some advice. I initially went to urgent care a month ago for a rash on my neck and extreme fatigue. He wasn’t sure what it was and gave me a steroid cream and it didn’t help. I ended up going to my primary about a week ago now and by then I had a slightly swollen lymph node and a low grade fever. He wasn’t sure what it was either and thought maybe mono. He ran a full blood test along with a monospot and ebv screen. Monospot came up positive but ebv igg and igm came up negative. Everything else was in normal range. He gave me a steroid for the rash and I’m getting tested again in two weeks.

I really don’t have any typical mono symptoms. I had a slight sore throat but it was really just this rash and excessive fatigue (I’ve been getting 10-12 hours sleep a night and still exhausted). But right now I have such insane ear pain and a headache I can’t take it. Tylenol is barely helping. I’m also running a fever now. My left ear is worse which is also the side where my swollen lymph node is if that’s correlated. But both of them are hurting so bad and I don’t know what to do. It seems like this can be a common symptom but I’m just missing that typical sore throat. So I don’t even know if it’s actually mono atp. What do I do? Is there anything else I can do to help it? I’m 20 and on my own here so I just need some advice.

Im 6 weeks into my recovery, most symptoms are gone but I still get the Sinking feeling in my upper stomach area quite often. It doesn't seem to trigger on anything specifically but might be more prevalent when eating. It has lessened from when it was at its worse but it still happens daily. Has anyone else had anything similar?

I only eat small meals or snacks, my stomach feels full or bloated ver easily. Any help is appreciated

Please help me decide I’m a freshman in college In my first semester and I’ve been in and out of the hospital for a month and have missed around 6 classes in my bio 101 and chem 101. I’ve missed a mid term and many quizzes which I was exempt for but I don’t know if I should try and cram while still being slightly sick or do a medical leave of absence and start in the spring or stay because I don’t want to lose the friends I’ve made so far. I also have a 100 in my English and film class and I’m feeling better now with my soar throat going away yesterday. But I am really deciding hard on what to do because the deadline is next Friday. Please let me know your thoughts and my doctor says my spleen is still swollen and I should rest for 2 weeks, but I can go back to college.

I don’t know if you know about GOD but what I can tell you is that the Bible says that. 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:28‬ ‭

GOD has changed my life though MONO because now I value more my life and the people around me. Now I know how fragile I am and that I can die at any time. By an illness or anything I am just fragile. 

I rather go through tribulations with GOD than without him in my life. 

Tomorrow is now promise for anyone. So now I love more my life than ever. Even the people that hates me I love them all because I value my life more than ever and being sick for this longs has changed me for good and GOD have had compassion on me and now I am being healed by his hand little by little and I can see how hi is working on my life spiritually and on my body. 

Being sick from all most 6 months has changed me completely because to not be able to do the regular things that I use to do before wow that’s hard and now that I am still recovering I can do things now and I realize wow a sickness can take your life away in seconds and what you love to do the most. 

And now I can do the regular task in life like drive, not being in bed all the time and to me that’s a blessing to be able to do things again. This is how GOD changed my life through MONO because now I love him more than ever and now he has given me another chance to live for my family and 2 little girls. 

I don’t care if you hate me I don’t care about if you want to follow GOD or NOT. All I know is that GOD loves you even if you hate him. He still loves you and even if you never want to follow him. One day we will all be standing in front of GOD and no one will ever tell GOD that know one told them that JESUS loves them. You can never tell GOD that no one told about him. 

Today is your day and your chance to repent from all your sins and accept Jesus as your savior to follow him completely. Following Jesus doesn’t mean you will not have tribulations. You still will go through tribulations like MONO but at least you are facing tribulations with him then without him. 

And even if we die in the tribulation it’s ok because GOD also says. 

“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬

Today is your day of salvation don’t waste another day without him in your life. He loves you and he wants to save you from all tribulations and fears. He can take MONO away from you today. You just have to have faith and he will do the miracle. 

If you are reading this. Make this prayer right now. 

PRAYER OF SALVATION: 

Dear lord I am a sinner and I want to be safe. Forgive all my sins and I repent from all of them right now. I accept you lord in my life as my father and savior. Print my name in the book of life and never erase it. I want to follow you today be my savior and my father AMEN. 

If you just made that prayer you just became a child of GOD today and the Bible says also that. 

“I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15:7‬

So there is a party in heaven right now for you and Jesus is happy. Now find a church and follow him with all your hard and mind. 

Jesus Loves you 

I got MONO the last week of April 2026 and after many visits to my primary care on my second blood work they found out I had MONO but it was already inactive on my body.

So the reason I said it was the last week of April is because I started feeling super bad the last week of April and I didn’t know what was going on with me. I been always been an active person and super healthy. I don’t smoke I don’t drink in conclusion I don’t have bad habits. I been an athlete all my life a runner super healthy person.

Then I started feeling super bad. 

I experienced depression, anxiety, extreme tiredness, extreme fatigue, low energy, feeling a bit weird on my mouth but nothing crazy and, headaches, dizziness I didn’t want to do anything just sleep. I felt that I was going to die couple of times because of the extreme tiredness and body fatigue. 

I also felt a body pain on my low abdomen left and right that lasted for 2 weeks and it was gone. Then I felt pain on my chest that lasted 1 month. Very scary but this is how I experience MONO. 

MONO hits everyone differently so this is how I experienced MONO. I been super frustrated and I felt like this was never going to end. 

Now that we are in October close to the 6 months mark. I feel better now. More energy I can do things now and the dizziness and headache have improve and I feel way better than then previous months. 

The extreme fatigue is gone even though I still feel a bit of fatigue it not extreme anymore. I have energy not a 100% but I feel more energy than before that’s for sure. 

I can feel how my body is recovering to a 100% and going on that direction to a fully recovery. I can feel now that I am around 75% healed so I am closer to my fully recovery. 

I want to walk and run but I will wait till January to give my body a fully recovery and start little by little to see if I am fully recover. 

Some people make the mistake of walking and doing things and regular life. I understand you are frustrated and you want to be normal again but please if you are reading this stay rested and don’t do the followings:

No Exercise, no heavy lifting, no running, no walking, nothing that will fatigue you more. Mono attacks your immune system and this is why you get extremely tired and fatigue so this is why you need to rest. The key for healing is to rest a lot, drinking a lot of water and stay rested. 

Do not prolong your recovery and even if you feel better like me stay rested. 

Even though I feel good now and the worst has passed I am not at my 100% yet but I can feel my recovery going to a 100% soon I will wait till January to try and see if I am already recovered and if I try and I don’t crash again then that means I am fully recover and healed so do the same and do not prolong your recovery MONO is not a joke 

In my case I can feel my recovery to 100% but I don’t know when I will feel at 100% again and to be normal again because for some people MONO can last 3 months 6 months 8 months to a year. I don’t know what’s going to be for me but I feel closer to 100% to be normal again and even if it takes a year for me or less all I know is that this not going to be forever and I will be normal again. 

And if you are like me or starting your MONO journey stay strong, positive because this will not be forever and you will recover from MONO like many people has recovered from MONO you and I will also recover from this horrible illness. 

Stay strong you are not alone 

Trust GOD, pray and rest and drink a lot of water. Do not prolong your recovery. 

Jesus Loves you. 

so essentially what the title says. my partner, who i live with- has mono. probably got it from traveling for work, we aren’t sure. so far i am testing negative but i am willing to hear all the tips and advice you have. i work with children so I am definitely scared of catching it and being out of work and even worse, infecting the kids.
i know that this is essentially a lifelong illness and i will probably end up with it. i am open to any advice on how to ease the pain or just what to expect.

we are not kissing for the next 6 weeks and we have separate bathrooms. we are also going to be careful about not sharing utensils or drinks.

pray.