Does anyone have experience of your DC having Glandular Fever please?

[Muckingfuddle123]

Hi, I am desperate for help and advice off anyone that has any experience of glandular fever. My DS12 was diagnosed with glandular fever beginning of may, he hasn’t been into school since the end of April. DS has been extremely tired with aches and pains associated with the GF. My ds has never had antibiotics and never seen a doctor apart from when he was born. The last six weeks my son has been in severe pain with the right side of his neck ( lymph nodes are very swollen) numerous visits to the doctor, lots of bloods being taken but keep on being told it’s all part of the GF. My DS doesn’t get up from bed day or night, he copes ok with the usual aches and pains but should he be in unbearable pain in his neck after 6 weeks?

One of the very many nasty germs Elly has had. She went down with it at the start of June last year. V. tired, slept everywhere she sat down, had all sorts of aches and pains. Dear God though her throat....she had severe tonsilitis after severe tonsilitis by the third bout of severe tonsilitis she was exhausted and very, very fed up. Dr's advised as she could have it to take pead' suspension of iburofen and paracetamol. Keep an eye on how swollen your sons tonsils are as GF leaves you wide open to every bacterial throat bug that is out there. Elly lived on fluids and ice-cream for four months simply due to how swollen and sore her throat was in between strep' throats. Your DS will be tired, horribly and incredibly tired for many weeks. Elly was signed off school as sick for three months. It was a further three before she began to feel well and another three before she was back to her old feisty self. If your son needs longer than the summer holidays to feel better do ask his school if a gradual planned return is possible. If your son feels he needs to rest let him. He is not being lazy its one of those teenage nasties that can really knock an active kid for six. Any concerns about his throat contact his GP asap. Hope all goes well for your DS.

Thank you so so so much for your advice.
He is seeing a doctor weekly due to significant weight loss and enlarged lymph nodes. This illness has completely changed my ds he’s gone from being a happy outgoing boy to a depressed aching 12year old too ill to get out of bed. We are into week 13 and he is so much worse than he was a month ago. If as you say @triballeader we have to wait another few weeks then it gives me hope and I have something positive to tell my ds, thank you. How old was your dd?

I had it at 21yo as a student.

My day for many weeks went:
Wake up about 9am. Feel better, decide I was better, so out to do stuff.
About 12noon I would be so tired I would fall asleep where I was.
About 3-4pm I would wake up with a temperature and feeling terrible.
Temperature would rise all evening. Couldn't eat anything, but would drink lots.
Go to bed about 9pm with 3 pint glasses of water next to the bed. I would have to refill them some point during the night.

This lasted for about 10-12 weeks.
I did then start slowly getting better. I would say it was a good 1-2 years before I really felt better. But some things never recovered, and it's now over 20 years later.
But if I lie down, for example with a book, I'll fall asleep within 10 minutes. I used to love reading in bed.
I used to be able to survive happily on 4-6 hours sleep as long as I got a good lie in from time to time. Now if I have less than 8 hours I really feel quite ill again.

Elly was 18. She has had lots of surgery so she has built some resilience and ways of coping when she is not so great. That has to be so much harder for a normally active 12 year old boy who may be the first in his peer group to go down with GF. Elly lost weight she could ill afford to loose with GF. I bought her what ever flavour of lump free posh ice cream she could swallow. I also made pureed soup, cheesy mashed potatoe, custard made with gold top milk. milk shakes from milk, ice-cream and pureed fruit, cool smoothies. Basically if she fancied it, it was smooth and she could swallow it I let her try it. Be aware GF can make food and drink a kid would normally love taste foul. Try very hard not to stress over GF caused weight loss as that tends to add to a kids anxiety over feeling so rubbish for so long. Elly was miserable over lack of contact with friends. Social media helped as she could type when speech was impossible. Her throat was so swollen she used phone to send me messages of what she wanted as she could not shout. Again that helped with frustration at not being able to get something and not being able to shout for it. She stuck to her own towels, bed linen and crockery. Had regular check ups with her GP esp for her spleen. Once she was past the sleeping 23 hours out of 24 stage I did let her friends round to see her for short visits. The biggest mistake with a nasty bout of GF is to try doing too much too soon just because you wake feeling a little better as Witchend has illustrated. It can knock you back and cause you to be ill for a few weeks. Thanks to medical advances we have become used to maybe feeling a bit rubbish for a few days and bouncing back. GF remains one that lingers on and where convelsence to recover from it is often needed.

Thank you for your advice. My ds doesn’t seem to have any good days , the constant pain in his neck is really getting him down. Regular bloods taken are all normal, no infection. He is getting very depressed and weepy as it’s gone on for so long. Very difficult through the summer holidays as I have another 2 children and not being able to go out of the house is no fun! Hopefully things will improve soon

Your poor lad. Might be worth asking his GP if there is any possibility that GF has set off chronic fatigue syndrome. Elly was just out and out tired and sleepy for months. Her cousin was one of the unlucky ones who developed CFS from GF. I am not saying your son has that just that it can be a possibility that follows GF for some. GF on its own causes bone aching fatigue and it does take some kids longer than others to recover from just GF. CFS was picked up 4 months after her cousin developed confirmed GF and she ended up needing a whole12 months off school. She recovered with support from the ME Association and a very gentle and very gradual increase in activities. They may be able to provide you with more advice on how you can support your DS as it sounds like he is having an absolutely rotten time of things. www.meassociation.org.uk

DS has every single symptom of cfs and they did mention it in the hospital last week. It’s the severe neck pain he just cannot cope with. The different tastes of food definitely makes sense and everything has to be cut up really small. He is just getting so frustrated with the constant pain. I have to trust the doctors in the fact that it is all to do with the GF and it just takes time but I will be getting advice off www.meassociation straight away. Thanks again