To ask for your positive glandular fever stories?

[AveAtqueVale]

GP thinks I have it, I think I do too - blood test will confirm. I’m due to start my first placement of final year of medical school on Monday after a year off to have DS2. It’s a three hour round trip each day. Have a three year old and a ten month old. DH works shifts and has just been promoted so limited capacity for taking the strain with childcare on evenings and weekends. I have no idea wtf to do. I got out of bed for two hours earlier while DH slept before a night shift and spent it all lying on the sofa, and it’s utterly wiped me out. I now can’t even sit up without feeling nauseous and dizzy. If I can’t make this placement I’ll have to defer for another year which would be an absolute nightmare for all kinds of reasons. Please tell me your positive stories of people who had it who recovered quickly and didn’t have to put their lives on hold for months, which is all I’ve had all day - from the GP, friends, my mother. I’m so miserable currently.

Hi, my DS1 has just had GF. The awful stage lasted a week/ten days. He went back to Uni after two weeks. He now just gets tired easily and a bit achey.

I started a thread at the time (I'll link it) he was so, so ill at first.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/teenagers/3239593-Glandular-Fever-Is-it-all-doom-and-gloom?pg=1

There's a mix of experiences, some better than others.

GF was confirmed by a blood test. First symptoms were puffy eyes and what we thought was terrible tonsillitis.

I had it aged 15 (after snogging a Greek waiter on holiday ). Felt shite for 3 weeks then I was fine again. I think the worst thing was not being able to swallow so eating went out of the window and I lost a lot of weight. Ice-cold milkshakes might help. Good luck & hope you get better soon

Oh thank you Sparkling - glad your son is doing better! I woke up with puffy eyes last Monday and was bemused, so that explains that...

And olives at least you got it in a fun way! I rather suspect I’ve caught it from DS2 constantly giving me snotty kisseswho had a lingering low-grade virus for a while, which is apparently how it often manifests in babies. I had some ice-cream today but it made me feel sick - I am literally never off my food.

He was horribly ill for a week. Couldn't speak, or eat and was throwing up the tonsil gunk all the time and just felt awful.

He wasn't able to take his end of year exams but thankfully he can do them this month.

I had it my final uni year. At easter. I went back a bit late and sat half my exams at usual time and rest in with resits in aug i think. So i missed the graduation that year and had it the next.
I was pretty ill for a year, caught everything, colds etc.
I cant imagine getting it with young kids as they are exhausting anyway.

My DD has been poorly all week (she is at uni 200 miles away) and finally got an OOH apt for 9.15pm tonight. She is still registered here as she was mid treatment for a shoulder injury and if she moved to a different docs she would have to start the whole referral process again.

Anyway, she thought she had tonsillitis and has been phoning me in tears about the pain she is in. She rang 111 three days ago and they just said she would need to drive home to see her own doctor. Then she rang a local surgery today and they said sounds like a sore throat and see the pharmacist. Went to a pharmacist and he said she needs to see a doctor. So she rang the surgery again and they just said she was making a fuss. She rang 111 again and they finally gave her an apt, the nurse she spoke to said her symptoms sounds like she has GF. Which is bloody shit because she has an exam on Tuesday and is meant to be on placements over the next four weeks in theatre, A&E and paediatric intensive care.

I'm waiting on a call to see what they have said.

Oh Mycats that's really hard. DS1 was only 45 minutes away so he came home.

Uni were very understanding. They wanted a letter from the Doctor and everything was sorted in that respect.

I am so sorry your DD has had such a battle to be seen.

Optimise your immune system - high dose vitamin C and zinc, vitamin D ( I use Dlux 3000 daily vitamin spray) and a good probiotic. Whilst these things aren’t going to cure your glandular fever they certainly won’t do any harm.
I often use Earth Clinic to find alternative remedies for ailments that have no medical treatment such as glandular fever. Take a look at the suggestions for mononucleosis. You never know, they may help!
Good luck with your final placement.

I felt horrendous for a week, pretty rubbish for another week and then recovered. I was quite shocked when the blood test came back positive for glandular fever as I really didn’t think I’d been ill enough. I was a student at the time and it didn’t impact my studies much. The worst thing was the huge lump in my throat (actually the swollen gland) which meant I could only eat soup for a week.

Glandular fever triggered guttate psoriasis for me. Took me a year to get the psoriasis diagnosed, thought it was allergies, so frustrating...

I was quite unwell when overseas and ended up in hospital for about a week as I was so dehydrated etc. IV fluids and steroids, generally feeling pretty awful. I lost quite a bit of weight, but was back to feeling fine again after just another week out the hospital!

I had it in summer 2016... buggered my spleen and my liver and had a nice stay in hospital. I felt awful for a while, but completed my final year of my degree (started in September 2016) worked, did the mum thing. In March 2017 I ran a marathon and have run more of them since. I still get worn out quickly and can go through phases of fatigue but did much better than anyone expected. My biggest advice is just to listen to your body and be kind to yourself. Get support for things you need with and rest when you can! Fingers crossed you'll have a smooth recovery

Felt absolutely shocking for a week. Doc came to see mum (good auld days!) with test results and I was cleaning out my car. He was surprised I was up. Felt fine. Two weeks later it hit again and I did not feel properly well for a while but never as bad as the first week.

I had mine at 36 weeks pregnant
For a week I was hideous felt line death but I couldn't take ibuprofen etc which I think would have helped.

I gave birth at 38 weeks and was just tired!
At rheumatoid time it's shit bit the worst does pass quickly.

The time not rheumatoid!

I had it when I was 16, after snogging lots of randoms on holiday . Realised something was wrong when I couldn’t get out of bed the day after having a pint of cider at a music festival. I was really unwell (horrific tonsillitis) for about a week, then pretty much back to normal.

I had it at uni, could barely get out of bed for about a week. Once I managed to struggle to the doctors, they did a blood test. By the time the results came back I was pretty much better.

All the couple of weeks stories are making me feel better! Thanks all, and for the advice re immune system etc. Anyway I’ve just exhausted myself getting up for pills as getting the cat to chase a laser pointer round the living room for ten minutes, so I’m off back to bed.

I didn't know I had glandular fever until after it had gone. I had 3 weeks off work, managed to go back for a month then ended up off for another 3 weeks. 2.5 years later and I still get tired easily now.

All I can recommend is sleep and rest whenever you can. Your body will not recover unless you do, and you WILL feel it at some point. Is there anything you can do for a week or two with the kids so you can disappear to bed? If your DH can take a week off on compassionate/dependants leave now, you might save yourself months off at a later date.

I was in hospital with it over Christmas in my first year at university. Then I only missed the first week back (if that) of the spring term.

I had it in first year of uni. I felt shit, so my mum made me come home, which involved a 3 hour train journey. I was home for a week and a bit and then went back to uni. I think I got an extension on one essay, but I’ve had no lasting health issues because of it.

This is so miserable. I can only swallow liquids, and am alternately sweating buckets and freezing cold. Get dizzy and nauseous when I walk anywhere.

Though it is slightly amusing watching the apparent household breakdown that is occurring because I’m out of it. DH is grumpy because he’s basically been solo parenting since Wednesday (am not impressed with this attitude but in fairness he did have to work a night shift, and there’s damn all I can do about it so trying not to get worked up about it.) I didn't get my shit together to even do the tesco order properly, and DH forgot about it. So nobody edited it and all that came was a load of nappies, frozen breaded chicken which I have no recollection of putting on there and some strawberries. I asked him today if he’s remembered to do the cat’s litter tray and it turns out he didn’t realise you’re meant to scoop the poo out

Don't push yourself - if you over do it and try to do too much it can lead to ME/CFS and other complications - sorry if that's not what you want to hear.

DD had it and had to repeat a year of sixth form - couldn't move off the Sofa for a month (except to bed).
I had it I believe at Uni - and didn't do as well as I should have, but struggled through with relapses every year.
My neice had it and has permanent hearing loss.
And we we're all lucky.

My 24 year old DS was only very unwell for about ten days. I posted on Sparkling's thread about it. He's pretty much recovered now, just has to make himself rest when he's tired instead of socialising all the time & he's learned that he has to listen to what his body is telling him. He was back at work after about 3 weeks, I think.