[sgwendy]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and waiting to have my lupus diagnosis confirmed my the St. thomas doc (she told me that they just needed their own blood tests before she could formally give a diagnosis). But that's not what my question is about.

I just wondered if anyone knows if it's possible to have glandular fever more than once in a life time. I had a really bad case of it when i was 15, but i had something similar in january, but my gp said that you could only get it once in your life.

 

[Pollyanna]

Hi there. I don't know specifically if this is the case ALL the time. But I can share that I have had glandular fever (or mononucleosis, the "kissing" disease) on three occasions. The first was as a teen and the second two times were as a young adult in my twenties.

They say that once you get it, your body develops immunity against it, thus you never get it again. Well... I'm here to tell you that you CAN get it again! Perhaps it has something to do with our screwy immune systems that allows us to repeat??? Not sure.

Now, I've also had severe infections that caused my glands to swell and run high fever, but it wasn't the same thing. I wish you well and hope you find your answers!

Love, Pollyanna

 

[Lily]

Hello and welcome,

I have had it as many of us can attest to. In fact I think it really stirred my immune system up and things were never the same after it.

From what I read it's extremely rare to get it more than once for the reason that Polly explained. I consider I had chronic fatigue after it and it wasnt clear to me at the time, I just thought I was taking a year to 18 months to get over glandular fever :hehe:

Remember we can get very swollen glands with lupus and the only other symptom I got with glandular fever was extreme fatigue, sore throat and headache for one day, that was it. It was the fatigue and glands that lingered. A blood test can tell if you have had a recent infection, but the ideal time for it is up to 6 weeks after the infection I think. After that time they can tell you have had it in the past but not how recently.

love
Lily

 

[dalyce P]

I have had mono many times. My one gp told me you could only get it once hence the word "MONO" but, I had it when I was 12,and about 5 times in my 20's and once in my 30's . Each time dx with the blood test so I know for sure I had it.
I think that disease was the start of SLE. I have never really been the same since, and each time I got mono it was a worse case. Once the virus is in your system I guess it's there for good. However, I'm 50 now and haven't had it for almost 20 years so that too is weird. Maybe it was replaced with lupus!!

Dalyce

 

[PrincessDi]

I have also had glandular fever twice (when I was 13 and again when I was 28) so that only once theory is not right!