<p>Well, it has happened. DD has been diagnosed with mono. She is at minimum 6 weeks since “infection” possibly up to 10 weeks (she knows who she contracted it from).</p>
<p>Of course we know the basics of recovery and care, rest, rest, rest! She has been banned from her sport to prohibit the risk of being hit in the spleen. She has also been advised about the liver issues, don’t drink alcholol, eat a good low fat diet. </p>
<p>Is there anything else that you can recommend to help in her recovery, maybe supplements or vitamins that could help? </p>
<p>Thank goodness she is still doing well academically. I, as a mother feel so helpless being so far away and not being able to comfort her. Any advice you all have would be appreciated.</p>
<p>My sympathies - my son had mono at the start of school the year before last and missed several football games. I felt guilty when he was diagnosed because I was attributing his tiredness and lethargy to two-a-days - turns out the kid was SICK!</p>
<p>Anyway, I think rest is the only thing that heals, but my son seemed to like those “vitamin-loaded” bottled smoothies - here we get Odwalla, but there are probably different brands in Georgia. They’re on the side of the produce section in our store (refrigerated). I think they helped his throat (which was horrible) and made me feel like he was getting some much-needed vitamin boosts.</p>
<p>anything that will help immune system. Some exercise is actually good for your immune system- </p>
<p>I felt guilty when he was diagnosed because I was attributing his tiredness and lethargy to two-a-days - turns out the kid was SICK!
don’t be hard on your self, mono is really hard to diagnose, D struggled through junior year and had a horrible time, I didn’t even know till it was over ( plus clinic misdiagnosed). </p>
<p>Get rest- light exercise ( especially outside) fluids, maybe echinecea? I don’t think loading up on vitamins can hurt.
( zinc lozenges also help throats)</p>
<p>Mono is terrible, but varies greatly from person to person. Some are just really tired for a while, others get a bad sore throat and high temperature. I had every symptom imaginable except the sore throat. I couldn’t keep food down, my liver was terrible, and I didn’t have enough strength to climb into my bunk bed so my roommate had to put my mattress on the floor for 2 weeks. I also lost 7 pounds. If I had to do it all over again, I probably should have went home for those 2 weeks since I missed every class anyway. I would have drank as much water as physically possible and had my friends bring me food from the dining hall that I could stomach because granola bars and oreos weren’t really helping. My roommate and suitemates were supportive, but tried to avoid me at some points because they were afraid of getting sick. Make sure she is eating, and make sure that she doesn’t drink alcohol for at least 2 weeks after she gets better.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the exercise. I couldn’t even make it walking down the hall to the bathroom at some points.</p>
<p>Tiredof snow, I completely forgot about the Odwalla drinks. D used to get them on occasion (they are pretty pricey) but those would be good now. She is in MA, not GA, and I think they have a Whole Foods there. I will have her check to see if they have them or the equivalent.</p>
<p>emeraldkitty, yes she has been encouraged to work out in the gym, just no rowing on the river, (sounds like a take on Tina Turner, lol) so no chance of an oar hitting her spleen. I never thought about the toothbrush thing, makes sense.</p>
<p>Cornelli2008, sorry you had to go through that. D knows a couple of students that were that bad too, but she has not gotten to that point, knock on wood. D has a single as of a couple of weeks ago, so no roomate to avoid her.</p>
<p>I allowed my son complete rest in December of his freshman year. With those short days and early darkness daily, he recovered but completely destroyed his sleep cycles. Please tell her to get some sunshine just enough to set her body clock first half of each day and to go to bed by midnight and get up and eat breakfast…until son started doing this daily, and doing light exercise instead of being “still” out of fear of relapse, his sleep cycle was wrecked.</p>
<p>I’d watch out about the exercise. Walking around and getting fresh air is probably good… but I had a pretty light case of mono my senior year in college and thought I felt better and went to the gym and tried to exercise and felt a lot worse afterward and for about the next week.</p>
<p>Tell her to take it seriously and to be careful about strenuous physical activity. Also, many people with mono have enlarged spleens and must be careful not to have any injury to that area. My daughter had the perfect storm of mono. Multiple hospitalizations and a splenectomy. Took months to recover. It is not a joke.</p>
<p>oldfort- the virus that causes mono remains dormant in your body forever. Sometimes in cases of low-immunity it can recur. Most adults will test positive for the antibody as almost everyone has been exposed at some point.</p>
<p>My daughter got mono in third grade and it took a bit to get diagnosed because of her young age. She was wiped out for months, so I am hoping she never gets it again! D2 tested positive in high school, but we never noticed a particular period when she may have actually had mono. We probably mistook it for a flu or just usual fatigue at the time.
I would like to believe that they will never have it again!</p>
<p>I’ve heard they can get it again, but it’s not likely. However, with D1, it was the relapse that got her; relapse (within a month of first sign of infection) was worse than the original case.</p>
<p>Daughter had it in Feb. Sick enough to leave school on med leave for the semester. Relapsed in July and was so bad it scared the heck out of me.Fever 103 + for over 3 weeks. Hospitalized twice… once a siren screaming ambulance ride from Dr to hospital because they were unable to get a Bp on her. Severely dehydrated. Told if she gets it again it could kill her. Highest reading of whatever they look at for mono that they had ever seen.</p>
<p>D had mono this fall. The doctor misdiagnosed it as a sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics. Turns out, if you take certain antibiotics when you have mono, you are likely to develop a horribly painful and itchy rash and swelling all over your body. D’s rash was a nightmare, the worst part of her mono experience.</p>
That’s what happened to my daughter. The wrong antibiotic was prescribed for the abscesses in her throat and she got the rash from hell. It has scarred her arms and it appears that the scarring is permanent.</p>