Question:
Hello. On January 6th I was hanging out with a girl at a party for while, dancing, kissing, and generally having a good time. It wasn't until later that night that she tells me, "Hey, I just got over mono a couple of weeks ago." Needless to say, that put a damper on the evening. Ever since that night I've been paranoid about getting mono. I've done a lot of reading about it and it seems that my chances of getting it are unlikely since most people as children get the virus and never know it's mono. I'm 18 years old so I'm hoping that's the case. However, I'm hoping someone could give me some advice. Should I get tested to see if I have mono? Any advice you could give me would be great. Ahhh! I don't want mono!
Answer:
Once somebody has had mono, they continue to have periods of being contagious for the rest of their lives. So even if you met somebody who had mono as a child and never even knew it, you could catch it from them... Basically, there's no way to protect yourself from it, besides not kissing or sharing drinks and food with people who are obviously sick (and why would you want to do that anyway...?)
Don't worry about getting tested unless you get sick. It's got a several week incubation period, and blood tests often don't turn positive until you've been sick for a week or two. So getting tested now wouldn't do anything. Just take care of yourself and if you get any of the symptoms of mono (excessive sleepiness, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes), go to the doctor to get tested.