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hopefulnebulaSo. That stuff really didn't subside, so I hied myself into the doctor's office and had the vampires take a bit of blood. I got tested for mono and anemia, but not thyroid problems back in March, when this got bad. I tested negative for both, but had a nasty "sinus infection" not much later. Fair enough, I thought. Explains why I've been feeling so crappy, I thought.
Except it doesn't.
Anyway, doc visit was Friday morning. They did a check, drew some blood, et cetera. Results came in today: judging from the state of my antibodies, I had mono beginning from mid-March, when I had that "sinus infection."
The reason the school med center didn't catch it: they used a finger prick test, which yields much quicker results and is much cheaper, but less reliable. It only gives positive results at all during a 5-10 day window, which to the Epstein-Barr virus is nothing, so while it rarely if ever gives false positives, its rate of false negatives is disturbingly high. (In other words, it's a good first test, but they shouldn't have stopped at that when I got a negative result.)
Good news is, it's minor, I'm not at all infectious by this point, and my spleen's fine so I don't have to stay abed.
The other thing the blood test turned up was, it turns out I'm pretty damned anemic. Apparently, that's fairly common in people who are recovering from long-term viruses, since they tend to start meddling with bone marrow function. So, I'm now on iron supplements. Supposed to be 300mg/day, but since the highest dose I could find was 85mg, I'm taking three of those a day starting tonight. It's slightly lower than optimal, but I didn't want to buy something big right away anyway, until I know how I'll react to this much.
The pills are about the size of the second bone in my index finger. I shit you not. I suppose it's a good thing they don't make larger doses.
So, anyway. I'm going to be drafting a letter to my advisor, sounding out the idea of being able to retake the class that this affected most. Normally, people are only allowed to retake classes if they've flat-out failed them, but I'm thinking an exception may be possible here, since there were medical issues involved (and it's a 100-level class that wasn't part of my gen-ed requirements or my major). I certainly would like to prove myself to Dr. Gupta. Whether or not I'm able to, I also want to see if we can't get changes made in the way suspicions of this stuff are handled by the med staff at Centre; they didn't even tell me about the test's accuracy problems.
One thing I have to say is, I sure hate being right all the time.
Also, I figured out how to turn off spellcheck in Deepest Sender, yay! I accidentally right-clicked on the main entry field, and boom, there the option was. I'm happy now. :D
Except it doesn't.
Anyway, doc visit was Friday morning. They did a check, drew some blood, et cetera. Results came in today: judging from the state of my antibodies, I had mono beginning from mid-March, when I had that "sinus infection."
The reason the school med center didn't catch it: they used a finger prick test, which yields much quicker results and is much cheaper, but less reliable. It only gives positive results at all during a 5-10 day window, which to the Epstein-Barr virus is nothing, so while it rarely if ever gives false positives, its rate of false negatives is disturbingly high. (In other words, it's a good first test, but they shouldn't have stopped at that when I got a negative result.)
Good news is, it's minor, I'm not at all infectious by this point, and my spleen's fine so I don't have to stay abed.
The other thing the blood test turned up was, it turns out I'm pretty damned anemic. Apparently, that's fairly common in people who are recovering from long-term viruses, since they tend to start meddling with bone marrow function. So, I'm now on iron supplements. Supposed to be 300mg/day, but since the highest dose I could find was 85mg, I'm taking three of those a day starting tonight. It's slightly lower than optimal, but I didn't want to buy something big right away anyway, until I know how I'll react to this much.
The pills are about the size of the second bone in my index finger. I shit you not. I suppose it's a good thing they don't make larger doses.
So, anyway. I'm going to be drafting a letter to my advisor, sounding out the idea of being able to retake the class that this affected most. Normally, people are only allowed to retake classes if they've flat-out failed them, but I'm thinking an exception may be possible here, since there were medical issues involved (and it's a 100-level class that wasn't part of my gen-ed requirements or my major). I certainly would like to prove myself to Dr. Gupta. Whether or not I'm able to, I also want to see if we can't get changes made in the way suspicions of this stuff are handled by the med staff at Centre; they didn't even tell me about the test's accuracy problems.
One thing I have to say is, I sure hate being right all the time.
Also, I figured out how to turn off spellcheck in Deepest Sender, yay! I accidentally right-clicked on the main entry field, and boom, there the option was. I'm happy now. :D
no subject
Date: 2007-07-04 01:06 am (UTC)I've often wondered if I've ever had mono at some point & just never known it.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-04 07:05 am (UTC)Maybe the virus will never entirely go away (just like Chicken Pox, which is held in a type of stasis by the body), but it can be dealt with. I know you well enough to know that this won't slow you down.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-04 08:33 pm (UTC)