Glandular Fever and School

[Libbies40]

My 13 yr old add has been poorly now for 8 wks. What started as a virus & 2 wks off school, then developed into very bad tonsilitis and suspected Glandular Fever 4 wks ago. The fatigue is terrible & has ruined the summer holidays of a usually active kid. This week his salivary glands have swollen & after a trip to a not very interested Drs & none confirmation of GF from the blood test, both my DD and I are very worried about him being able to go back to school this week. The Dr just shook her head & said I need to contact the school, but with no definite diagnosis, I am not sure I will be taken seriously. I am at my wits end. He is so tired & yet doesn't want to have to miss lessons and fall behind or not do PE & other kids tease him for the way he feels. Is there any advice anyone can give me? Thank you.

You need to contact the school and talk it through with them.
It isn't necessarily Glandular fever, so don't rely on getting a diagnosis.

Ds had some similar thing a couple of years ago. I was hoping it would turn out to be Glandular Fever as a definite answer, but we never got a definite answer, and nothing tested for came back positive.

It was easier for ds, as he was primary, and his form teacher could see that he was struggling with tiredness.
What I did was keep the school up to date. I agreed that when possible he would be in school. They agreed that he could do half days, and that he could return to school after vomiting as his temperature came up in the evening and then he was sick.
I got letters from the GP at each stage, so they knew what was going on. (the first letter the GP wrote basically said "this is a sensible parent, if she says he's ill, then he is!").
I also let them know at reception if he was particularly bad, and made sure that they could phone me up when he was taken worse during the day. They also let him sleep a couple of times to see if a quick doze helped (it didn't).
They also kept calpol and ibroprofen for him at the office so when he was in pain he could go and get it.

Witchend thank you. I am beyond worried. I asked for a print out of his blood results & after being told they were satisfactory, have discovered there are several above and below range!!!! My DS is so poorly today & we are going back on Tuesday and I will ask for a letter as you advise.

It can be that they are above/below range in the "right way" ie so that it's clearly nothing to worry about.
Ds was referred urgently, there were clear signs they were concerned about leukaemia, although they tried not to actually say that. They did take care to explain with the results that although (eg) the white blood cell markers were in the abnormal range it was the right side (ie not cancer) so it wasn't anything serious.

Our Gp is very good, plus ds being younger, but we really got very quickly seen.
The letter we got from the blood test said "not a very high chance of it being cancer" only they wrapped it up in technical terms. As I said to the GP, I didn't want there to even be a minute chance, and wrapping it up in technical terms just meant I google searched them, which isn't exactly helpful. He did take my point, and translated it better than google did.

I would keep pushing. If he's clearly unwell then you need answers. I was quite lucky in that by the time the blood test came through he was clearly beginning to recover which, if it had been something bad wouldn't have happened. The GP was worried enough to phone us once a day for a couple of weeks to check he wasn't getting worse.

Could it be his thyroid? Did you have that checked?

I don't think they tested his thyroid, so I will ask on Tuesday. Thank you. He is complaining he is worse today & he actually looks it. Saying he is cold. Oh the worry. 🙁

Thank you. I will push. Your comments have soured me on to be a bit more pushy. X

Thyroid needs checking for sure. Ask them to do his T4 and THS Levels