I was sick of being asked, "so who did you kiss?"
My friends weren't asking after a wild night of partying, they were asking after they had discovered that I had the "kissing disease."
I happened to be one of the unlucky ones who contracted the Ebstein-Barr virus that causes mononucleosis.
Like many people with mono, I'm not one-hundred percent sure who gave me the virus. But don't get me wrong, I have my theory.
It all started when I returned from a summer studying abroad in the Dominican Republic to discover an e-mail from a friend to all of us in the program saying "FYI-- I've got Mono. You should all get tested. You probably have it too."
It was at this moment that I regretted having shared my Pina Coladas, Bahama Mamas, Cuba Libres and a slew of other tropical beverages with everyone on the trip. I sat looking at my screen thinking my life was over -- I had mono.
I went and got tested and strangely enough I was told that I didn't have mono. I came to Hopkins that fall ready to go about life as a normal college student.
I got a job working 20 hours a week at the medical campus. I joined the News-Letter. I devoted my time to doing a million things. Sleep was the least of my priorities.
Mid-Fall I felt this pain on the left side of my abdomen. When the pain persisted and I realized how exhausted I was, I decided it was time to drag myself to Health and Wellness.
Health and Wellness told me that I had an enlarged spleen. Now I'm an IR major, not a pre-med, so telling me that I have an enlarged spleen is like telling a pre-med that Djibouti has declared war on Eritrea.
It turns out I had a number of the symptoms of mono, so I was given an instant mono blood test. Again the test turned out to be negative.
A week later I was in even greater pain and I was sleeping nearly twelve hours a day. Walking from McCoy to Wolman left me feeling exhausted to the point of utter delirium.
I ventured back to Health and Wellness where I had another negative mono test. Health and Wellness had failed to mention to me that these instant tests don't have the best accuracy.
After three negative test results, the more complex blood test finally gave a positive result. (Of course I didn't find out it was positive for another month because the test results were sent off to another lab and Health and Wellness was closed for vacation when my results were finally ready!)
Now that I officially had mono, I realized that I needed to cut back on my activities and make some time for sleep. I finally didn't feel guilty about sleeping away more than half of the day.
Everyone reacted differently to the news. With exam period approaching, I had a few people ask me if I could "give them mono." Other people would panic every time I coughed or touched something of theirs.
My most humiliating experience came while walking out of class one day. My short red-haired friend yelled at the top of his lungs across a crowd of our classmates, "I can't believe you've got mono!"
It was like my highly germaphobic friend had shouted that I had a bomb strapped to my chest. All of the students near me quickly backed away, presumably in fear of contracting mono.
People have good reason to fear having mono. It isn't a simple cold. Having mono is like being hit by a ton of bricks every time you try to get up in the morning. You're tired, you're cranky and you just want to stay in bed.
It's also not easy to diagnose, so don't think it will automatically get you out of your exams. In my case it took months to diagnose, and by the time I knew I had mono it was too late to try to be excused.
It turns out only about a third of people with Ebstein-Barr virus develop mono, so you could unknowingly be infected right now -- while making out with that good-looking guy at the party you could be disseminating the virus.
Just get your sleep, don't share drinks with your friends at parties and don't kiss anyone you know who has mono.
