Yawn

Without getting into gross details, I have figured out why I've been so tired the last couple of weeks, and I feel like smacking my head and yelling "duh!" at myself.

For the last two or three months, I've had an unusual numbers of the insane, horrible, oh-my-God-I-want-to-die stomach aches** that accompanied my brush with mononucleosis as a kid.

** I hate doctors.  Hate them hate them hate them.  And yet, when I would get those stomach aches, the only thing that kept me from insisting someone take me to the hospital (if for no other reason than to be sedated) was the thought of sitting in a car (or, God forbid, laying down) because the pain got worse when I sat.

(Googling today has revealed that that's not as uncommon as I thought; apparently, it's quite likely my spleen was swollen.  Yikes.  It can also, apparently, affect liver function, which explains why the doctors at Amie's mom's office way back when first thought I had hepatitis.)

I got those four or five times a week in the months leading up to getting really, horribly sick with mono, and ever since then, I get one or two a year.

Anyhow, there is a gross, TMI way (visual only; it's not THAT gross) I used for years to gauge the likelihood of a Stomach Ache of Doom in my future, but I've been sloppy lately.

Well, today, when I pried myself out of bed (after a several-hour nap yesterday and going to bed relatively early), I employed my TMI way of determining the state of my recurrent virus.

Whoops.

Call it Chronic Fatigue, call it relapsing mono, or call it Epstein Barr: the quick answer is -- utter exhaustion.  No wonder I've had such trouble keeping up with stuff this week.

By the way...I am one of apparently only 6 percent of people that get recurrent symptoms from mono, and one of very few people who get the nifty Alice in Wonderland side effect as well.

Maybe someone else should do the driving for a while?