<p>Our D , a freshman who is 3,000 miles from home, has been sick since Thursday and had to go to Emergency Room on Friday. Diagnosed with strepp and now probably has mono. Finals start on Wednesday. What would you suggest and should we get involved with the school?</p>
<p>that really stinks. i'd suggest that your daughter call/email a class dean or her college's disability services--they are probably able to give incompletes or longer extensions than professors can give, or switch her to pass/fail. if she's too sick to contact anyone and would like you to do it, that might work too.</p>
<p>I'm not a doctor. :)</p>
<p>How is she right now? And why does she "probably" have mono? Has she been tested? Some people with mono sleep more than usual or have sore throats but are otherwise pretty much fine. Other people became extremely ill. I've known three college kids with mono at my school, and they all continued on as normally as possible, including finishing finals. If she feels even reasonably OK, I think she should try her best to finish up her classes. She should email her professors and ask for extensions for papers. That way she can work a little each day while still getting plenty of rest. It's difficult to put off exams (since it enables easy cheating--some schools may require whole new exams), so if she can she should try to make them. She should inform all of her professors and her academic advisor. Unfortunately, the effects of mono even in good cases last quite a while, so it may not be possible for her to put off her finals until she's well again.</p>
<p>If she has strep throat but not mono, she should play it by ear. If she really needs extensions, she should try to get them. If she has been sick since Thursday and on meds since Friday, she will probably feel a lot better each day, and it seems to me as if she should be in OK shape for finals. When I had strep I was tired and sick but continued on with my normal activities (I was also breaking out in hives 2X/day while on medication which I was probably somewhat resistent to anyway... long story). </p>
<p>There are some mono horror stories, so hopefully it will just be strep and she'll recover quickly.</p>
<p>Ouch! That's bad!</p>
<p>Years ago, my brother got mono during his senior year finals. He contacted his professors (how, I can't imagine - I can still remember how sick he was) and they all let him off the hook, using the grade he had at that point. Now, I'm NOT saying that's what might happen for your D - but she does need to drag herself to a phone and make some calls, the sooner the better. Obviously she needs a doctor note. At the very least, maybe they can give her "incompletes" if she can't take her exams.</p>
<p>Hope she's better soon. She might need her mommy!</p>
<p>Been there, done that! DD had mono last spring, two weeks before finals. Had to come home, as she had such night sweats and high temperatures that she was worried about passing out getting down from her loft bed. She was nasty sick, but dragged herself back to school to finish some finals, then took incompletes in a couple of classes. Her Rice U profs were all wonderful and very understanding about the situation - they have seen mono before!!! Very important that your daughter takes care of her health! She should email her profs, and possibly the dean of students.<br>
Good luck, and I hope it's just strep, because mono can be a long and painful disease to resolve. :)</p>
<p>Three out of four in my family (self included) have had mono. With that limited experience, I'd say if she's been diagnosed with strep she probably does NOT have mono. Strep usually responds very nicely to antibiotics. Don't panic about mono until you have a positive diagnosis.</p>
<p>^ The only thing with that, is I remember my brother was misdiagnosed as having strep, when it fact it turned out to be mono. Eventually, he was so sick he really should have been in the hospital!</p>
<p>We had that scare here for winter term. S was exhausted, unable to swallow. Got diagnosed with strep at the student health center, given penicillin and just didn't get better. Was worse two days later, went back for the mono test, which the school sent out, and we brought him home. He withdrew from the January term.</p>
<p>He saw our docs and was retested for strep, still positive, retested for mono, negative. Then they switched antibiotics. and in two days he felt fine.
So, the moral of the story is: </p>
<p>Make sure that the strain of strep is sensitive to the antibiotics prescribed!</p>
<p>I should clarify - I'm assuming the strep test was accurate. You can't rely on a doctor saying "it looks like strep". There are tests for strep and for mono, the mono one usually coming after the strep shows negative.</p>
<p>My daughter got mono last spring and became very very tired for a month or more before the high fever and sore throat came. She is a strep carrier, so always tests positive. She was misdiagnosed despite 6 rounds of bloodwork last summer. She was finally found to have a wicked case of mono. It caused an enlarged and painful liver and spleen. The enlarged spleen lasted until about a month ago, causing her to miss dance for a semester. She had intermittent flareups of the mono over the past year, as well. The exhaustion and missed days have caused a dip in her grades of at least .3 in her GPA. It can be a very serious illness. We had no idea it could be so bad. I am hoping that her guidance couselor will write some things about it to explain her grades. Good luck to your D. I feel for her having to deal with it by herself.</p>