Give me your (bad?) medical advice!

Kerzain: No, but wouldn’t that be cool? :)
Sinfony: Pretty much sounds like me. Why am I interrogating Aaron, again?

Sounds like you might be manifesting symptoms and he isn’t. And that you aren’t sure from where you might have gotten the illness. HMMMM.

One of my friends quipped “is your friend Holly Pervocracy?”, which was strictly funnier.

Warning: Link leads to a blog which has explicit discussion of sexual issues. Possibly NSFW.

Has the health centre chosen to test for EBV antibodies, not just relying on the spot test? If so, and they come back negative, then repeat in 10-14 days.

Are you sure it’s mono? Maybe a dissection is in order to determine the exact pathogen involved.

Strato: that would be far too intelligent for the health center. They simply gave me the strep antibiotic and told me to come back in a week if the mono symptoms hadn’t gone away.

azzl: <backs away>

Dysentery

I always mispronounce that too.

That is probably fair enough. To be honest, it could well be that you have a recurring strep infection, the symptoms you describe would be suggestive of any ear, nose or throat infection, but having IM as a differential diagnosis is good. Common things occur commonly.

After a week, it should become easily apparent if it is IM based both on the test kit, and on further pathology tests; EBV serology, potentially CMV serology if the EBV comes back negative, and a full blood count including film review. I don’t know what the rapid strep kit looks for, and I am always a little apphrehensive with rapid diagnostic tests, but I would guess that the weak positive reaction is simply carry over from your prior strep infection, though not sure how long ago that was. Likewise, the health centre may not have much to work with, and pathology tests can cost a lot of money. Not sure about how the health systems works overseas with billing for pathology tests.

Just as an aside, I’m not a doctor so take any of my advice with a grain of salt, which is why I’ve avoided commenting on how long you could be infectious for. What I am though is a scientist who does the physical work on the blood tests, and film examination. I had a beautiful looking IM on a blood film the other day in fact.

Edit: Also, sorry for the more serious tone to my posts. I figure I might as well provide some help.

Strato - thanks, that’s some of the very limited constructive advice I’ve gotten so far. University health centers, at universities that don’t have medical departments, are not renowned for their effectiveness. To get anything more than the rapid mono and strep tests, I’d be looking at the nearby hospital (and probably an extended stay, and an extended insurance bill). Which, if the other symptoms don’t go away by next week (and the rash doesn’t go away sooner), is something I should just bite the bullet and do.

Also, “a beautiful looking IM” makes me nervous. :)

Maybe you’re just really bored.

I’m confused. Is Speak with Bread Aaron’s girlfriend, or do we have two separate mono discussions going on here?

Yes. Not sure if she started that way when she joined QT3 though.

Yes, Jerri. Sorry for not clearing that up sooner. :)

That’s okay - just trying to keep the players straight. :)

User: Does ‘Speak with Bread’ have mono?
Cleverbot: Yes she does.
User: Is Aaron going to get it too?
Cleverbot: No it’s too late.

I am addicted to this stupid language bot.

jpinard, that’s…ridiculous. And brilliant. And, as Aaron comments, probably true.

It’s known as the kissing disease.

You two haven’t been kissing or anything, have you? I mean, a little conjugal plate washing is probably ok, but if you two are having out of wedlock kissing, then the Lord is My Vengeance and he shall visit upon you the vast locuses (loci) (I can’t stop this rant now) upon the plains which shall be eaten dry of all human life forms as we know it in this continuum.

Thank you for messing up the planet for the rest of us, you two lip lockers!

Seriously, I hope you both return to health or one of you does and the other stays that way. I got mono and got to miss the last several months of my senior year of high school 35 years ago which was probably prolonged by sitting around on my back deck of our house with ganja and not abstaining from kissing my older girlfriend, but at least I still have my memories at this advanced stage of senility. I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations ran on the ganja thing and have been a perfectly upstanding citizen for many years since.