Left Abdomen Pain leads to Mono?

Question

Four weeks ago, I attended the ER with extreme abdomen pain in my left side. They diagnosed it as ovarian cysts, but the pelvic ultrasound came up clear. Today I was diagnosed with Mono, with the chances of my spleen rupturing to be quite high. I am bedridden for 14 days. No physical activity for 4 more weeks. Could this have been diagnosed 4 weeks ago, or not? In other words, could my previous pain have been a symptom of the mono infection today?

Answer 1

I am a RN who has taught Nursing for over 20 years and thought that you might appreciate a professional response to your medical question. I can appreciate your concern about whether your trip to the ER 4 weeks prior to your diagnosis of MONO had a direct relationship to your present diagnosis and whether it should have been diagnosed at that time, right? My professional opinion is NO it is highly unlikely the mono could have been diagnosed at that time and YES your Left Upper Quadrant Pain may have been referred pain from an enlarging spleen. However I do not have any necessary data regarding the clinical findings from palpating your spleen and abdomen, any bloodwork results, etc.done at that time. There are a number of possible medical conditions related to pain at that site. Since you do not describe any other symptoms other than the left sided pain at the time of your ER visit , the usual clinical manifestations of Mono are not present. General complaints prior to the acute onset of mono are rather nebulous and may include headache, fatigue, malaise, chills, and poor appetite. When the disease becomes acute one presents with fever, painful lymph node enlargement and sore throat. As the spleen gradually becomes enlarged by massive lymphocyte infiltration, left upper quadrant pain will occur. I'll save you a detailed explanation of the classic abnormalities of the blood work that is typical of mono. If you had blood work done in the ER (which I'm sure you did) it obviously ruled out mono at that time or the physician would have discussed it with you. So for those logical reasons it was not possible to diagnose mono 4 weeks ago. Just to let you know, I would have guessed your provisional diagnosis in the ER to be a possible ovarian cyst also. What the actual cause of you left sided pain was cannot be determined and that does not completely rule out something related to your left ovary. The good news is that you have continued to follow up with medical supervision by your physician and the mono was caught early in my opinion. I can appreciate how miserable you feel as I experienced mono as a college student. In those days the two weeks of being bedridden was in isolation in the hospital so medical protocol for managing mono has definitely improved over the years. Of course the other limitations regarding physical activity or should I say lack of it was also part of the ongoing saga. I hope that this information will be helpful for you and allow you to now relax and focus on getting better. Good luck to you and God bless.

Answer 2

I'm a 48 year old women who has extensive experience with both Mono & ovarian cysts. Mono was diagnosed at age 27... if anything, there were flu-like symptoms & aches several months prior to the diagnosis, but no "extreme" pains.

My ovarian cysts, first detected at age 22, had the nastiest habit of "traveling" ... sometimes being picked up by the ultrasounds, other times not. Please continue to get periodic ultrasounds!

Also, kidney stones - something else I have a very extensive experience with - can mimic ovarian cyst pain ... I would advise seeing a urologist.

I'm most concerned about your Mono diagnosis. Long story short, much retro research into my health history led to the following discovery: multiple bouts of strep throat as a teen made me suseptible to Mono ... the Mono, in turn, made me suseptible to what I now suffer from 24/7: Fibromyalgia.

As I write this I am having a bad Fibro attack and need to log off ... but I'll be checking back in a couple of days to see if you have any other questions for me. I'll be glad to offer up any personal info you'd like in addition to digging up some site links for you.

Meanwhile, please think about seeing a urologist to confirm / rule out the possibillity of kidney stones. Don't worry too much about ovarian cysts just yet ... they sometimes do dissapear altogether by themselves ... but be forceful with your OBGYN about having periodic ultrasounds.

As I said, I'll check back in a couple of days; meanwhile, I hope you start feeling better.

Answer 3

YES IT COULD VERY WELL HAVE BEEN FROM YOUR MONO, MONO is also an infection of the liver- your liver is the main organ filling your body cavity. Mono is VIRAL, and very contagious and that is the reason it was commonly referred to as a "kissing disease". Because it is most transmittable by kissing...You really need to see a liver doctor right away! Mono can have long term affects on your liver health! YOU could have hepatitis from it!

Answer 4

Probably not, as your ovary would have been enlarged and they would have noted that on an ultrasound....it was probably a cyst that had already popped.