Last night my wife kind of blew my mind. We were discussing COVID and how certain people around us don't seem to notice, at all, their physical and/or mental declines over the last few years. She said, "Didn't your appendix burst shortly after you had mono?"
It took me until this morning to fully wrap my head around this and do some research. It's rare, but known in scientific literature for appendicitis to occur after mononucleosis.
Slight aside, but relevant to COVID nonetheless. I went to my doctor with terrible stomach pain before my appendix actually burst and was told "There's a viral stomach flu going around. Go home until it passes." He never even saw me. He had the lady at the front desk tell me that. I only survived it because I had a roommate at the time who found me, in a puddle of my own blood-vomit(sorry for the TMI), in our shared bathroom who rushed me to the hospital. I blacked out in a bathroom and woke up in a hospital room without an appendix.
I've also mentioned previously that I had what would now be described as brain fog after mono, and I literally didn't have the vocabulary or understanding to discuss it with anyone I knew at the time. I was a young, intelligent scientist who was suddenly struggling and I just faked it. Maybe bounced around different jobs a little more than I would have otherwise, and pretended I was fine for a long time. At least until I was, actually, well enough.
Be kind to the people who don't see it, even if it's hard sometimes. Noticing these things in yourself can be difficult. Sometimes you don't even notice for 30 years, apparently.
@BE
a friend's sister had to have her appendix removed while Covid +ve. The doctors told her it was caused by Covid.
My neighbor's MS got worse after Covid; until he was diagnosed first with polyneuropathy and finally with ALS / Lou Gehrig's Disease. The neurologist told his wife that he's seen an increase in cases like this.
The FO-stage has begun and none of us are prepared.
@fritzoids
Until it actually hits home , no one is going to pay attention!
Then it's too late.
My best friend was too busy to keep up with her Covid booster last year.
She got RSV & immediately after caught Covid, almost died and now has a fibrillater. It ruined her heart.
Turns out there's a connection between MS and mono, as well.
@violetmadder
yeah. I know. But we didn't really connect those dots until the pandemic had already hit.
I wouldn't be surprised if lots of ailments and disablities didn't have their origin in viral infections.
@BE this makes me think of Stephen Colbert, how his appendix burst out of the blue a few months ago.
@BE I've been thinking a lot about how my depression started within one or two months after getting the flu for the first time. There were other factors that could have contributed. But after seeing what covid can do to the brain, I got curious, and yes, it seems getting the flu increases your chances of depression due to the inflammation response. It took me more than 15 years to even consider the flu could have been the thing that tipped my mental health over the edge. So far I had just blamed myself.
I had never been vaccinated for the flu and it was rough. I imagine my immune system was very naive... flu is rare where I grew up and influenza was not amongst the routine vaccines in my country of origin. In retrospective, I'm a bit mesmerized the vaccine was not offered to me when I had the "do you have all the vaccines" medical appointment when moving to the US.
@BE Yes! Viruses definitely have lasting effects that our society doesn't usually consider.
Anecdata: I experienced a post-mono "can't think of the word I want" symptom. And a friend's mother, who had Epstein-Barr, also had that experience. It felt like part of my vocabulary files got corrupted - I knew there was a word, but could not retrieve it.
@AngelaPreston @BE I have two friends with long covid (both infected before the vaccine)- both have a history of bad cases of mono. I found that very interesting- absurdly small sample size, but interesting.
@OldAndCranky I don't know if it reactivates it. My experience with the mono thing was way before my Covid experience (which did give me pretty bad brain fog for a time).
@AngelaPreston @BE Yeah- my friends with LC had bad mono in their fairly distant past. Both infected in 2020- both still struggling.
@OldAndCranky @AngelaPreston @BE
Post viral conditions tend to pile up the weaknesses to more so, yeah.
@deirdrebeth @AngelaPreston @BE Because they damage our immune systems?
It's looking that way. We know that Covid has an effect on some of the cells in our immune system (this is why there was a scare for a while about how similar it was to AIDS). And we already know that measles can make your immune system "forget" illnesses that you already successfully fought off.
@AngelaPreston @deirdrebeth @BE Fascinating. Well, you know what they say "If the thunder don't get you, the lightening will".
@OldAndCranky @AngelaPreston @BE
In some way, though AFAIK nobody knows exactly why!
@OldAndCranky it's a known risk factor. Along with a history of EBV or auto-immune issues.
@OldAndCranky @AngelaPreston @BE both mono and covid are persistent viruses. If the innate immune system (complement) is required to manage them it is ugly. Most people have their adaptive immune system (highly specific) antibodies managing the persistent covid and persistent mono and that looks normal, at least until it doesn’t any longer.
@BE This thread hit a nerve with me. I was about to take PhD comps when I had a very bad flu (?) All I know is my memory departed immediately after. Like, I got lost shopping for groceries, couldn't remember basic things. I passed my Comps through sheer will. I finished my diss, but my memory has never been the same. I left academia because I could not remember what was needed to synthesize research into articles. Functional, but not where I was. Long-hauling viruses is real.
@BE I had a terrible time getting over mono. I think I had MECFS back then but I didn’t recognize it. I just struggled then gave up and rested for months.
Then I thought with it was OK for years and years, then an auto accident reactivated whatever was going on with me back then and I woke up the next day feeling like I had mono all over again, it was full-blown MECFS that I have been disabled by ever since.
But just this year I was looking back at those years between my “recovery” and being taken down again, and I definitely remember a long period of time when I was living in Los Angeles fully in my career, working a second job with a cleaning gig on the side while going to college.
Every Friday I would come home after work and sleep. Every Saturday I woke up feeling hung over and sick even though I didn’t do anything the night before. And every Sunday I spent struggling through laundry and grocery shopping and meal prep for the week. At the time I blamed it on age because I was in my mid-30s, but now, looking back, I think it was PEM.