You might have seen on Twitter/Facebook that the glands in my neck were swollen to the size of golf balls last weekend. It started last Friday, was terrible to the point of not speaking on Saturday, then by Sunday started to shrink. By the time I went back to work on Tuesday, my glands were like jelly beans. Totally manageable. I had no other symptoms than being tired and sneezing every now and then.
The jelly beans were a little more noticeable by this Friday, and by yesterday morning, one golf ball was back. By noon, I got the worse case of the chills and proceeded to spike a fever. It was 102.3 by the time the nurse took it at the quick-care clinic.
Thinking I had strep throat, I got swabbed and waited. As I sat in the little room waiting for that positive result, I overheard the doctor tell the nurse outside my door that if the strep was negative I should be checked for mono.
My eyes bugged out because I CANNOT HAVE MONO. My life is not set up for mono, so I immediately panicked. Sure enough, she came back in with a negative strep result and took a vile of blood for the mono test. I was no longer shaking because I was fever-cold. I was terrified.
All I knew of mono is that if you have it, you’ll sleep all day. You might have flu-like symptoms, but generally, you’re too much of a zombie to care. As she took a vile of blood, I feared a positive result and ran through a million scenarios of how I’d make it all work.
Fortunately, the mono test was negative, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. The doctor explained that I could be that one in 20 people who have strep or mono and the test simply comes back negative. Therefore, I’m “non-specific.” Clearly I have some sort of infection, but since my symptoms are few, it’s hard to define. I left with a prescription for an antibiotic and a warning that should I not get better I must return in two weeks for another mono test.
Take notice that I’m blogging at 5:30 a.m. I slept a few hours last night but the body aches were too uncomfortable to bear. I have all of today to get better – and work on the book – in the hopes that I’ll be able to go to work tomorrow. God help me if the boys get sick. But thank God my mother arrives on Tuesday.
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