The weather is quickly taking a spin and the cool fall breeze is in town. This change in the climate really starts to take a toll on many students. The lack of sleep, the amount of homework and the change in weather results in one thing, getting sick.
For the past few weeks my room mate has been sleeping non-stop. If she is not in class, she is in her bed sleeping. For the longest time I had no idea what was wrong with her. She went to Health Services at least three times; taking her blood and testing her for all kinds of things, but they never found anything! I had a feeling that she had mono.
According to www.familydoctor.org, mononucleosis, or commonly just called mono is an infection caused by a virus. Mono affects everyone differently, but the common symptoms include a fever, sore throat, white patches on the back of your throat, feeling very exhausted, headaches, and lack of hunger. Mono is passed very easily. You can get it by transferring saliva and mucus. This includes, drinking out of the same cup, kissing, and sometimes even coughing.
Since Mono is a virus there is not much one can do to treat it. The common procedures to "cure" mono is to getting a lot of rest, drinking plenty of fluids, gargling saltwater, and taking regular pain medications. Mono usually goes away on its own within 4 weeks.
Usually victims of mononucleosis catch it once in their life. For me, I have had mono twice. The first time was when I was in fourth grade. Don't ask how I possible got it that young (I did not kiss people when I was 10). It was the worst feeling of my life. I was out of school for two weeks and just slept non-stop. I never had energy and I never had an appetite to eat. All I wanted to do was sleep. I cried to my mom every night, wanting to just go back to school (surprisingly).
The second time I caught mono it was my first week of junior year. I got a really bad sore throat so I went to the doctor thinking it was just strep throat. The nurse swabbed my throat (I hate that!) and tested me for strep. The doctor came back, the test was negative. He really did not think I would have mono again, but I had to have blood tests done to find out. An hour later after getting my blood drawn, I found out the bad news. I was positive for mono. My doctor told me it was very, very rare to have it twice, but leave it to me to be the lucky one. I stayed home from school for a few days and after that forced myself to go to school. I didn't want to risk missing so many days of school, I knew I would fall far behind. Going back to school was a stupid idea. I was so exhausted and slept in all my classes. Luckily, my teachers knew I was still battling with mono so they never bothered to wake me or yell at me.
Mono is really not a fun thing to deal with. But it is spreading around campus. As fall approaches, beware! I'm glad I have had my share of this virus and will hopefully never get it again. I can't even imagine going to classes and dealing with mono. So good luck to everyone in this season!
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I have known a few of my friends who have gotten the awful virus of mono. My sister even got it when she was in high school and I was so jealsous that she was always getting to sleep and never go to school. But then I realized how miserable she really was and how far she fell behind in school. As I started school this fall i became very sick and found myself always exhausted and wanting more sleep. My parents thought it could potentially turn into mono but luckily it was just the flu. Being sick for even a few days is uncomfortable I can't imagine how it would to be sick for 4 weeks! I hope that I am a lucky one who never has to experience the awful virus! I can only imagine how hard it would be to experience this during a period of school, espcailly college! It seems close to impossible to have to make up more than a week let alone 4 weeks!
I had mono my sophomore year, definitely not fun! I think all together I missed about a month, maybe a month and a half of school. I couldn't go to school if I had a fever of any kind. Well I had a bad fever every other day so I missed every other day. I was so sleepy and didn't want to do anything, I didn't even want to eat half the time. It's definitely not a fun virus and we couldn't figure out where I got it from.
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