My beautiful, healthy, active, and popular 14 year old daughter started complaining of bone pain (mostly in her lower back, but also generalized), fatigue, and excessive bruising on her legs almost a year ago. I attributed these symptoms to her active lifestyle (she's athletic and in gymnastics and pep squad). In June of this year I began to notice that her bruises were not healing and were in strange places (under her toenails, and on her hands). In July she developed appendicitis and underwent an appendectomy. Her CBC at that time was normal. After her surgery, in August, she started high school and seemed to get sicker.....frequent sore throats, fevers, nausea. She lost several pounds and was sleeping excessively. I took her to the doctor and he ran a CBC and diagnosed her with mono. All of her platelet, white and red blood cell counts were normal. That was two months ago. The doc said mono was no big deal, and to expect her to get better in two to four weeks. Well, six weeks later she has only gotten worse. She's always fatigued, never has an appetite, has had to sit out of football games twice due to almost passing out on the field, gets nauseated and has diarrhea 2-4 times a week, and continues to complain of "bone pain". Her bruises on her toes from over two months ago have not healed. I've taken her back to the doctor twice, and last week her WBC was low...2400....but this week has resumed a normal 4000 count. My daughter actually had mono before, when she was nine, and the symptoms were so much different from this time around....that time she just had a fever and sore throat and was tired for a few weeks. She didn't bruise easily and complain of bone pain. I have been worried about the possibility of leukemia, but her blood counts have been pretty much normal. Is leukemia truly an impossibility? Should I stop worrying and just trust that this is mono, and that sometime soon she will start feeling OK and be able to enjoy being a healthy teenager again? These symptoms have been present for close to nine months now.