Glandular Fever... your stories!

Hi well in 2005 just before Uni the Doctor said I had Glandular Fever after a blood test. I kind of felt OK, was taking a gap year and was working full time for the first time in my life (apart from summer jobs). However I do not think it really hit home untill I started uni and getting aching legs and very tired. Some Doctors are really good and some just say it effects you for two weeks then nothing after. I did not have the 'two week cant get out of bed' situation but I get so tired somedays now and I blame Glanduar Fever because I was so fine beforehand.
What about everyone else?
The only other thing I can out it down to is drinking alot more regular and getting drunk. However, I only started 'binge drinking' near the end of my first year of Uni. So shall I cut drinking out for good?

Reply 1

Rainygal

4

i got glandular fever in 2005 as well, but i did have the can't get out of bed situation along with the "oh my god, have just walked downstairs/had a shower/read 2 pages of a book need to lie down for 30 mins" lol!!

i do still get really tired, go to bed around 10/10.30 most nights and can't handle my drink as well as before either, making me a cheap student, lol!! i haven't really got any advice though, sorry!

Reply 2

love_mojitos

OP

2

How long did the tiredness last for?
What were peoples reaction to it?

Reply 3

RetiredAccount89

18

Becky_Sheffield

How long did the tiredness last for?
What were peoples reaction to it?

You have a viral infection. A rather persistenty one that can zonk people of your age for weeks to months.
And you are compounding matters by drinking to excess - something which any fool can tell you will zap your immune system.

I don't know how others have reacted, but my reaction would be 'You silly billy'.

Reply 4

ßlαcksωαn

17

my friend got it from pashing some random, thats all i know about it.

Reply 5

gooseymcgoose

11

I don't think I really got my full energy levels back until about 18 months after I was first diagnosed. It was mostly fine after a few months but there was a definite desire to sleep a few hours more than I usually would and generally take it easy for a year after that.

Reply 6

love_mojitos

OP

2

Jamie

You have a viral infection. A rather persistenty one that can zonk people of your age for weeks to months.
And you are compounding matters by drinking to excess - something which any fool can tell you will zap your immune system.

I don't know how others have reacted, but my reaction would be 'You silly billy'.

As i said before if I only started drinking to excess near the end of my first year then why was I so tired before that! Lots of people I know drink to excess more reguarly and to high standards (e.g. passing out, being so drunk they cant remember doing stuff or breaking the law) yet they seem to be ok generally. You do not know how much I drink or how much my defination of 'heavy' is. However I also know that drinking is not good and I can and do go for weeks without drinking. However some Doctors dimissed that my Glandular Fever is effecting me months/years down the line. Considering it has been two years since I have been disgonised....
I dont understand what a viral infection is, I know that must sound very stupid but can you please explain. Also why is drinking so bad? I am a student so I get served the worst kinds of spirts in bars but I try and drink well known branded beers. I must sound really stupid but welcome to life! :rolleyes:

I would rather get told by a Doctor in easy to understand language then try and figure it out by myself.
I also dont know how I got it. I heard someone who is in my circle of friends got it about a year before me... my sister also got it a year after me yet she refuses to belive that G.F still effects me.
Apologies for sounding thick but it seems I am very different from most people.

Reply 7

Ariadne

16

I had it really badly this time last year - I was hit like a sledgehammer for about 2 months, but I've been completely fine since. I didn't drink at all for about 6 months, but I've been drinking again this summer with no bad effects. Just be careful - it affects everyone differently.

Reply 8

pikaboo

13

I only got told I had it when it was nearly over, after about a year of falling asleep at random times on and off. I think I got it when someone sneezed on me :frown:

Reply 9

yellowdaisy

2

It affects different people differently. some people barely know they have it and feel fine, others are hit horribly, and others appear to have awful tonsillitis and feel really tired. i had the tonsillitis thing. i was told that it could still affect me for a very long time afterwards. some people i know have taken up to two years afterwards. it's 8 months since i got it and still feel more tired than i did before hand. i wouldn't worry about it. i don't know why drink affects you more though as it doesn't affect me. it's spread through close contact with someone who has it (hence why it's known as the kissing disease) but they won't necessarily know they have it because as i said some people barely show any symptoms.

Reply 10

Fleece

15

I caught it in Freshers Week 2005..I was so sick with it, it was awful. Went to the doctors and he wouldn't let me go back to my flat - he said I either stayed in the sick bay there or I had to promise him I'd go home and get looked after at home. I couldn't go home and risk getting my mum sick, so I just lied and my flatmates looked after me.

I felt like crap for months...it was only around Christmas time that I felt sort of normal.

Reply 11

love_mojitos

OP

2

We dont have a sick bay at Uni.

Reply 12

RetiredAccount89

18

Becky_Sheffield

As i said before if I only started drinking to excess near the end of my first year then why was I so tired before that! Lots of people I know drink to excess more reguarly and to high standards (e.g. passing out, being so drunk they cant remember doing stuff or breaking the law) yet they seem to be ok generally. You do not know how much I drink or how much my defination of 'heavy' is. However I also know that drinking is not good and I can and do go for weeks without drinking. However some Doctors dimissed that my Glandular Fever is effecting me months/years down the line. Considering it has been two years since I have been disgonised....
I dont understand what a viral infection is, I know that must sound very stupid but can you please explain. Also why is drinking so bad? I am a student so I get served the worst kinds of spirts in bars but I try and drink well known branded beers. I must sound really stupid but welcome to life! :rolleyes:

I would rather get told by a Doctor in easy to understand language then try and figure it out by myself.
I also dont know how I got it. I heard someone who is in my circle of friends got it about a year before me... my sister also got it a year after me yet she refuses to belive that G.F still effects me.
Apologies for sounding thick but it seems I am very different from most people.

Why is alcohol bad? because it suppresses some of your immunity making you more likely to get infections, and making them much worse when you do.
What is heavy? anything more than 14 units a week for you is proven to have an effect on your health. If like most students (myself included) the average night along probably is 10+ units then you will undoubtably fall into the 'heavy' category.

GF is a tricky virus that makes you very tired - like the feeling when you have a cold, but prolonged because it lingers.
However, that generally only lasts for a few months. What then happens is your body has then adapted to its new state and struggles to get back to what it once was. Part of this is psychological, part is condition. Like a baby struggling its way through potty training you are going to have to train your body back from being tired. Don't nap and rest all the time, everyday try to push it that bit further. Its the only proven way of getting over this.
alternatively go to a crap GP, get labelled Chronic Fatigue, and be a victim/benefits claimant your whole life.

Reply 13

devils_nose

10

I had it in 1996 when I was 16.. was in bed constantly for the 2 weeks before my GCSEs started and the doctor told me I wasn't going to be able to take them. Went for my first walk to the shops the day before my first exam (5 mins) and needed a 2 hour kip afterwards but I made it through all my GCSEs without falling asleep on the desk and I did ok - considering I had no revision time.

I caught every sniffle going for the next 2 years was ill all the time but got over it eventually. I didn't give up drinking.

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Anon as I still feel a little uncomfortable talking about it and don't want people to think i'm trying to out-do them with my story or anything. I got it in 2003 when I was 15, I lost 2.5 stone and spent a year pretty much without leaving the house apart from to go to the Dr's though they were never sure if I got something THEN got GF (as my initial and ongoing symptom was headache) or if it was a post viral thing.

I pretty much lost 2 years of my life (I went back to school the next year but only had 50% attendace so I spent every second I could studying as I was trying to get the grades into med school) I was in constant severe pain, had a tendency to pass out/nearly pass out, I spent at least 4 days a month vomiting uncontrollably. In that 2 years I had 2 MRI's, 2CT's, took all sorts of meds (tramadol, diclofenac, various migraine meds, epilepsy meds and steroids to name a few) and was passed around paeds, neurology, endocrinology (also had adrenal insufficiency), ent, my gp and consultant as they searched for the source of the headaches. So thats my GF story...there's no certainty over whether it was from GF or not as definite answers could not be found but if it was then yeah GF sucks, I know people who had it for about 2 weeks-why did I have to be the freak heh.

OP I would leave off the booze until you feel a bit more yourself.

Reply 15

Anonymous #1

Oh and I would also like to add that I wouldn't allow myself to be labelled with ME or chronic fatigue or any of that. But it was damn hard work getting back to normal and I am now a second year medical student-my experience was horrible but I did a lot of growing up in the time I was ill and I know it sounds really lame and cheesy but I am probably quite a different person because of it.

Reply 16

Sammyjo18

8

Lol, my glanular fever story is abit crap. christmas 2005, was 17. i felt awful all weekend and then, went to bed. i never got up for a month. HOWEVER, the doctors maintained i had glandular fever, even though the blood test kept coming back clean. but they continued to treat me for it. then finally after getting up every morning, and vomitting up nothing, and not being able to move my head or neck, i went and they finallly diagnosed me with aseptic meningitis.

doctors are ****.
and quite frankly the worst month of my life. i am now aneamic. it is a possibility why you are so tired, all you other people, virus's like glandular fever mess your iron levels up, and sometimes they just never recover. thats why i get tired, but then ill take an iron tablet and perk right back up again.

Reply 17

love_mojitos

OP

2

I got tested a few weeks after, to make sure I still had it or something. Why did the Doctor re test? I think anotehr said when you have it, then when you re test it then it will always be there.

Maybe I need iron tablets???

By the way Jamie I had a support person at Uni who has MS which makes her very tired somedays and she gets labelled that she is lazy, putting it on etc. Quite frankly I understand what she means when she cant get out of bed, is so tired. I also understand that I could 'play on' my illness and use it to get benefits and time of work etc. However when I am ill, I am ill.

I did read something in a mag which my symptoms were more liked to most people/Doctors say GF goes a few months after. I shall be home soon so can tell you.

OP

Wheat intolerance!

I have it at the moment and after 3 weeks im slowly making a recovery i hope! Still ridiculously tired and falling very behind on coursework but hopefully i will be back to normal before study leave for my A2s
About the drinking thing, I am choosing to lay off the booze for a while .. GF screws with your liver and its recommended you dont drink for 6 weeks after cos your liver is so buggered up!
Its a personal choice though i guess, I dont see myself lasting that long but would recommend not overdoing it as it would probably prolong the illness or leave you susceptible to pick up other things.
Glandular fever is a bugger.. i heard once you've had it you're immune but stories on here seem to suggest otherwise?? Any idea?

Glandular Fever... your stories!

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