Glandular Fever in adult- experiences

[GFHell]

I am very interested to hear anybody’s experiences of glandular fever in an adult.
I am coming to the end of week four of feeling unwell, I’m in my mid 50s.
Week one I felt generally slightly under the weather with a headache and some body aches.Week two I was actually unwell with a temperature and body aches and had a blood test at the end of that week which showed glandular fever. Week three sore throat and feeling exhausted I’m now near the end of week four and I’ve had one day when I felt okay but the rest of the time I still feel just as exhausted as I did last week. As far as I can see all the advice is simply to rest which I’ve been doing as much as I possibly can.
I’d be really interested to hear how long it’s taken other people to get over the tiredness. For me at the moment the worst thing is that I feel is if I will never feel well again.

Did the test show a new infection or a reactivated old one? (common after covid)

I believe it was a new infection. And I hadn’t just had a cold or anything stayathomegardener

I should’ve said I have NCed for this

I had it as a young adult in my early 20s so had a lot more energy than I do now in my late 50s, but I do remember being completely exhausted for several weeks. Eg walking a total of about half a mile to the shop and back and having to go to bed for the afternoon.
I felt obliged to go back to work after 6 weeks as I was young and keen and it was a new job, but in hindsight I should have taken at least another couple of weeks off.

I had it when I was 25 so just on the cusp of adult in terms of glandular fever. I was bed bound for 2 weeks, chronic fatigue for about 9 months, literally falling asleep sitting up! Liver function tests repeated fortnightly for 2 years before they showed improvement.

MagpiePi and PawMaw that sounds absolutely terrible in both cases. I really feel for you.

I also had it in my 20’s. A month in bed, and then around 18 months slowly returning to some kind of normality.

I had it last summer at the age of 41. I actually didn't get any of the throat symptoms, but did have a fever and generally felt terrible. Ended up in hospital for a few days diagnosed with viral hepatitis which they eventually worked out had been caused by glandular fever. I recovered from the worst of it after a couple of weeks but had bouts of tiredness for months after. Fine now though. Make sure people let you rest!

In my 30s, misdiagnosed as tonsillitis and penicillin resistant tonsillitis for 3 weeks, ( thanks GP for 3 weeks of useless antibiotics). Absolutely exhausted for months, could drag myself around for a small walk, come home and fall asleep. Treatment then was prednisone, made no difference. No idea what they do now. Definitely a first time infection.

Think I was 32. I had my first baby at 37, very fit and well, regularly hiked Dartmoor, Bodmin, Exmoor, coastpath, even while pregnant. So I definitely got over it.

Early 20s but it was brutal. I’m 58 now and looking back I was far more ill than I realised,
particularly as I had really painful glands after drinking any alcohol for about two years after. I should have had more checks really - only has the initial diagnostic blood test.

My ex husband caught it in his early 30s. He was also prescribed penicillin by an elderly doctor who should have been retired. Of course at the time he had it we were in the middle of moving house! He was exhausted.

Mine wasn't diagnosed for months afterwards when I went to the GP with what turned out to be an enlarged spleen. It all made sense when I got the diagnosis though because I had been floored by what I thought was a bad case of tonsillitis but had never gone to the GP. Lesson learned!

OMG! Yes, painful spleen and unable to eat or swallow properly for ages. Think I lived on very milky weetabix. 😬🫣

GF is made worse by antibiotics so avoid those.

It took my daughter a good few years to recover and she’s still not 100% so do take it easy for longer than you think you need.

I had glandular fever in my early forties which felt really random at the time! I was unwell for weeks with what felt like unrelated symptoms -headaches, exhaustion, really bad stomach pain when eating, fever, pain under my arms. But none of them were persistent, they just seemed to be on rotation. Eventually, it all ramped up and I woke up one morning with the most horrendous sore throat and just feeling generally awful. Went to the GP, blood test, diagnosis.

After that point I had a couple of weeks off work, followed by maybe another couple of weeks of feeling very run down and tired. I was more or less ok after that although I did have a couple of other viruses that year which hit me very hard and felt like a bit of a relapse. The year after, I ran a marathon so definitely fine by that point!

I hope you feel better soon. It's really miserable but you'll get there. Lots of rest, as boring as it is!

I only found out I had glandular fever from signing off work feeling nauseous with a mild sore throat and being a bit run down, going to the GP about the nausea and when she looked at my throat she said it was all the pus I was swallowing making me feel sick. Grim.
I don’t remember taking any medication or how long it took me to fully recover.

My DH had it about 20 years ago when he was in his late 30s. It absolutely wiped him out for several weeks. I remember we went away for a weekend to a lovely city that we'd both been wanting to visit and he couldn't get out of bed. I had to leave him there and go off sightseeing on my own. He just slept the whole time and his throat was so painful he could barely eat. I would pop back regularly to see him and I found a smoothie shop so I'd take him a smoothie as it was all he could eat.

Actually he was mid-30s. He'd kill me for mis-aging him