When I was 15 years old (I am not 23 by the way) I contracted the Epstein Barr Virus, the virus that is known to cause Mononucleosis a.k.a. the kissing disease. Ever since then I have been having physical and mental issues which made it very difficult for me to enjoy life. I remembered being so damn tired all the time I couldn't function and concentrate very well in school. There were times I would be so tired I would go to bed at 8 o clock in the evening and on the weekends I would go to bed early and sleep in all morning. I was getting 10-12 hours of sleep and was still very fatigue and groggy. Once I a while I would take my ADD medication, dexedrine, that I have been on for several years. Dexedrine is a stimulant drug which gives you a wakeful feeling helping to counteract against the fatigue. I didn't take it regularly like I was suppose too because of the side effects it just started giving me. The medication made very anti social for some reason(never use to do that before) and when you are a high school student, socialization tends to be more valuable to you.
Besides fatigue I started to show other symptoms, I rapidly began to fall into a deep depression. I just felt so worthless, but how could I not feel that way when I all did was sleep and barely accomplish anything. I also started having really bad anxiety, so bad I would get numbness and tingling in hands, fingers, and sometimes feet. Sometimes I would even hyperventilate.
I finally went to see my doctor because I couldn't stand myself, the doctor specialized in mental disabilities in young children and adolescents. She was also the same doctor I have been seeing for Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD) since I was 8 years old. After discussing everything with her she prescribed me Paxil, a drug prescribed for anxiety and depression. She explained to me that I wouldn't notice it working for about 2-4 weeks of taking it. After being on for the first week it make more feel even more fatigue and groggy than I was before! After being on it a month I couldn't take it anymore and got off of it.
Eventually my mom thought it would be best to check me into a mental hospital. I was there for about a week until they discharged me and put me on some different god damn medication for depression. This time I was put on Prozac. Then eventually discontinued taking that because it didn't do shit but make me more fatigue. To sum up this part of the story I was prescribed wellbutrin xr, effexor xr, and lexapro later down the road, and again the same thing, all of them didn't do shit expect make me feel like shit. So if medication wasn't working then I thought to myself that I am just going to have to fight whatever is wrong with me by myself. High School was so difficult, I use to have lots of friends then once this happened to me they all dropped like flies and I just felt so alone.
It was then when I started going to church. I think I was about the age of 17 at the time. I need to have some friendly people to talk to and if I didn't have anyone in high school then I needed someone elsewhere. Just to make this short by the age of 19, I finally fought and defeated the anxiety and the depression.
With the depression finally be gone when I was 19 at that time something else really odd happened. When day out of the blue I had a sore throat, so I look in the back of my throat and my tonsils are the size of golf balls. I immediately see the doctor, they did a strep test and it came back negative, so the doctor basically did nothing and sent me on my way. I came back like two weeks later because they were still huge, the doctor again did nothing. Then I came back a month later, yep still huge, it was then I was referred to an Ears Nose and Throat doctor (ENT). They ran blood tests on me trying to find the cause of this. The doctor told me by looking at the results this may have been caused by the Epstein Barr Virus, but they didn't know for sure. The only she told me about the results were was that my white blood cell count a little higher than normal. She explained to me that Mono is something you only get once but on rare occasions you can get it again. About 4 months later I had my tonsils removed, and the doctor commented on how bad they were after my recovery.
I still struggle with fatigue and grogginess as of today, but I don' think it is as severe as it was back then. I am taking Dexedrine, my medication for ADD regularly which helps the fatigue with no bad side effects. Recently though I did go to see a doctor about my fatigue. During the Appointment I didn't take my ADD meds like I usually would. The nurse that checked my blood pressure said that it was a little lower than normal if that means anything.
Now my question is, do you think throughout my time of struggling, I simply misdiagnosed when what was causing all my problems was CFS? I am not completely sure if that is what it was because I don't recall every having some of the other common symptoms that go a long with CFS, which include mild fevers, muscles aches, Digestive problems, swollen glands (expect for the tonsils). I was always okay there but I did get headaches a lot. Also I read somewhere that the Epstein Barr Virus is known to cause Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I was also wondering if I still have it today but in a milder form? Does CFS ever go away or is it there for life? Sorry this is so long and I apologize for any bad spelling or grammer errors as I wrote this in a hurry. Thank you so much for those that have taken the time to read this!
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