An overall positive mono story 26F
I wanted to share my story of recovering from mono. I read this subreddit when I was sick and I wished I had seen more of the good stories. My case was more severe than most -- I had mono and infection-induced hemolytic anemia (basically where you lose a bunch of the oxygen-carrying capacity in your blood, red blood cells), and nearly 6 months later, I'm almost fully back to my normal life.
I started to feel like I got the flu on Dec 5, 2025, and after a trip to the ER a week later, I tested positive for mono, and was extremely unwell. I was fatigued but I was also so, so weak. I had dark urine, jaundice, and limbs like lead. My hemoglobin had dropped from 135 to 100, and I could barely stand, laugh or shower without getting out of breath and needing to lay down. I was completely bedridden, and was lucky enough to move back home so my mom could take care of me.
2 weeks into mono, the sore throat started kicking in. It went from lightly sore in the mornings, to in 3 days, being so painful that I couldn't eat or drink anything. After not eating anything for 24 hours, I went to the ER and they gave me steroids (dexamethasone). That was the beginning of the end of the active infection, thankfully!
By Christmas, I was able to sit for dinner for an hour, and slowly over the next 5 weeks I regained enough strength to go back to work. Until Christmas, I was often too unwell to even watch TV. I would sleep or sit in bed thinking. The recovery after that was not linear, and was mentally so difficult. I had post exertional malaise, where I might sit at a desk for 1-2 hrs, or go on a walk to the end of the driveway and back, and completely crash the next day.
I ended up taking two months off work. I lost muscle. I gained weight. I got a lot of cavities. But as the days passed I would look back at where I had started, unable to get out of bed, to where I could now watch TV without needing to sleep, or I could sit upright and do some computer work for an hour. or I could walk down the block and back when at the outset, I couldn't even walk. I started to triumph at the tiny wins, and they showed me that the overall trend was up, and that was so so comforting.
It's now May 2026, almost 6 months later, and I am almost entirely back to my normal life. Don't get me wrong, I'm still dealing with mild recurring fatigue. I need more rest between my strength training sessions, it takes me longer to recover, and I feel more inflamed after each session. Before mono, I was the busiest person you've ever met, lifting 3-4 times a week, socializing and doing something almost every day of the week. But now I'm up to 2 really good heavy strength sessions per week, and I bike 20 mins to work 3-4x a week. I socialize 1 or 2 times per week. I am really mindful of my bedtime and getting enough sleep, and overall I consider myself pretty much recovered.
What I think was the best for my recovery was 100% completely taking time off all work, and finding small joys in the complete bed rest days through horrible illness knowing that the rest would be ultimately healing. I know a lot of people don't have the chance to take off work though. I guess I would say that as awful and horrendous as it was (truly the worst), mono was an amazing opportunity to practice kindness and patience towards myself in a terrible time, and focusing on taking care of my mental health in the moment was really key to getting me through. I recognize though I was super lucky to have a parent to take care of me, and a job that allowed me to continue to be paid while taking medical leave.
Sending strength to everyone out there in the trenches with mono! I'm rooting for you.