I am a 29 yr. old female, 5'5, 105 lbs. About 15 wks. ago, I experienced left-sided chest & back pain, relative bradycardia, & shortness of breath. Went to ER - had chest CT, EKG, blood gases, told everything was fine. Next couple of days developed fever, extreme nausea, excessive sweating, & tachycardia, & pain continued. Internist did various blood tests, EKG, echocardiagram - said everything was fine. Sed. rate normal. Monospot was negative. Tested for CMV, HIV, hepatitis panel, PPD, parvovirus, & EBV. All negative except for EBV - IgM & IgG titers indicated acute infection. I was told I'd be over it in 4-6 weeks. Symptoms all continued unabated. In roughly 5th week following diagnosis, ended up in ER again with left-side chest, back, flank pain. Chest x-ray, echocardiogram, EKG all "fine." Blood chem. panel, including sed. rate, normal. Started to feel somewhat better, but pain continued. In 8th week of illness low-grade fever (99.6 - my normal is in 97s) returned with continued pain & nausea. Doctor told me this was in my head & I should take antidepressants. I changed doctors instead. In what was about 10th week of illness, new doc did blood chemistry (but not sed. rate) - everything normal except ALT, which was 51. Ordered chest x-ray, which was normal, & abdominal ultrasound, also normal. Now in 15th week of illness, I have continued to have pain in left chest (right beneath left breast, occasional random pains above), left upper back around shoulder blade, some occasional radiation into left arm/forearm/wrist. Pain sometimes seems localized to inside of left ribcage - upper abdominal region; random pains occasionally inside right ribcage. Occasional tachycardia. Excessive sweating. Intermittent nausea. Morning temps around 98.4-6, evening up to 99.6. Also having some sore throat pain, which I didn't for first 6-8 wks. of illness. Not incredibly fatigued, a tad bit short of breath (but I'm very anxious, & very deconditioned after being ill for so long, so I'm thinking that's causing the dyspnea.) Expressed concern about heart inflammation to new doc - to humor me, she's ordered echo stress, which I'm scheduled to have next week.
My questions are:
1. Does this sound like mononucleosis?
2. If so, should I still be having these symptoms 4 months after diagnosis? Are "relapses" every week or two common?
3. Is there anything I wasn't tested for that I should be?
4. I have been concerned about myocarditis. Is it possible that I have a mild case that wasn't picked up by 3 EKGs, two echos, & two chest x-rays? Could it have developed since then? If somehow I have/had it, will the upcoming echo stress test pick it up?
5. Finally - about 10 yrs. ago, I ended up in ER with what I now think was panic attack. Doc told me I had mono. Had no symptoms of illness whatsoever. Don't know if he ran monospot or was just guessing. If I had it then, is this mono, or something else?
Thanks,
Rebecca