The Power of Mononucleosis

I always used to roll my eyes when people said, “live every moment as if it were your last,” or any of those old clichés like that, especially when it came to field hockey. When people told me stories about how they got a sudden injury and got their sport taken away from them, I always thought to myself, I never get injured, I’ve never even broken or sprained anything. That would never happen to me. I never thought about illness as being a possibility for ending my senior season unexpectedly early.

I spent my summer going into senior year as a counselor at a summer camp, where our staff is my family. After two of our nine weeks there this summer, one of the male counselors had to stay home for a week because he was diagnosed with mono, after already sharing water pitchers with all of the lifeguards. Knowing that symptoms appear 4-6 weeks after being exposed to mono, we all knew that plenty of counselors would get sick. I spent the rest of my summer being extremely careful not to share anything with anyone, while other counselors just didn’t care and went about their business sharing whatever they pleased.

But, of all of these 100 staff members, only about 9 of them got sick. Of course, one of them was me, the most careful one.

My first symptoms showed up a month into my last field hockey season at Penfield High School. I had cold-like symptoms and it was exhausting just to stand. After two days of feeling like this, I went to the doctor and got a blood test, and spent the rest of the week in both physical and mental misery. I struggled to function in any simple task as my body protested exerting any sort of energy, and I struggled with learning that I had to give up my field hockey season.

The first thing I wanted to do when I found out I couldn’t play field hockey anymore was to run, and I wasn’t even allowed to do that. Not only was everyone concerned about my spleen being hit and rupturing, but they were also concerned about me overworking myself. My doctor wrote me a note to be out of gym class for almost two months, which meant that any hope I had of staying in shape was gone.

I couldn’t believe that my field hockey career had ended halfway through the season. I had so many goals set for the season, none of which I had enough time to meet. I wondered if I would ever play field hockey again.

Things got worse with every day of school that I missed. After missing an entire week of school, without enough energy to do any work at home, I found myself drowning in late work to catch up on. I still didn’t have enough energy to push through it all quickly, so the pile kept building and building, even as I did my best to bring it down. I spent the next week going to school for half days because my body got too tired out just being in school for too long. After walking up a flight of stairs at school, I could feel my heartbeat race and I could hear my heavy breathing all the way until my next class, when I finally got to sit down. I didn’t even have enough energy to participate fully in classes, nor did I have the ability to pay attention as much as before.

I think the most astonishing, frustrating, powerful part of mono is how long it affects you. I was one of the lucky people, who only missed full school days for one week, and stopped feeling sick by the second week. Some people miss an entire month of school. Either way, those with mono are exhausted for months. Mono can ruin every aspect of your life for this period of time.

The point is, whoever you are, I hope you live your life to the fullest. Realize how lucky you are to have simple privileges, and don’t take any healthy moment for granted.

#fieldhockey #mono #mononucleosis #senior