Hi everyone
I am new to the forum, been suffering from HA for about 4 years now (ever since I became a father). One year it was lung cancer, the next colon cancer, the next bladder/testicular cancer. All without any real symptoms other than what was in my mind.
This got a little different this spring in March I got the worst sore throat of my life, which got better with antibiotics. I felt better for about a month, but in May came down with a consistent low grade fever and felt really weak and just generally off. I was terrified I had leukemia as I had lost about 15 pounds, had night sweats, weird symptoms I had never had before. Lucky for me my dr tested me for mono even though its rare in a 40 year old person, and lo and behold I had convalescent stage mono.
My first reaction to this was to be overjoyed it was not leukemia. However since the diagnosis I have been terrified that I am not going to get better. There is really no treatment for mono other than to rest (which with a job and 2 kids for me really isnt an option) and wait. My big mistake was going online and reading message boards for mono and hearing stories of people whose lives have never been the same since getting mono. This has caused horrible anxiety in me and insomnia, waking up between 2-4 am every night and not being able to get back to sleep. I've been going to therapy and on medication (switched from Lexapro to Effexor last week seems to be helping, been sleeping better with the help of medication as well).
Also on top of this for the last month I have been having sinus headaches almost continuously every day with the worst symptom being ear pressure/pain. I've been to the ER and an ENT for these headaches and they dont see a bacterial infection so I am worried this is the mono causing this or worse that I've been misdiagnosed and really have Lyme disease (even though I've never to my knowledge been bitten by a tick or had any rash or joint pain, its just sick HA/OCD thinking but I cant shake it). My ENT and Psych Doc recommended I go for CT scan so today I am doing that. Oddly enough I dont have the brain tumor fear that many people have w/headaches. My fear is that they will say everything is OK and I will continue to have to suffer with these headaches daily with no explanation/treatment for it.
It's been hard. I work full time still thru this and have 2 small kids at home. The mono has had an impact on my energy but nowhere near the impact the anxiety and its symptoms have had. I've been reading posts on this forum and it is a beacon of support and sanity that calms my mind, the most helpful being the "avoid Dr. Google" sticky, I'm totally a Dr. Google addict and am one day "sober" from that.
Sorry for the lengthy post but just wanted to introduce myself and share my story. Look forward to interacting with the kind people on this board.
Reply With Quote
