Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Glandular Fever


My kid has mono.

I always thought that mono would be a rather pleasant disease to have. It's one of those fatigue things, where you are tired all the time. I had this vague idea that mono might be indistinguishable from laziness. But as it turns out, in the first week of the illness there is a sore throat so awful that at least in one case I know, they prescribed vicodin. It's a sore throat described as 'like strep.' That's my kid. On vicodin for a sore throat. And the spleen can enlarge and occasionally rupture. (Adam appears to fine in that regard.)

He also has to be out of his school apartment three days before he can move into another apartment--he has a six month co-op job with Fischer Price. It's a dream co-op, he worked like crazy for it. He was planning to live in his van for three days. He hadn't actually figured out what he was going to do with his bed and stuff. (He has a furnished apartment for the co-op.) That a 22 year old boy would have just figured it would all work out is, well, what a lot of 22 year olds do. Normally we just say, 'Wow, sounds complicated. Good luck with that, kid.'

But he's sick and he's broke. So I'm headed to Rochester this Friday. We've worked out plans to get his car fixed, get his stuff in storage, and get him in a hotel. Then I'll make him eat and sleep and watch TV until he goes off to the new job. Where he will probably spend a lot of his time really tired, poor kid.

(The phone just rang--my mother is showing some signs of increased confusion and they're going to have a doctor check her for infection or some other addressable cause. she's in Cleveland. At least Rochester is a lot closer to Cleveland than Austin is...)

13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maureen - you know you're always welcome if you need to pop in to check on your mom. I think you still have the key. My house is actually mildly clean at the moment.... Tell Adam I hope he feels better soon. What a bummer! - M

August 14, 2007 5:29 PM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

Thanks Michelle!

Adam says that he has started feeling better. The sore throat thing seems to be finally going away, leaving him fatigued but a lot happier. And the doctor is coming to do some lab work on my mom tomorrow to see if there's an underlying infection.

At least Rochester will be cooler than Austin.

August 14, 2007 5:36 PM  
Blogger Tour Mistress Of The Darkness said...

My profoundest empathy for Adam. My freshman year of college, I woke up one morning with a sore throat so bad I couldn't even begin to swallow without almost passing out from the pain. Three weeks in the school infirmary later (where they had to give me Tylenol with Codeine prior to giving me any food or fluids, I slept about 23.5 hours a day, and once woke up to find a gaggle of students from a nearby medical school staring down at me while the infirmary doctor said "now, take a good look at this throat -- you'd better hope you never see anything like it again") and another three at home sleeping about 20 hours a day, I finally was able to get back to school.

I can't imagine having to move and start a new job in the middle of all that. I hope Adam comes out of it quickly.

August 14, 2007 7:25 PM  
Blogger Amy said...

Oh Maureen, mother and daughter. Hope everyone feels/gets better.

August 15, 2007 1:20 PM  
Blogger Karen Sandstrom said...

Good lord, when it rains it pours, whatever that means. Well, I'm thinking of you and yours.

August 16, 2007 8:14 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Best wishes to you and your son, Maureen!

Which Rochester is he in? New York or Minnesota? Or Jane Eyre?

Best,
Kathy H.

August 16, 2007 10:42 AM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

Jane Eyre made me laugh. He's in New York.

As I will be tomorrow, probably after airport delays caused by tropical storm Erin.

August 16, 2007 11:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope Adam gets better real soon. And I hope the doctor's take real good care of your Mom.

August 16, 2007 3:30 PM  
Blogger Greg van Eekhout said...

Jeez, that's a lot of Stuff to deal with all at the same time. Remember to breathe a lot.l

August 16, 2007 8:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had mono when I was a kid. I missed about the last 6 weeks of school in 9th grade. Nerd that I am, I only was upset about missing physics.

What I reamember was having a rash that itched and nothing seemed to help. I also remembered a professional baseball player the year before who was so sick he couldn't play for three months so I was cared not to do what the doctor said.

On your mother, I assume that they have checked for bladder infections which can cause confusion in older people. My wife's aunt who also has Alzheimer's near the stage were your monter is had a bladder infection earlier this month.

Levin

August 19, 2007 9:59 AM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

Levin, that's exactly what they did--check her for a urinary tract infection. So far, all of the lab work has come back as well within normal range.

So at this point I won't be driving to Cleveland.

August 19, 2007 3:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

here's a helpful post on glandular fever :) http://richelectron.blogspot.com/2008/04/overcoming-glandular-fever.html

April 23, 2008 5:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, just found your post while roaming around on the net for stuff about glandular fever- I'm recovering from it now, got it last November 2007, so that's 10 months of it. I hate how people say that they think it would be a nice thing to have, to be tired all the time. Its worse then that, you have extreme fatigue and your friends forget about you because they don't understand how you can be so ill yet look quite healthy.
I had to take a year out of university- I was in my final year! Hope he's better now!

August 18, 2008 10:25 AM  

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