Strep throat vs Mono

[Arrmani]

I'm not really asking advice, but more for opinions. I went to the doctor Wednesday because I wasn't feeling good, and she basically said it was strep or mono. She did the strep test and it was negative, but decided to treat for that, even though I told her I was in close contact with someone with mono.

Anyway, since I've never had mono, I'm not sure what the symptoms are compared to strep. Right now, my throat is pretty swollen and super sore, minor nausea most of the day, and kinda tired (but I think its from trouble sleeping with my throat).

There's no treatment for mono anyway right? Or, how serious is it if I don't get any kind of attention to it? I'm on an antibiotic right now, but so far it hasn't helped, and I kinda feel worse. The office is only open from 8-11 tomorrow, so I'm wondering if its worth getting up to try to go in again or not. I could always try my school's health center, but I'm not sure if they're much good at all.

[Kaeko]

Most serious (but rare) complication of mono is a ruptured spleen. It's particularly vulnerable while you have mono so just don't do anything stupid like play full contact sports. It should resolve on it's own though - I believe people are usually treated for symptoms rather than the underlying cause of it.

[Koul]

I dono, those symptons don't sound like strep. cue everyones different but I've never had nausea or been tired.

and I thought they had medication for mono now? a friend of mine was sick for like months when he got mono. but he was pretty dirty anyways so mabye that had something to do with it lol

[LinktheDeme]

Did you do a petri dish culture or a rapid or both? rapid's aren't as accurate so those can pop up as negative. Though since you started the antibiotic the strep culture would turn up negative if you took another one anyway.

Mono on the other hand is viral so the antibiotics won't do much for that. Pretty much just make sure you eat properly, get R&R, and try to keep your fever down. No heavy lifting or exercising also.

[Weeks]

Mono or simple viral pharyngitis (Which 90% of "strep throat" is), only difference is whether you feel like shit for weeks or days. Neither benefits from an antibiotic, your doctor is just too lazy to explain that to you.

[Weeks]

Did you do a petri dish culture or a rapid or both? rapid's aren't as accurate so those can pop up as negative. Though since you started the antibiotic the strep culture would turn up negative if you took another one anyway.

I can tell you it was rapid, and doctor wouldn't bother re-swabbing for a culture since she just put him on antibiotics anyway.

[MarkM.]

If it's mono, antibiotics wont do crap. It's a virus, so pretty much whoever treated you is banking on strep throat.

[Despain]

Happened to me recently, except I thought Gonorrhea vs. Mono vs. Strep. Occurred recently, went in to the doctor's, did a strep test. Came out negative, but they still treated for strep. Gave me some pills, a shot, and was feeling brand new in the morning.

If you got white shit on the back of your tonsils (entire back of my mouth was completely covered), more than likely its strep, but both Gonorrhea and Mono can cause that as well, just not as severe iirc.

[Meian]

If it's mono, antibiotics wont do crap. It's a virus, so pretty much whoever treated you is banking on strep throat.

If I remember right, they will still use antibiotics to get rid of any oppritunistic bacteria that could reach other areas (such as randomly having an ear infection)

[thestalkmore]

Not mono, you'd feel fucking destroyed, not slightly shitty. I had it a few years back and was dead to the world for close to two weeks, and then just super shitty for another few.

[Denchi]

For Mono, at least for me, the symptoms are sickness that comes, then goes away. Maybe a week later, your symptoms come back again, terribly sore throat, white spots in the back of your throat, etc.

It'll feel like any sort of sickness for the first week, then after that you just have to deal with the tired feeling. Colleges still give a lot of leniency to kids with mono, it can really mess up your sleep schedule and concentration. Can take months to fully recover.

Good luck!!

PS. As people have said, spleen is vulnerable, don't play contact sports. Ruptured spleen = dead.

[LinktheDeme]

This is probably a dumb question but I just realized it was nowhere in the post. They did no blood work to test for mono? Or did they have blood work just no results yet? That's something you want to have done not guess at it.

[Nightfyre]

Not mono, you'd feel fucking destroyed, not slightly shitty. I had it a few years back and was dead to the world for close to two weeks, and then just super shitty for another few.

This.

I had a similar situation a while back where it was either mono or strep and they decided to treat me for strep. If you break out in a massive rash in the next few days, stop taking the antibiotics immediately and call your doctor because you've almost certainly got mono at that point. That's what happened to me, and the doc told me it was because of the mono reacting to the antibiotics. It does sound like you've only got strep though - I'm pretty high-energy and I was completely wiped when I had mono. Shit sucks.

[Klutz]

I lost close to 15 lbs when I had mono. Shit was so cash. I didn't eat anything but ice cream for two weeks straight. It's all I could eat.

But seriously, if it's mono, don't do anything stupid. Like, no sports. Don't even jog, it's not worth the risk.

[Metah]

I just got mono and I'm still somewhat recovering. Actually I had the flu and I thought I was going to be well enough to take a midterm when I suddenly felt so destroyed, so I went to the doctor and he thought it was either mono or tonsillitus. Turned out it was mono, simple blood test proves it.

But yeah like people are saying, when you have mono you won't feel slightly tired, you'll feel like you can't do jack shit. First 5 days I had mono I didn't eat anything even though they said you should try to force yourself, because the pain in my throat was unbearable. Also I would sleep upwards of 16 hours everyday, and lay in bed without moving for the time I was awake.

Like people are saying, if you do have mono, there's nothing you can do it about it really. I still get quite tired sometimes even though its been more than three weeks since I started to be able to get out and about. If you don't feel like absolute death, you probably don't have mono. It hits you like a brick, its not a gradual sort of thing. Also, spleen protection is very important, I won't lift anything heavy but I do do some light jogging if I need to, it still tires me the fuck out though but maybe since I was basically bedridden for 1+ month I got a bit out of shape

Also, mono turns out to be something that most of the population is immune or resistant to because its so common. When you get mono as a child you either have no symptoms or flu-like symptoms, so it gets diagnosed as flu or you have no diagnosis because you don't feel sick. When I say most, I mean by a large margin too. It was actually quite lucky I went almost 21 years without getting mono.

[MisterBob]

You can have Mono without extreme symptoms, despite what people in this thread are telling you. Some people can have Mono and be nearly asymptomatic, as is the case with many viral infections.

Until you know for sure what you have, please be careful, and as has been mentioned here, watch the fuck out for your spleen.

[Xajii]

DO NOT rule out mono, posters in this thread are not accounting for the entire disease's spread.

Mono can be as severe as some have mentioned (and even more). This is a common reaction to the disease, what those have mentioned, basically inoperably sick for around 2 weeks.

Not always the case.

Turns out I had mono for a month and a half but it was a mild case so my symptoms were mild, in-and-out problems. Never got diagnosed til a couple days before I started feeling better. My ex had had it months and months before, but figured that since I never caught it then I wouldn't have caught it at all. Wrong.

Nausea doesn't sound symptomatic of streptococcus but if it is then you would have mucus issues probably, which you didn't mention so who knows.

Get a blood test for mono.

[kuronosan]

I'm not really asking advice, but more for opinions. I went to the doctor Wednesday because I wasn't feeling good, and she basically said it was strep or mono. She did the strep test and it was negative, but decided to treat for that, even though I told her I was in close contact with someone with mono.

Anyway, since I've never had mono, I'm not sure what the symptoms are compared to strep. Right now, my throat is pretty swollen and super sore, minor nausea most of the day, and kinda tired (but I think its from trouble sleeping with my throat).

There's no treatment for mono anyway right? Or, how serious is it if I don't get any kind of attention to it? I'm on an antibiotic right now, but so far it hasn't helped, and I kinda feel worse. The office is only open from 8-11 tomorrow, so I'm wondering if its worth getting up to try to go in again or not. I could always try my school's health center, but I'm not sure if they're much good at all.

They should have done a subculture in the lab. If it grew with hemolysis on a blood agar plate, it's strep. If it didn't, then it's not strep. Strep's main symptoms are cherry-like rashes at the back of the throat.

The biggest difference is that strep is caused by bacteria and mono is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. If the antibiotic didn't work, congratulations, you just wasted money and a trip.

By the way, I don't know what lab you visited, but it's standard procedure when you do a strep test to follow it up with a subculture because the strep test is only sensitive to certain levels of the bug.

You should go in tomorrow and ask them to do a rapid mono screen. It's really easy and only takes like 15 minutes to do. They can even do a blood screen and titer for antigens (which is more sensitive and accurate).

I laugh at any Doctor who would do a rapid test and then not do follow-up confirmatory tests. Fucking amateurs.

[Daemien]

I laugh at any Doctor who would do a rapid test and then not do follow-up confirmatory tests. Fucking amateurs.

Says the, and correct me if I'm wrong about this, med-student?

[Blabj]

I've had mono/glandular fever, trust me, you'd know if you have it. I felt utterly obliterated, barely conscious. Almost numb to the experience, except you have an understanding that your body is in pain.

In general though, there is nothing you can do. Speak to a doctor, make sure they back up what you're feeling with a diagnosis of your ailment, and proceed to feel shit for 2-4 weeks.

As an aside, to all those people who have replied saying they've had it, have you had any occurrence of shingles/zona/herpes zoster. It seems, since my diagnosis of my having mono, I've been diagnosed as being a sufferer of herpes zoster and chronic fatigue syndrome. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience after having the virus.