Fun with Mono

So I got up at 8:30 this morning to get ready to meet my advisor. Then I turned off my alarm by mistake and rolled back over in bed. Around 8:53, I woke up and realized I should get moving. But I couldn't. My legs felt like jello, and my entire body was burning up. Eventually I made my way out of bed, and into the kitchen where I drank some water, took some pills, and hopped in the shower.

But I couldn't do it. I couldn't get myself onto campus -- didn't have the energy to make the 20+ minute walk. Instead I called my advisor, and on the third phone call got a hold of him. We discussed my Fall courses, what I might do for an honors thesis, and the passover holiday. I told him I went to my first Seder dinner, and then we talked about his first Seder at home, which happened this past week. Then he wished that I get well, and we both hung up.

Which is when I went back to bed for the second time. I tried to get up at noon, then 1, then settled for 1:38 p.m. I needed to put together a financial statement for a scholarship, as well as a statement about my interpersonal communication skills. I managed to put the two together in about an hour, and by 3:00 p.m. I was on campus. I handed everything in around 3:26 p.m., and then headed to Gannett. My throat had been killing me since Wednesday, and I was going to go get some drugs to take care of it.

So I got to Gannett and went to sign in. They asked me to fill out my symptoms on a sheet, and asked what I was going through. I told the woman I had a swollen throat and my glands were larger than normal. Then the look on her face changed. It was like I had just told her the Russians had launched the bomb. She told me to wait in the seats, and almost immediately someone came and took me to a room.

"It sounds like you have something pretty serious," they said. "We're sending you to level 6 to see this person."

Then the nurse scribbled someone's name on a sheet of paper, and sent me upstairs. I went up to level 6, checked in, and was told to wait. About three minutes later, another nurse came and put me in a room. I sat there for a while, at one point almost tossing my cookies. Of course, since I hadn't eaten solid food in a while, there were no cookies to be tossing. Instead I just spit up tons of flem into the garbage can.

Then the doctor came in. I had recovered, and was sitting on the examination table by then. She immediatley started saying things like "I knew you had mono!" And "Look at the size of your glands!" I thought she was a quack -- I mean, everyone says that Gannett tells you, you either have mono or you're pregnant. The pregnant thing was a bit off the mark for me, so I figured mono was the only other thing they could diagnose me with.

But then she showed me why she thought I had mono. I don't know if she was making it up, but it's hard to make up the spots on the roof of my mouth, and the blood tests that say I do indeed have mono.

So I guess I've got mono. And they also told me that I might have strep throat, so they put me on penecillin, too. I called Mary Ann when I got back. She and Bill are coming to get me tonight. I'm going to be home for a while. I figure I'll get better rest there.