Soaps.com - MESSAGE BOARDS

The doctor says my son has mono and I was wondering if anyone knew anything about it. I hate it when my kids are sick, wish it was me instead. He is in college (not away - he is home) but I still worry about him like I did when he was little. I never knew anyone who had mono so I don't know much about it.

Hi there!

I've been teaching Senior High School for a number of years, so I've had many students who have had it.

It's a virus usually transmitted by them drinking from someone else's can/glass,being near someone who has it who coughs or sneezes, or through kissing!

They're usually just really tired, have a sore throat and sometimes have a fever and swollen lymph nodes .I know that they're usually given anti-biotics if the throat is infected, but they usually just let it run its course using something like Tylenol.

Hope this helps!!

Mono is a weird one if you ask me. it's viral so it's hard to test for & confirm but they detect it by checking white blood cells (check for unusually high count) and examining under a microscope for specific anomalies of those cells to give a diagnosis of mono. the tonsils usually are swollen with a pasty look to them.

when i had it, i would say the worst of it (for me) was that i felt super tired alot, had a persistent nagging sore throat..more of a dull ache yet annoying at times & low grade fever. it's a virus that can stay in the body for awhile and those were the main things i suffered from. some people get hit harder than others...some people can have symptoms for a month or so i have heard. for me it lasted about 3 weeks. i did not have much of an appetite either but that could have been b/c my throat felt like crap. other symptoms can be a headache, cough etc...i understand about worrying about kids. i am so on edge about that swine flu. ugh.

anyway for mono, the best thing he can do is get a lot of rest, drink ALOT of fluids - take stuff to alleviate the symptoms (advil etc) b/c one can not take an antibiotic for it. just do alot to build the immune system so it kicks out faster...it should run it's course without any problem.

be sure to tell him if anything abnormal occurs like severe symptoms of any sort to be sure to go back to the doctor!! on very RARE occasions mono can cause distress to other organs but this is rare. better to be on the safe side always but rest assured that mono usually runs it's course without issues.

Thanks you guys. I am just so worried about him. He started in early August with a sore throat and his tonsils were a bit swollen but he tested negative for mono. A few weeks later his throat hurt again and the doctor tested him and said he had mono but was probably 2-3 weeks into it. He was doing fine but then last week his tonsils just blew up. They were huge and the medicine did not work. He could barely swallow, and his voice sounded so weird. The doctor put him on something stronger and the tonsils are finally less swollen.
The doctor thinks he should stay out of school (college) for the next two weeks at least. He is afraid he will pick up something else or relapse. The school said if he is out that long he should just take a leave of absence. That hasn't gone over all that well with my son but I don't think he has a choice.
Thank you for the info. I am just worried and confused and needed someone to talk to. Thank you so much.

Thanks. Good idea. I am worried about losing his insurance coverage as he is covered under my policy because he is a full time student. If he takes the semester off he will not be so I want to be sure he is covered. (Kind of relevant to the discussion going on across the country- I was thinking that I was happy with my coverage and didn't have much to worry about. I supported health care reform because it would help others but never really thought that I would have to worry. I hope the insurance company can not drop him because of this.)
Thank you for the advice. I like reading your posts, you seem like a very caring person.

Have a nice weekend!

Thanks sarahconnor. I am not sure about the insurance yet. They will only cover him while in college if he is a full time student and I have to provide a copy of his schedule each semester. If it were just a leave of absence they could drop him but I am hoping since it is medical leave of absence that it will be okay. I called my benefits dept. today and they said they would get back to me Monday. They thought that for a medical leave he would be covered for one year and then the coverage would drop. So as long as he gets better and attends next semester or the following one everything will be okay. They are going to call me back on Monday to let me know for sure. But I would hate to think about what would happen to someone whose college age child was sick for longer than a year. What insurance would pick that student up? I never thought about any of this b4, it is kind of scary. Thanks for your help. Have a great weekend!