The Long Road back from Infectious Mononucleosis

I am pretty sure I was feeling the affects of Mono in late April but had no idea what was going on with my body. It takes 4-6 weeks once you are exposed to it before it really shows itself. Then it takes another 4-6 weeks on average to get back to normal. I did some racing in late April and early May. The Vance Creek Road race down in Elma; I got dropped on the first lap and was totally exhausted. Then I raced the Ravensdale race the first weekend of May in horrible conditions that included rain and hail. I finished this race in the pack and felt decent. Then the steady decline began. The emotional roller coast I went through was something I haven't experienced before. I worked for the next week not understanding what was up or down. I was practically in another world at work. Spacing out for hours just staring at nothing happened multiple days. Riding my bike was not even a thought.

After about a week of feeling like this I set a Dr Appt for the next week. I went in and explained my systems and had some X-ray's and some blood work done. We scheduled a stress test for 2 days later and then to go over my blood results. The stress test consisted of getting a whole bunch of wires stuck to your chest and then running on a treadmill. My target heart rate was around 185 bpm. Although my max on the bicycle is closer to 195. I can't recall the last time I ran on a treadmill and it had been about a year since I played soccer. Of course I didn't stretch and my groin started to bother me at the end of the test. They turn the speed up as well as increasing the incline every couple of minutes. It started to really hurt around the 15 min mark and the lady there kept trying to talk to me. Uh, can't you see I am pouring with sweat and my mouth is open and I am huffing and puffin? I still couldn't get my heart rate to the max but got it to 178 bpm just as my groin was screaming at me to stop or I will tear. Apparently, my time of 23 minutes or something was good and listed in the 1% category. After going over my test, he then grabbed my chart and said, "Oh yes, you have mono!! Then he couldn't believe I just produced this test at the level I did. I really didn't know what that meant but was happy to hear I had something wrong with me. At least now I knew, I'm not crazy. He then thought I was just getting over it due to my test results. I was actually just really getting into it because for the next 4 weeks I was in the dumps. I was off work for 2 weeks with 2 weeks of half days. I think I rode my bike 5 times during that period. Every time I felt good I would dive bomb the next day. I didn't have most of the symptoms but my biggest one was, Fatigue. It basically felt like I took sleeping pills and had to stay awake. Little men were hanging off my eyelids trying to pull them down. Going up and down the stairs was enough to wipe me out. Vacuuming the living room would send me to the couch for a 2 hour nap. Every day I woke up feeling ok and by 9 or 10 in the morning I would be toast. Take a nap for 2-3 hours then be up for dinner and back to bed at 8. This was my daily routine for almost 4 weeks. Then as I started to get over it and my energy started to increase my Spleen decided to swell. This is the first week my Spleen as not been swollen for 3 weeks. I'm not sure how I got the so called "kissing disease" but the doc said since I have never had it I could have got it just like any other cold. Thankfully Lindsay has had it so she didn't get it as they say once you have it you normally don't get it twice.

I am happy to say I am virtually back to 100%. I have also been going and getting IV work done which I feel has been helping a lot. My racing has obviously suffered but I did my first race on the 4th of July and finished 12th out of 58. Not bad but my sprint is still slow. I missed several great races that were on the calendar this year but not much I can do. I am just really happy to be back on my bike and have the energy to harass my wife! Hopefully I can gather up enough points before the end of the season to get my Category 3 upgrade. I am still doing the Tuesday night races with the 1,2,3's at Pacific Raceways and last night was the first time I was able to finish with the group since coming back in June.

Onward and upwards!!!