don't understand mono - someone please explain

[blank65]

Hello -

For the last 2-3 months I've had some very weird symptoms.  Chronic cough, oral hairy leukoplakia and chronic canker sores.  Also a swollen gland on my neck.

I've been very alarm that it is either HIV or lymphoma, something very serious.  My doctor today though pretty much laughed at me and told me it's probably just some virus that takes a while to go away and named mono specifically.  He said mono can weaken your immune system and cause some of the things I've had.

Tomorrow I'm going to for blood work to test for mono among other things.

I don't understand mono, though.  I keep reading how it's so common and almost everyone has it in their system but are resistant to it.  Well, does this mean I'm NOT resistant to it?  If I have it, how come my girl friend hasn't come down with anything?  Does that mean she IS resistant to it?  

I guess I just don't understand - if almost everyone is resistant to it, how come it seems like everyone has had it before??

It seems a little weird for soemone to tell me I PROBABLY have mono when everyone is PROBABLY resistant to it in the first place.  

What am I missing?

[coolchik]

i have that hairy leukapleia too. i was diagnosed with ebv in feb , actually got sick in december. so its been about five months. slowly slowly getting better...

[9DodgeFan]

I would guess mono is the cause of all the symptoms.  It really varies greatly from person to person, as far as duration and severity.  Some people get over it in a couple weeks, and I've heard stories of people who took a year or 2 to fully recover; it was about a year for me personally.  Really the best thing you can do is to try to rest and "take it easy" as much as you can.  Once you start feeling better, you can SLOWLY start getting back into your regular routine; hopefully this will keep you from having a relapse.  Let us know how things go!

[blank65]

My doctor called today to say my blood test shows mono.

How long do people usually have mono for?  The fatigue, which I understand is the main symptom, only set in in the last couple days.  But the cancer sores and oral hairy leukoplakia had been going for a couple months.  Does that sounds normal?  

I'm just wondering if the mono is a recent development or the cause of all my symptoms for the last couple months.

[9DodgeFan]

Hi, I'm not a doctor, but hopefully I can clear things up a little for you.  Mono is caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).  Most of the time when someone first contracts EBV, they get mono which results in flu-like symptoms; the range of severity is pretty big and depends on a lot of factors.  Most people who are tested at this point will register a positive for the monospot test, but some people (myself included) don't/didn't.  Do you know if you had the monospot test or EBV titers test?  That should indicate whether it's an active infection or relapse.  It is true that most people (I've heard around 90%) have EBV by the time they're a young to mid-age adult, but that in the majority of people it stays dormant.  However, as you can see by reading a lot of other posts in this forum, reactivations are certainly not uncommon, and unfortunately, they can be caused by tons of different factors.  Hopefully this has helped you understand EBV, and hopefully your test results will clear things up as well.  If not, don't be afraid to ask more questions!