Mononucleosis questions

[Abbigoose]

I have had a rash of infections overcome me in the last few months. I had a nasty flu in early March. It was soon after I had my first ear infection. Nurse told me it was "pretty severe." It was around April, days after the ear infection, that I started a month long sinus infection.

I have been on several rounds of antibiotics to fight these infections. I seem to be over them, but I am beginning to get the sore throat again that occurred throughout my infections.

I have been tested for a lot of things which may be related and things are still not connecting. I eventually saw a neurologist who ordered my fifth round of blood tests. He called back and said that I was just getting over mono.

I have been reading up on the virus, but every site says something different. Besides wondering why my first doctor never caught it, I was wondering can mono cause you to have these infections?

I need yet another round of blood tests because there were some "abnormalities" with the RBC.

[skater_darien]

Hi,
Your first doctor probably didn't catch the mono because either he didn't test for it, or the test was a false negative. Maybe when you thought you had the flu, it was actually mono?

There are 2 viruses that cause mono: epstein barr (which is the one they usually assume is causing it) or cytomegalovirus (which I think requires a very specific test to diagnose), so perhaps you were misdiagnosed at first, although it sounds like you've had more than one illness..

As far as your question whether mono causes ear or sinus infections, I would guess no, since 1)it's a virus, and it sounds like they determined you had bacteria 2) The symptoms of mono include things like fatigue, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, or an enlarged spleen, but not typically sinus/ear infection. A very common symptom, though, is sore throats.

It sounds like you have had to deal with several types of infection... that must have been really unpleasant. I wish you luck in staying healthy and finding out why you keep getting sick, if things don't get better.

Great health wishes to you!

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Mono doesn't cause ear infections, but it does lower your immune system so that you are more susseptable to the other bugs and things that are going around. Mono is often thought mistaken for as strep, as one example. You are very liable to catch other "BUGS" now that you are recovering from mono so you need to stay away from folks that are sick. Try to eat healthy, rest, drink plenty of fluids, and do as our doc orders.

Both of my boys had mono at one time or another and the best thing that you can do is to rest unitl you start to recover. No contact sports until your spleen goes back down to it's normal size. at least 6-8 weeks.