By Carrie Kennington
ck29@email.byu.edu
It has been two months since he first got sick, but some mornings he still feels as if he is waking up from a coma.
'I have to pry open my eyelids. It feels like I just pulled two all-nighters in a row,' said Jake Godard, a junior from East Brunswick, New Jersey, majoring in international area studies.
And this is after all his regular symptoms are gone.
The initial signs of a sore throat and fever lead him to the doctor, who first told him he had strep throat. When the medication was not working, Godard went back again.
This time, he was told he had mononucleosis.
He was then told to rest and drink plenty of liquids.
'It was strange that I felt like I was dying and it was like, OK, you have mono -- have a nice day. There was no follow-up,' he said.
Godard was on his couch for almost two weeks, and he still has to miss a class here and there because he does not have the energy to go. He had to quit his job and limit anything that would keep him from getting eight to nine hours of sleep per night.
But some nights he is so tired, he can not sleep.
And sometimes getting a lot of sleep isn't enough.
'Sometimes it just hits me. I'll be taking it easy, sitting in the library at 2 p.m., and I'll get so tired,' he said. 'It's so frustrating -- there's so many things your mind wants to do but your body will not cooperate.'
Bill Consedine, of SeraCare, Inc., based in Oceanside, Calif., said that is just the nature of the mono virus.
'There's just not much you can do,' he said.
Consedine, a national plasma donor recruiter, also recruits donors who have certain viruses, including the mono virus, so the plasma can be used for diagnostics and test kits.
'Every virus is a little different,' he said.
The mono virus, however, is very common in college students, Consedine said. The company's recruiting efforts are most effective on college campuses.
'It's highly contagious through casual contact,' he said.
The college lifestyle of dorm living contributes to its prominence among college students, he said.
'It's especially contagious during spring ... heavy midterms, study all night, stressed out, don't get enough sleep ... all these things add up,' he said.
Consedine said with all these factors in place, the body's immune system is down and is more susceptible to catching viruses.
And it all depends on the person as to how severe their case is and how long it lasts, he said. Some feel sick for a few weeks and others feel lagging effects of lethargy for three to six months.
Jared Kulbeth, a junior from Stafford, Vir., majoring in chemical engineering, has had mono for three weeks. Unlike Godard, Kulbeth had extreme spleen pain. His temperature of 103 is gone, but he still feels some effects of the virus.
'I still get tired and out of breath doing anything,' he said.
Candice Mason, a sophomore from Midland, Michigan, has only had mono for a few days. The glands in her throat are swollen and she said sometimes her eyes have trouble focusing.
Joe Miner, a physician with the Utah County Health Department, said the mono virus causes lymph tissue to swell, like tonsils. The spleen is a lymph gland, so it can swell also, he said.
'The spleen can rupture,' he said, 'but it is not common.'
Doctors urge those with mono to not play contact sports or anything that could risk the spleen being hit.
Miner said most people are hit with the mono virus in early childhood, and most do not know they have it.
'It's like the chicken pox,' he said. 'In general, the older you get the more sick you get.'
The good news, however, is that mono usually does not hit people twice.
'But nothing is impossible,' he said.