I've done it. It's terrible, it's hard. It's going to frustrate you to hell for about two months while you get over the fact that all of your muscles have completely been depleted. But it's doable. Do you love basketball, love playing? If so, then the challenge and frustration is worth it and you can get back up to that playing level by the end of the season. I did finally, and it feels great to be back, and I'm glad I didn't just quit.

My son was recruited to play college football. At the end of his high school senior year, he was diagnosed with mono. He really felt Ok and was mad he couldn't participate in his last 2 weeks of baseball. After three weeks, he got the green light to begin workouts. For a month, he was tearing it up. But suddenly he tanked. He couldn't hold his eyes open. We saw three Dr's who all told him to GO TO BED. No workouts indefinitely. He was solid muscle. HUGE. Now he is depressed, losing weight, and only 2 weeks from football. I don't think he will be able to participate this fall, which is devastating for all of us. He has been inactive for about a month, is pale, sick-looking, slow-moving. This is the most horrific illness he has ever had. Is there any way of knowing how long this will plague him?? He has always been so healthy.

Our son is possibly going to miss out on his senior year of high school football because of mono and a slightly enlarged spleen. We are seeing an infectious disease specialist who is doing bloodwork and an ultrasound every two weeks, since time is of the essence. He is otherwise feeling well though, although will sleep 12 to 13 hours a day. I don't know if you are into this type of thing, but you might look into something like Mastercleanse to clean out his system...don't know how many doctors would support that though...good luck.

I spent the summer to prepare for my first season as a professional golfer.. I was hit with a hard illness in the spring, and now 5 months later, diagnosed with mono... I have been unable to play a tournament, lost 15 pounds (im skinny to begin with) have all the motivation in the world to get out there and play but just cannot.. everytime i do I just get sicker. This really is a disabling disease and it is nice to know that I am not the only one going through it but I wish you he worst thing that has come out of this is severe depression.. i feel like my entire life plan is being washed away by this virus because i simply can't do what i want to do...

Hello to Everyone who Has Suffered from or Loves Someone who is Suffering from Mono,

I am the parent of a young man, a high level college athlete, who was diagnosed in February of this year with the EBV. He got severely swollen glands, sore throat and nausea, swollen spleen, high titers for mono, mono-related hepatitis, etc. Then, after about 6 weeks, when the virus was supposedly "going away" or "gone", he went back to playing his sport intensely, and attending classes, etc. Unfortunately, a terrible series of events unfolded...

1st, after the first month, he was actually just beginning to experience the fatigue and exhaustion phase, but he didn't understand that, because so much time had passed already and 2nd, he began to experience panic and anxiety due to not understanding how sick he was, and to isolating, and just to being sleep deprived and very, very sick. I will also pause a moment here to tell you that the college handled his diagnosis process horribly, they told him he could probably have HIV, or Lymphoma, just because of the swollen glands, and initial negative mono test. That really frightened and panicked him. From nowhere, he developed some pretty awful depression, hopelessness, confusion, panic and anxiety.

Luckily, he was able to come home in May, and we, his family, were able to support him, by reassuring him he would eventually heal, by encouraging him to talk and cry and express himself, to unbottle all the fears he had stored up during the semester and hidden from his friends. He had developed a pattern of just trying to "play off' the weird panicky feelings he was getting but really he though he was going insane. He had no idea how sick he was. Ironically, the thing that had most helped him throughout his whole life was possibly hurting him, which was exercise. So he couldn't turn to that. Then that made him feel so much worse. Many doc's wanted to put him on antidepressants, but we urged him not tot take them, to do a lot of talk therapy, and to be patient, and we told him to borrow our faith that he would definitely heal up, he just had to start getting some sleep and temporarily remove himself from situations which provoked anxiety, such as large social gatherings.

Even though it has now been 7 months since his diagnosis, we are confident this will go away. It is not as fast as he wants, and he is missing a lot of the things he most wants to do in his life, but we are urging him to focus on all he has accomplished, not the least of which is that over this past summer, he no longer feels like physical crap all day long, he is no longer depressed, and he no longer needs anti-anxiety pills if he stays in calm situations. That is a lot.

I am wondering if anyone knows why the exhaustion lingers so long and if there is anything to be "done" about it. He is definitely still plagued with the waves of "weird" feeling he gets, almost every day. He describes it as if his whole body is paralyzed by fatigue, but his mind does not necessarily want to go to sleep. He is now more comfortable with the feeling which used to frighten him before, and which used to send him into depression and anxiety.

So, I have gone on for quite a while, but I hope this story offers hope to others, and that if there are any of you out there who might know of someone who -- yes -- maybe had mono for a long time, but who beat it eventually, then kindly post your story to give further encouragement to a young man who needs some support.

Also if anything helped you or your loved one...Vit. B shots? Coconut oil? Vit C?

Thanks, and good luck to all of you.
A Hopeful Paren