Mononucleosis

I am wondering how many mono sufferers have had a similar experience to mine. I first got sick in July of 2012 and recovered uneventfully in less than three weeks. I was completely fine for a full year and thought that I was out of the woods. Then in July of 2013 I had the EXACT same symptoms come back. Enlarged spleen, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, aches, brain fog, headaches etc. However, it was with a negative monospot. For this reason, my doctors figured it could not be related to my mono. It's like I had all the symptoms, but the test would not cooperate. I was tested for everything under the sun by the doctors at my University's student wellness center: (Thyroid, lyme, EKG, blood sugar, West Nile, ANA, HIV) All have come back negative.

I came home in September when school was just too much. I later found a new GP who recognized it immediately as a "Chronic Fatigue post state" and said it would be 1-2 years before I was completely back to normal. I'm not sure where he got that timetable from. 9 months into it I feel the worst of it is over but the one symptom that has not gone away is the tiredness. I will be heading back to school in June and know I can handle sitting through class, just not any rigorous activity. Even though I am much improved compared to when I first got ill, it's concerning me that this could last so long.

Has anyone else gone through having a recurrence tied to the same time of year as the original infection? how long did it last? Did it recur year after year?

Sounds like Epstein Barr Virus. EBV is different than mono in that once you have mono you can not get it again. EBV will lie dormant in your system and you can become reinfected at anytime. Usually it's triggered by stress, low immune system. I'm just now recovering from this. I had it in high school. Then November 2013 I could tell something was wrong...all the symptoms you described. The fatigue was debilitating. I found a wonderful internist through a doctor friend and he helped me tremendously. Surely your doctor would of done an EBV panel??

Post Edited (Clb) : 5/1/2014 11:48:12 AM (GMT-6)