I remember hearing so much about the “kissing disease” when I was a kid (from my older brothers and their friends). I had it in my early twenties in 1990 and spent a month in bed. Knew a couple others my age who got it, but I don’t hear about it anymore. My 20s kid is sick and the doctor didn’t do a swab but said it’s probably strep. Wondering how prevalent mono is these days.
The Cars wrote a song about it.
You sir get the hell out of here!!!
I had that as a teenager. Not uncommon, from what I’ve seen.
Um, calling it stereo is a joke
Exactly
Yes
Bahahaha! Good one.
I once thought I had mono for an entire year. Turns out I was just really bored.
Came here for this comment!
Ooh, tip of my tongue...need to google this quote.
10th grade. Missed a half of November and most of December. I heard The Boys of Summer on the radio probably 1000 times in my fever dreams. To this day, I immediately feel exhausted when I hear that song. Lost weight, I couldn’t afford to lose. Earned a D in typing because I missed too much school.
Fun fact about mono...might lead to MS.
And other autoimmune diseases. I had it in my 30s, it led to a connective tissue disease.
Huh…I didn’t know that, maybe that’s why I got Hashimoto's.
It could be, yes. I read some time ago that scientists are working on creating a vaccine for the Epstein-Barr virus because it is linked to so many health problems. My understanding is that this connection has been discovered quite recently.
Oh great
That’s so weird! When I was in 8th grade, I got a bad sunburn at the beach and came home feeling tired and feverish. I fell asleep with the radio on, and Don Henley’s Sunset Grill came on (same album as Boys of Summer). Somehow, in my feverish state, I thought that song went on for HOURS. The synth outro just kept going and going until I was sure I was in some sort of alternate reality. And, like you, I still feel weird every time I hear that song now 40 years later. Wtf Don Henley??
Boys of Summer seems to haunt a lot of us. Granted, it is meant to sound haunting and is dripping in nostalgia in and of itself, but now that shit is 30 years ago and it played constantly on mtv and the radio for two fucking years and then never failed to pop up throughout the rest.
If you were going through anything heavy in that time that got you stuck inside with a tv or radio for company, that song (and there’s a few others. You know the ones.) has got to be a Pavlovian trigger of some kind.
I swear I phase shift into another time and reality whenever I hear that song. A time and reality I made up while hearing it to dissociate from the one I was stuck in at the time.
Nucks with the foggin fer sure.
You really nailed it.
It takes me right back to seeing him in concert at Alpine Valley Wisconsin June 29, 1985.
Saw the Grateful Dead there in ‘88 and ‘89. Both were some of the most memorable parts of those epic come back years. Pretty sure my life peaked on summer 88 Grateful Dead tour while I peaked in every drum/space I could.
I had the bus, the Sugar Mag, Nokamichi mics with a Dragon mixing board, an eight cassette speed copier, a rolling egg roll business, all the shitty Mexican brick weed you could ever smoke, and a crystal of pure LSD about the size of a red hot fireball that kept hundreds of the Rainbow family in rainbows for the summer, and me and my little fam in endless Heinekens, steaks (we did not eat the veggie eggrolls we sold), and the blue pharmaceutical MDMA tabs from Germany that were still kickin around from before they were scheduled in ‘85 (?).
I ended up with a collection of original show recordings to rival some of the big collectors… whole collection went down with my boat in El-Nino 1997 in San Francisco. Still getting over that one. Only ship I ever lost. A ship of fools one could say.
This show was the one, baby;
WOW! Thanks for this! This is a super clean recording, it's not just a random bootleg. How were you able to get this?
I wish I had some deep archive of secret recordings but I just entered the show date and GD in the YouTube search bar and then listened to the quality of the several that popped up and chose this one. :)
That date is tattooed on my brain. Hey! New band name!; Brain Tattoo. :)
I met Jerry Garcia in Naples during that time frame. I think he was scoring some coke in a bar called The Gold Spike (after the rail line was finished from Tampa to Miami, the last spike was ceremoniously gold in that spot). The stories THAT place could tell, I still don't feel safe talking about some of that mess. You were the Head Hippy in Charge, brother, and Holy crap I wish I had met up with you! On top of the wave! 🏄♂️. I went to a gathering of The Rainbow Family of Living Light a few years ago in N Georgia just because it was near some property I have there, and it was pretty shocking. They were having a moment of silence for World Peace and I thought I could get behind that but, MY GOD it was awful. Been sober 17 years now and I have a new life thanks to some meetings I frequent. I am filled with gratitude for life.
Sober 12 years myself, my dude! Well, Cali-sober. Congrats on finding your own freedom!
I have spent a few hazy nights at The Gold Spike myself. And there’s a damn good chance you met me on tour… and sampled our egg-rolls and other consumables that we put out. I owned “The Land Ark”… big ass ‘78 Bluebird a couple buddies and I converted into what looked like a boat’s interior complete with teak and holly sole and teak and mahogany trim. It was dark green with teak T&G where the windows had been with four big bronze portals on in em in each side. It said “Land Ark” on the sides and back in big bronze colored lettering. We had a full length awning that rolled out and we ran our custom egg-roll production line under that. We had 6 electric woks we cooked in at the end of the line. We always had a great spot on Shakedown St. We were pretty hard to miss. The tabs we put out were Blue Unicorns and Clown Faces. You’ll remember em if you took em. ;) I sold my show recordings with cassette jackets that were black with a gold steal-your-face and the title “Foolish Ship Archive” on em.
Know who I am yet? If you can relate an encounter, odds are I’ll remember you. Unlike what most folks say about em, I have uncannily accurate memories of those times.
Sounds amazing but I never made a GD show, I was born in 65 And I just sort of missed the Dead somehow. I was living in a liquid medium, fishing, fighting, chasing tail and wrecking cars completely feral, out of control. Moved to S Florida to fulfill my kingpin ambitions, ended up a dry drunk for many years raising kids. How did you get introduced to the Grateful Dead?
Ha! You sound like my kinda peeps. Living balls to the wall in one’s youth, if one survives it, molds a kind of character that is becoming more and more rare… after all the consequences have been suffered… and overcome. As you know, all that suffering that seemed to have no value or purpose suddenly becomes the source of one’s greatest value to their fellow man… when one has healed enough to help others caught in the depths of it to escape it.
I was raging around through life as an angry young teenager whose parents lost the script of their life in his late early-childhood years (I told my parents that having another kid was not gonna fix their marriage… when I was 10. I could not have been more perceptive.) By the time I left HS I owned a thriving general contracting business and I owned the house my mother lived in with that 11 year younger brother I just mentioned.
During that time, I was well aware that the system I was a slave to was fundamentally a death cult of hedonistic wealth accumulation by a master class from the blood and sweat of a captive underclass of slaves. I sought every spiritual teaching I could find to try to grock the mess of humanity I was in. Much of that teaching came through music which I voraciously absorbed the wisdom I still find in it that seems to make prophetic geniuses out of the most unlikely humans imaginable. The rebel music of ska, reggae, punk, heavy metal, hard-core, alternative, and folk infused my spiritual learnings with modern perspectives and continue to inform my path today.
I spent every moment I had, and tons of good beer money, on the cassette albums I bought at the record and tape store every week with my lawn mowing business money I was racking up at 13. I often would pick a genre I had no familiarity with and just buy albums whose artwork caught my eye… that was how I found the GD album “Skull Fuck”, also known as “Skull and Roses”; that best-of album we all loved before we ever saw a show… and then pretended we didn’t like nearly as much as the live, bootleg versions after our initiation. And the rest was history. Bought my ticket to my first show at MSG when I saw them available at the record store when I was lined up for tickets to what turned out to be the greatest Reggae Festival(s) I’d ever see; At the Woodbury, CT ski mountain my friends and I knew the owner of. That had to be around ‘86 or 87.
I did a lot of damage to myself and relationships with others during and after those years… but holy shit did I ever LIVE. I paid dearly for it but, in the end, I regret nothing.
“Hell In a Bucket”—> “The Golden Road To Unlimited Devotion.”
I also had it in the Fall of my Sophomore year in High School. I was out for a while, but was still pretty weak even when the doctor cleared me to go back to school. I remember having to fight the PE teacher about making up my missed time. One of them said I could stay after school and do light activities, but the other one made me run around the track. I made it around the track once before feeling like I was going to die. I remember that teacher shouting that i wouldn't get credit for the makeup at me when I left. I was always a rule follower, so it was one of the few times I blatantly defied an authority figure. Months later I still had some random pains. It was definitely no joke!
About the same time. I distinctly remember someone taking a sip of my Subway cup for some reason, she was attractive and I was naive. She was out the next day, her boyfriend too. Then I felt the worst I have ever in my life. I was so weak I couldn't get into my bed so I slept on a travel mattress on the floor. It sucked, haven't had the same energy level since.
Happened to me in 9th. I was in the hospital for a week. It infected my internal organs, liver, spleen. My body was not normal until over a year later.
I had it towards the end of 8th grade. A couple of my teachers gave me a little bit of makeup work, but most of them just went with the grades I already had. My English teacher wanted me to write a poem. To help illustrate what she wanted, she tore an ad out of a magazine featuring cigarettes, and wrote a POEM about CIGARETTES! I was so grossed out that I refused to do the assignment….if she had literally chosen anything else….
No poem about the vile toxicity of cigarettes? I might try to write one this evening; it might not rhyme, though.
I didn’t get it till my 20s and it was probably the sickest I’ve ever been (other than delta Covid w pneumonia).
Same. Had it in college and it was awful. Worse than covid for me. So, so tired, I literally had to stop halfway up stairs to rest when trying to got class after a few days.
I also had it in college and the fatigue was intense. It took a good 6 months to feel like myself again.
Same here! Got it first semester, freshman yr of college…I could barely walk down the hall to the showers in my dorm. I would have to stop & lean against the wall as I walked. Have NEVER been so sick or weak in my life.
Had covid as well, and mono was MUCH worse than covid…covid wasn’t fun by any stretch, but damn - Mono is a motherf*cker 😮💨
My daughter had mono when she was 16 and her pediatrician said it's a good thing she got it before college because most kids end up dropping out. They're too tired to do the work. She missed 3 months of school as it was.
Same. I had it in college and ended up in the hospital for a week. It was horrible!
I got it in my mid30s, and until I had covid at 51, it was the sickest I'd ever been (even with having had pneumonia a few times - chest infections seem to really like me)
I had it in high school. It's still around. Some of my kids' high school friends have gotten it. Fun fact - according to my kids' pediatrician, about 94% of the population has had mono. Like if you test them for it, it will show a past infection. Most just don't know it. The younger you are when you get it, the milder the symptoms. So a lot of people get it when they are like 3 or 4, but it never made them that sick and they were never tested for it. There's a good chance that one of the mystery viruses that every little kid gets pretty frequently was actually mono. That means they have immunity and are unlikely to get it later in life. They may think they've never had it, but they really have.
I always thought I'd escaped it, but maybe I didn't. Interesting. My first cousin had it when we were either in high school or college. Can't remember which.
Yes, I heard an NPR story on this recently...many of us are exposed to it in first few years of life just by sharing spit with parents (via food, kissing, drinking after each other, etc.). I never had symptoms even though my HS boyfriend had it bad and we definitely did some kissing while he was sick with it....
Be aware that if you had mono back then (I did) you have Epstein-Barr virus now. I just had my first flare-up. I was ignorant to this connection.
And they’ve linked it to Multiple Sclerosis too.
Rheumatoid arthritis a month after recovery for me.
Interesting. So, I was diagnosed with RA when I left the military (at 22yo). Years later it made itself known. I think the mono has helped mess up a few things in my health situation. I’m 100% holistic now and just conquered a mild flare-up of Epstein-Barr.
I had mono at fourteen years of age,during a long, drawn out death in the family. I was in the hospital for a week, and out of school for months. Fast forward to the age of twenty-two. Another long year, dealing with cancer in a loved one. After they died, I went to the dr and said I had mono. They insisted that you couldn’t have mono twice. I insisted on a blood test. His nurse called me the next day to let me know I had mono. I switched drs. He PUBLISHED A PAPER the next year about having mono twice. I was patient X!!
Since then I have been diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases; they travel in packs.
I had it twice as well! The second time was in my 30s when I unknowingly had a massive vitamin D deficiency. I not only got mono again, but also shingles. Thankfully a megadose of vitamin D meant that I bounced back pretty quickly.
I also have a knack for getting dramatically sick when a loved one dies. I got chicken pox when my dad died. My grandfather died three months later (yeah, 1992 was a real banger of a year), I ended up with a nasty, raging case of pink eye. I looked like one of the infected from 28 Days Later.
We sound like we’ve had similar experiences
When I was 16, I got mono and Lyme disease around the same time 🥴
Yow, that must have been terrible.
Good news, you're probably invincible now.
No, no, even a slight breeze could....
I had it in 11th grade. Got severely swollen lymph nodes in my neck and in front of one ear. I was at my boyfriend's grandparents house and started feeling awful within just a couple of hours. I ended up spending the night at their house, and was given one of his grandparents' codeine pills. I slept like a baby that night. Spent the next couple of weeks with intermittent fever, chills, nausea, headache, etc and one of the swollen lymph nodes is still slightly enlarged.
I did. I missed THREE days of school.
"If you can get up you can go to school"
Same. I remember missing a party on a Friday night, and sleeping the whole weekend. But I don’t think I missed much school. I did get excused from a ton of homework. Like no way I should have passed geometry because I did very little in that class.
As an adult in my early 30s! I was only off work for a couple days but the doc said I had to be careful not to get hit in the spleen. I was all (a) not sure where in my body my spleen is, but (b) I generally am careful to avoid getting hit at all, so spleen is probably included.
It just went through my son’s private high school, mostly the baseball team.
My high schooler and all of her friends just had it, too.
Summer between junior and senior year of high school. It’s pretty bad. I don’t think I felt right for at least 6 months
Yep. I was either sophomore or junior year. It was miserable. I missed 3 weeks of school. I've only been that sick twice since then. Bad strep in my 20s, and some seriously bad pneumonia in my 30s.
Between all 3 of those and being a former smoker, you bet I wore a mask.
I picked up a case of strep in my late 30s, and WOW! I felt horrible until I figured out what was going on.
A gift from my first girlfriend in college.
Mine was from my first college boyfriend. I was sick as a dog for two weeks, then I had a massive outbreak of canker sores after that. Thanks a lot, S.
Ditto. Had to leave school for a month during which she cheated on me. Good start to college.
I didn’t, but remember gleeking? Yeah my older brother chased me around gleeking at me while he had mono. He called it monulating, which is now hilarious.
I had it in second grade and missed two months of school. My spleen swelled to three times normal size. I couldn't do anything for fear if I fell, it would break open and I'd bleed to death. So my mom kept me home out of fear of normal school shenanigans. I caught it from a water fountain at gymnastics.
Got it when I was 31. Was sick for months. It turned into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, then Fibromyalgia later on. Had to take early retirement in 2020. Good times.
It known as Epstein-Barr and some folks think that it might be the cause of some autoimmune conditions but I don’t think it has been proven yet.
I had it when I was young.
Edit: It apparently has been linked to many autoimmune diseases including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, and others. I have Sjogren's and it is thought to be caused by it as well but I don't think researchers have linked it yet. Perhaps because Sjogren's had been classified as a syndrome for so long.
Interesting. My daughter had it in high school which, in hindsight, was the start of all her auto immune issues. I never put the two together
Yeah, I had it in my 30s. About 4 years later, I was diagnosed with a connective tissue disease (similar to lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, but in my case undifferentiated). One of my colleagues' daughter had it when she was about 15, one or two years later she was diagnosed with a different connective tissue disease.
That's very interesting. I had mono when i was 10 and didn't seem to have lingering effects but I developed rheumatoid arthritis at age 26.
I had what I think was a flare up recently, the worst. Swollen spleen, liver, lymph nodes, fever, migraine, aches. A month long of tests and no one had a clue, and then it magically disappeared.
I have Sjogren's and I got sick with what I thought was covid back in october or november of 2023 but I didn't test positive for it. I then thought it was the flu. I was sick with it for a week, which then triggered a Sjogrren's/Fibro flare that lasted three months. It was rough. All the weakness and joint pain you'd usually get with the flu stuck with me that whole time. My legs, already damaged from DVTs, swelled and that swelling still hasn't gone away.
interesting, I did also just test positive for some type of autoimmune disease recently as well. Nothing diagnosed though. Getting old is too hard sometimes. :(
I had the swollen spleen while I was vacationing in scotland, I almost took myself to the hospital from the pain, it was unreal, nothing I had felt before. As soon as I came back from the trip all the other things started to happen. Nothing like going to the Dr, weekly, or even twice a week to figure it out and end with no answers.
I had it at 24, then six months later was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. My doc is pretty sure mono triggered the meltdown of my immune system. I now have three other autoimmune diseases, too.
I suspect I had it when I was 19, but it was never tested and doctor put it down to a viral infection. It dragged on forever and I was so tired. I recovered eventually, but I got IBS and fibromyalgia a few years later and now I have dupuytrens.
Had it bad in 8th grade. Definitely suffer auto immune issues- many not picked up by typical ANA screening
Yup. 9th grade. In the hospital for a week, lost 20 pounds. Not fun.
The Summer I graduated. My girlfriend and I went to Great America for the day, I all of a sudden I got very ill and fatigued. I had to teach her to drive my manual transmission to drive back 294 around Chicago. I slept for two days in her bed. She finally called my mom who had me come up to the urgent care where my sister worked. They tested me and I for sure had it. Ruined the rest of my summer had to have help moving to school. First month I was at school I’d go to class and come home and sleep. It was miserable!
The virus that causes mono is sitting dormant in most of us. Fun fact: if you have COVID, it can activate that virus. My son had a nasty case of COVID a few years ago, and a month later had mono. It happened to one of our neighbors, too.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10292739/
I had it bad in HS, as did my best friend. She was hospitalized, I spent two months in bed and had to miss a Ministry show 😔
Not that I know about, but I have read that some drs are linking it and herpes (cold sore type) to autoimmune disease. Will be interesting to see what comes from that research if it's happening.
I remember getting it and my mom bringing me the printed test results. She said “see here? This is your liver function…” to which I burst out “I haven’t been drinking I swear!!!” She’s like “uh no. That indicates mono” 🤨
I learned it from you OK, I learned it from you!
In Aus we call it Glandular fever. I had it in my 3rd year of high school, so around 14 - was out for an entire term of school.
Slept for months!!
My husband got it about 2 years ago - not sure who he kissed ☺️ - Doctor said it was lucky that I had already had it……He was very lethargic but only had about a fortnight off work.
Lab tech here. Yes, it’s still around. We test around 1000 samples a day for mono. Positives usually reflex to the entire Epstein Barr panel.
I had it in high school. It's still around. Some of my kids' high school friends have gotten it. Fun fact - according to my kids' pediatrician, about 94% of the population has had mono. Like if you test them for it, it will show a past infection. Most just don't know it. The younger you are when you get it, the milder the symptoms. So a lot of people get it when they are like 3 or 4, but it never made them that sick and they were never tested for it. There's a good chance that one of the mystery viruses that every little kid gets pretty frequently was actually mono. That means they have immunity and are unlikely to get it later in life. They may think they've never had it, but they really have.
Not that I know of, but apparently most people catch it and just think it is a cold. It can reactivate and make you exhausted after another serious disease, such as Covid or flu
I got it in college; it knocked me on my ass for a couple of weeks.
I had it at 15, and I missed an entire sports season. I was so mad!
Mono is still around. I had some students with it this year. Incidentally, a history of Mono (Epstein Barr virus infection) is a risk factor for autoimmune diseases like MS later in life.
No I had it at 44 and it was not fun. My spleen was enlarged for a year. Wouldn’t recommend
I caught mono @ 18 yrs old, freshman yr of college ….had to drop my entire first semester, go home, and start all over again after Christmas break.
My immune system has been a mess ever since then. Fuckin mono! 😡🤪
I had it bad in my mid 20s. I was working at a place with amazing benefits and got a month off work with like 80% of my pay. Not even FMLA.
I kept hoping, but either I never got it or couldn’t tell the difference between mono and life.
I never had it, but my youngest child did when she was a junior in high school (she'll be 31 next month). While driving her to urgent care, I was teasing her and saying: "You probably have mono- that's just the fancy way of saying you have the cooties" and I even got the doctor in on the teasing (we loved him, he was an awesome GP). And when the doctor did the test, we all had a good laugh about it- except her, she was understandably pissed off.
I went to school with a fat kid and getting mono was the best thing got ever happen to him. He lost a ton of weight and turned out being hot AF with a nice butt. He was also so sweet and so not used to all the newfound attention he was getting. Wish I had been able to keep up with how he’s doing these days lol.
I got it when I was 18 and it turned one of my eyes green. Ppl freak out seeing it but it's really just a yellow stripe (jaundice I do believe) that runs down the middle of it making it appear green (blue + yellow = green)
Had it in 10 grade 2x. Once in the fall and again that spring. The one in the fall was had a rash to go with it. They thought it might be the measles, so I had to stay home from school for over a month. Plus, they had to redo all my vaccinations because my mother didn't have my records when we moved across country. When I got in again in the spring, we just let me rest more but still go to school. I had already lost so much time that fall.
I had the rash, too. was told that it was an allergy to amoxicillin, so I avoid that and the other -cillins to this day.
other than that, I didn't really have a whole lot of symptoms at the time. however, I got strep throat about three times in my freshman year of college - even ended up admitted to the hospital - and the ENT told me that mono had wrecked my tonsils, so I had them removed that summer.
most likely you never fully recovered and had a relapse of the same infection. Bummer.
Had it when I was 5. I was in the hospital for a week. I remember lots of 7up and popsicles.
I had it in November, somehow missed it as a kid. It was a beast, still recovering. The good news is, if you have someone in the house with it, you probably are immune. It spreads by saliva, through anything that stays wet, so food, cups, sneezing/coughing.
Btw the doctor office mono test is worthless, the only way to know is a blood draw lab test.
Nah man. All Stereo!
I only remember a few ever getting it at my school. Still exists these days.
I got it when I was 25. Yeah, I wasn't popular as a teenager.
It's way worse when you're older. I nearly died. I was out of work for two months, I lost 40 pounds, at one point my throat was so swollen and infected the doctors thought I might start to choke and not be able to breath.
I did. I was 8. I was out of school for 3 months and had a tutor come to my house. I went back to school for a week then got chicken pox. I was out for another 3-4 weeks.
Yes in grade 10. What a pain in the ass. My energy levels have never been the same. You.never really heat about it anymore though.
I had it for about a month before I was diagnosed. In the meantime I had a teacher who thought I was on drugs. My mom had to come in and tell her I had mono, and I wasn't on drugs.
In HS I had a "Mild case of Mono with a mild case of strep". The doctor gave me these horse-sized pills that were awful for a throat that felt the diameter of a straw. I was quite sick. I don't want to imagine what a full case feels like.
Got it in 8th grade. It was like having Malaria. Sweating, fever dreams through the roof. I lost 20lbs and stayed out of school for a week. Took me 6 months to fully recover.
I got it when I was 30. It took 3 days in the hospital to figure out what was wrong. They didn’t even think about mono at first because I was older than the usual age. Luckily the Dilaudid was flowing freely.
I had it the summer between sophomore and junior year of college. I had a summer job I went to every day and was absolutely exhausted. I think I had night sweats for a couple of weeks and felt bad for about 6 weeks.
I had a very bad case of it. My AH brother sneezed on me one day. He had a typical 2 week case of it, but managed to take me out for a year.
My liver and spleen were so swollen that my doctor put me on full bed rest for a while so that my spleen wouldn’t rupture. I missed the last 3 months of school and after summer break I was still only able to attend for half days and I couldn’t take gym.
It took me so long to get better that my doctor ran tests for leukemia because my white cell count was still crazy high almost a year later. I honestly think that it did damage & permanently changed my body in some ways, but the docs I’ve mentioned it to tell me that’s crazy, so what do I know? Lol
Seventh grade and caught it from a Mormon girl
Better than a Mormon bishop.
When I was in 6th grad4, I missed 6 weeks of school because I was so sick. After 3 weeks of various blood tests and exams, the docs finally decided I had some new strain of mono that they had not seen before. It was not fun. Even after I got the all clear to go back to school, every day after school I would have to take a nap before I could even think about any homework. I was so wiped out.
I was too tired to even play Super Mario 3. It was pathetic.
There was a girl when I was in high school who had it and she was out for well over a month and then when she did come back, she was so tired. It was rough for her. I felt bad for her so it’s definitely a thing I haven’t heard of anybody having it in the past 20 years but I have never had it
I had it in high school. I was so sick I missed 6 months of school.
I had it when i was six or seven years old. My mom thinks I got it at the St. Louis Zoo, where the water fountains were big heads of wild animals. You'd stick your head inside their mouth to get to the fountain. She figured people are disgusting and probably slobber and get all sorts of nasty shit on those things.
I had it at 11 (I’m 45 rn) and had to spend a month in bed. The lymphatic nodules on my head and neck got huge, the migraines were unbelievable.
Sadly, it wasn’t because I had been kissed. Damn it.
Heads up. New studies are linking a bout with Mono may be linked to [MS later in life](www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/magazine/epstein-barr-virus-multiple-sclerosis.html)
I had it as a kid and one of my kids got it when she was a teenager. It was initially diagnosed as strep and she was put on antibiotics but 2 days later I took her back to the Dr because she had gotten so much worse. They did a mono test that came back positive. She was very sick and it scared the hell out of me, I'm a mom of 4 so in general I don't panic when my kids get sick but I was legit scared.
I don't remember too much when I had mono as a kid but the few pictures from back then show me as very pale and weak looking. Mono is a potentially dangerous illness for sure.
Senior year, still grateful I got over it quickly and didn't have to miss much
Never got it. I am a veteran of chicken pox though.
Yes, our turntable had mono.
thought i had mono, turns out i was just really bored
My daughter who’s 28 is just getting over mono. It wasn’t even on my radar any more until she got the Dx, but I remember my brother having it when he was in high school. He graduated in 1981.
I had it at the end of my junior year in high school. It was a pretty bad case. My liver was enlarged, and my lymph nodes were like rocks. I ended up in the hospital for a week. On a good note, I missed my final exams, and only had to make up a couple of them.
A girl in my class ended up missing months of school because of it.
I had it in seventh grade. It was some of the worst sickness I’ve ever experienced to this day. Missed so much school, I almost had to repeat the grade.
I had it my junior year in college. Worst strep throat ever, that lasted over a month. The pain was unimaginable at times, luckily this new pain reliever called Advil had just hit the market. After getting diagnosed I went home for about 2 weeks, then came back. That semester was a waste, I should have just dropped it and redone it.
I got it twice a year from 12 to 18. Then I had my daughter at 19 and never got it again.
Got it in May- missed finals, graduation, all the parties. Lost 40 pounds, was sick for a month. No bueno
I had it and my mom didn't let me miss even a day of school.
Yes. And hadn’t even kissed anyone yet.
6 of us on the rugby team got it back in the early 90s at university. I lost half a year I had it so bad.
I also had it in sophomore year. I'm 99% sure I got it from sharing my chocolate with someone at lunch.
No, but one of my friend’s did. She almost failed the year because she missed so much school. She had relapses several times.
Had it my first or second semester in community college. It was going around the local high school and I worked at a clown based food place. I was out like four weeks with exhaustion and fever. Still managed to pass my college classes because I came back with enough weeks to catch up.
Thanks for the input, everyone! Hadn’t thought about mono for years. Learned a lot from the links. The kid feels better after a day on amoxicillin so it probably is strep. Wouldn’t wish mono on anyone.
I had it towards the end of my senior year in high school. I got really sick, ended up in the hospital for about a week. I missed finals so the principal tried to tell my parents I couldn't walk with my class at graduation, but my dad straightened him out pretty quick about that. I still had to go in to take my finals during the summer and I never heard how I did on any of them. I'll bet my teachers didn't even look at them.
Yup. When I was 12. I still remember the weird fever dreams and half memories from that couple weeks, 34 years later.
Yes I had it in 1990-91. Lasted almost a full year.
Yes. Same as you almost. 19, in bed for a month. Had to take incompletes in college. It was awful. Sickest I've ever been.
OMG...yes! I got it in college, maybe 92/93? The school medical clinic did not diagnose me but I was so ill, my friend drove me home 6 hours while I had a crazy high fever. My doc diagnosed me and I was sooooo ill with high fever and crazy sore throat and then tired for a month or so.
Haven't thought about mono in years which is weird because kind of in complementory med business. I am massively PRO vaccine and now want to a deep dive on the mono topic!!
I contracted something that left me bed bound for a few weeks. Blood work showed nothing, but I suspect it was in fact Mono.
I had it in first grade. I had two girlfriends that rode the bus with me. Hehe
I had it 2nd semester senior year of college. It sucked big time!
Was a total nerd with no gf, but still got mono somehow.
It sucked. Couldn’t move for like a month.
It came back like 15 years later and kicked my ass again.
had it freshman year of college, and remember my case was so rough the clinic nurse wanted to admit me. i said i had to study for finals, and literally have no memory of the weeks after that. think i zombied my way through.
and yes, developed an autoimmune disorder (hashimoto’s thyroiditis) years later.
Oof.
By that definition I am a double whore!
But don’t worry I’m not insulted… Because my definition says I am a triple whore. 😎
Freshman year of college. To date, it is the sickest I have ever been. It took a solid month to rebound.
I had stereo
I had it on my twelfth birthday. Kind of ruined things.
Nope.
Nope. Got it at age 35. Let me tell you how much “fun” that was.
Nope, heard lots of discussion about it but never got it.
Yes, twice. Both times in junior high.
No but my sister did
I got it somehow at the end of summer between 5th and 6th grade. I missed the first week of sixth grade because of that, and when I arrived there, it was the first time I had ever had to change classes, and I ended up following around some random person from homeroom and found that I was in the wrong classes. I think I had mono for like two weeks and I lost 17 pounds.
Got it in college at around 20. I remember being really tired and missing a few classes.
I had it when I was about 18. I've never had it again and none of my kids have had it. I've told them about how sick I was when I had it and they think I made up the story because they've never heard of the "kissing disease" from their friends at school.
Yes. While in college, I got a flu bug 6 times in 6 months and saw a doc. He said it was mono caused by the Epstein Barr virus and put me on a regimen of daily echinacea. After that I didn't get sick for the next year or so.
I never had it, but an acquaintance of mine had it in high school. She was out of school for weeks!
And my nephew just got it a few weeks ago, which is throwing a wrench in his college semester. So it definitely still exists.
Yes, I did.
The whole class had it. 25 kids just swapping diseases..
Yes.
I almost had it in sixth grade. Test came back barely negative according to the doctor. Either way I was out for a week.
I DID get it in my mid twenties. Accidentally drank from someone else’s soda at the after pay for my sisters wedding. Came down with mono three days later. That wrecked 6 months of my life. Iirc 33% get either spleen or liver swelling, 66% get the other, I got both. I’m going on distant memory now so. 🤷🏼♂️ anyways I was starting a new job the next week, had to make a call to say I wouldn’t be in for awhile. Doctor said no car rides until the swelling went down. I was young and stupid and went in after a week doing half days. That was all I could handle. Lost a bunch of weight though. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had been in an accident those first few weeks.
I had this happen too - down for 2.5 months.
Liver & spleen issues.
I was ordered to bed for a little over a month. after that I could sit in a chair but no activities.
I was exhausted (understatement) and I could barely handle walking across a room at one point.
Yeah definitely exhausted. I should have taken a month off but was scared what with changing jobs.
I got it first year of college. One of my kids got it in middle school about 6 years ago.
I picked it up in Paris in 1989. It seemed pretty common then, but my kids (adults now) have never had it, nor do they know anyone who has.
I did not. though it did seem like there was always someone out with mono.
Ended up in the hospital for a week with mono at the end of my junior year. Was sick as hell until they figured out that I was allergic to penicillin.
I had to listen to my baseball team win a state championship on the radio.
Yep. Lasted for about a month. Wasn’t allowed to cheer for awhile.
My best friend had it and we still hung out and drank out of the same soda cans and i still never got it.
I missed so much of my senior year from it, I technically shouldn't have graduated. But I'm a nerd who actually got ahead in classes by doing the homework.
Had it the summer after I graduated from high school in 1995 and almost couldn't go away to college. It was miserable!
Not knowingly, but I wonder if it was just one of those rando sicknesses you have when you’re a kid and nobody really pays much attention to it until you get older.
Nope.
Um, what is mono. Never heard of it
Mononucleosis. Google it.
I had it around 18 and don't remember it being that bad. My youngest son had it two years ago and it enlarged his spleen, to the point he was on no lifting orders at work for two months, after he was better. He was bad sick for a month, and in hindsight probably should have been hospitalized.
I didn't get it until 3 years ago.
Yep
Never had it growing up, but got it when I was 51. 51!! This was September-October 2020 - thought I had Covid, but kept testing negative. I felt like I'd been hit by a Mack truck. Ran a high temp for 2 weeks and then a low grade temp for another 6 weeks, and crashed about 2:00 every day. Zero stars - do not recommend.
I got it I’m my 20’s while being a gymnastics coach. From my toddler class. Lil miss Kayla.
Sick af for 2-3 weeks. Horrible throat.
I waited until up into my 30s to come down with what looked like mono. That was loads of fun. I didn't stay in bed nearly as long but probably should have.
Had it in college
So they say.
I had it 1990. One of my kids had it around 2018.
It seemed to be a thing when i was in college. Had a classmate who missed almost the entire year. Now i never hear about it.
Got it at 17. I wasn't particularly sick but all my friends started coming down with it so when I ran a fever my parents took me in to the dr.
I missed 3 weeks of my senior year of HS because of mono. It kinda sucked. Got it from kissing a college boy over Christmas break! LOL
If you get mono twice, its called stereo