~Wow. I have so much to say, I don't know where to start!
Ok, let's try by starting in November. . . (*initiate flashback*)
Around mid-November my throat had started to hurt something awful. I would go to sleep at night and wake up early in the morning having a hard time breathing my throat hurt so bad! I was always tired, my head was killing me and all signs pointed to Strep Throat. I asked for mom to take me in for a throat culture.
To be perfectly frank, I love going to the doctor. Now, you may think that I'm crazy (and you'd be right), but something about someone asking you questions about yourself and missing school appeals to me. Anyways, the doc said that my throat was "angry" and that my lymph nodes were swollen. All signs pointing to strep. I had had strep before, and this felt like it.
Well, theyjabbed the cotton swab down my throat (which did not help with the pain) and we waited for the results of the test.
I wanted it to be strep. I really did. "Just give the drugs for Pete's sake! I'm dying over here!" Was all that was running through my head the entire visit to the doctor. I could miss a day of school, it wouldn't kill me.
We waited for what felt like a decennium before the doctor came back with the results. "Well miss Amanda, it's negative." My heart did the thing where it drops to your toes. Aw nuts. The doctor and mom talked about all the other possibilities and none of them seemed to fit. We left the hospital without any answers, which was ok because I wasn't dying. I took an ibuprofen and was ok. For three hours.
After a few days of constant orange juice and ibuprofen I complained louder to my mother, and she took me in again.
The second time we went to the doctor they took blood. And let me tell about when they take your blood. It's not just a "pinch", it's a stabbing motion! I was just about sick getting the blood drawn! But, I survived.
They were testing for Mononucleosis. The notorious "kissing disease". Out of all the other things I could be branded with, I did not want to be the girl with the-the kissing disease! As soon as I sat down in the chair in the lab to have my blood drawn, the nurse asked about a red spot I had on my arm. "You know, I had a rash like that on my back when I had mono," The nurse said. Oh goodie.
Mom and I dragged ourselves back to the doctors office and waited for a long time before the doctor came in. "It's Mono." This time my heart dropped to my toes, not because I was disappointed because I didn't get to miss school, but because I was sick.
The sinking feeling didn't stop after that either. Oh no, there is no cure for mono, you just suffer for weeks and live off of ibuprofen. Yay. The doctor went on to tell me how careful I had to be. I couldn't lift anything heavier than twenty pounds, no hard impacts (no fighting), I would even have to miss school to sleep (ok, the last one wasn't much of a bad thing)! The reason I had to be so careful was because since there wasn't any drugs they could give me to fight off the virus, my spleen was twice the size it normally is. If anything were to rupture it, it could kill me. That scared me enough.
"You have one of the worst cases I've seen," The doctor said. Yippied! More for me! We went home, happy to have answers, but disappointed in the treatment options. I was texting my friends about the whole ordeal and why I wouldn't be in school for a few weeks. The first few friends I had very kind and very sympathetic, but when I got to my best friends, their texts started to look like this:
"Wait isn't that the kissing disease??? Lol omg you must get allll the guys XD!! Feel better pllayya! xD"
First of all, I have not kissed anyone except for my relatives! I do not have a boyfriend! I do not go around kissing guys! We have no idea how I contracted it. Mom thinks I got it from the chalice at mass. I have no clue.
Let me tell you, I rolled my eyes so much that night that eye sockets were actually sore. As soon as we got home, the first thing I hear is."So, Amanda, what boys were you kissing?" Coming from the mouth of my father. And no, he was not joking. And yes, he was actually mad at me. My mom glared at him, which seemed to shut him up, and she explained everything to him while I plopped down on the sofa and slept.
I soon found out that having Mono was not fun. Huge surprise there, I know. I couldn't do anything! When I wasn't sleeping, I wished I was! I was exhausted almost every hour of the day. My throat felt massive, and I was running a constant fever. I lived off of a jug of Tropicana and Kemps.
The only good part of being so sick was all the visitors and presents I got! It was incredible! Thanks to all of you who came and visited me! (Grandma, and Grandma, and Grandpa, and Grandma again, and Auntie, and my friends from school and Grandma, and Grandpa, and mommy. . .and probably more people but my memory is as bad as . . . Wait what was I saying? Oh never mind . ..) But when no one was visiting me I was All By Myself.
It felt like an eternity until I got to go back to school. Can you believe that? I actually wanted to go back to school! I was really sick. The mountains of textbooks and worksheets was threatening to fall and trap me in its paper prison.
Mom finally let me go back to school for half the day and I was so excited! I was not ready for the day, let's just say that. By the time lunch rolled around my best friend had to literally drag me to classes. When mom picked me up, I didn't return to school the next day.
My body was working so hard to kill the mono it forgot to give me energy! Ugh! The doctor said I would be at half energy for six months, roughly. Six months! That's a long time! I can't act at half energy! I can't go to Cross Fit at half energy! Well, I powered through and did the acting thing anyways. For those of you who don't know, I played Dorothy Gale in the Wizard of Oz Young Performers Edition, at S.O.S. I was very proud of myself for that accomplishment, but I was double worked. Somehow I got through it! School was another story. . .
Through out my half days, quarter days and random full days my grades managed to slowly slip. I was trying my hardest to concentrate, but it'd hard to focus when you're asleep. I would nod off in class and the teachers would send me to the nurse but,"I'm fine!" That became my catch phrase for at least two months.
Not seeing my friends all the time killed me. I missed them so terribly it made my chest hurt. Knowing that they were laughing and having fun and sharing juicy gossip without me made me feel sick. I just wanted to be back in the middle of the action again.
Unfortunately once I started to go to school regularly again they had moved on. In the short period of two weeks, they had formed new cliques and friendships that I wasn't apart of. Rumors had been spread about me, and I felt like a golden turd.
However, my best friend rarely left my side, and for that I am very grateful. But the close friendships I had with the rest of the girls in my class was gone. They would go entire days without saying so much as a "hello" to me, and let me tell you, that's hard to do in a class of only sixteen students. It broke me, it really did.
I am a social butterfly, I love when I can talk to someone or meet someone new, but that just wasn't happening and with my failing grades I fell into a semi-depressive state. Thankfully I am over that now, and have made stronger friendships, but it still haunts me how eager everyone was to leave me. My grades are getting better (still not straight A's, but I'm trying) as well as my mood (sometimes).
But all was not well (yet).
When I had been doing full days for a while, I was getting so over-worked that I would sleep or forget to eat and it was taking it's toll. One day I told my mom how exhausted I was (at nine am) and she picked me up. Kids at school would say things behind my back about how I wasn't really sick, and how I was just being a baby and should suck it up. Now that hurt worse than my throat every did. It was even worse when my friends would text me and ask where I was that day."I was at home sleeping."
". . .Oh."
"So how was your day?
No response. They didn't ask if I was ok, they didn't text me the homework, but oh well. It could be worse.
Eventually things got much better and the nasty rumors stopped ( I hope) and I made new friendships and strengthened old ones. I am still struggling with my energy, and my dad likes to blame my laziness on Mono. "Oh, Andrea, she just has Mono! We can watch one more episode!"
"Want to see a movie?" "Todd! She is sick!" "Nah, it's just Mono."
"Hey Mono mouth! Kiss any boys today?" ( I always smacked him when he said that one).
That's dad for you!
Thank y'all for listening to my long sob story! If you read this far you get a high five and a Cheeto! Mono is a horrendous sickness, and please, don't go kissing me anytime soon! I mean that in the best way possible!
I hope you enjoyed my first real post! More to come on the Bees*~
*A nick name used by Grandpa R.
