Hello all! I wrote a post about a week ago but I had intended on doing one on this day for awhile now, so here goes.
Spring and Summer 2017 I had been pushing hard. I rock climb, its my passion (I currently work at a gym doing instruction and other things.) It is a very demanding sport, but I love it. Anyway, I was climbing about five days a week, often outside, in increasingly hot conditions. In July I started experiencing a weird sensation in my throat once every few days. A weird, vibrating feeling that almost felt like I was gargling. I'd never experienced a sensation like it. Thought, maybe its a muscle spasm or maybe I'm getting sick. Now I think it was the virus incubating or something.
August 1st, 2017. Its hot, there are wildfires messing up the air, I'm out playing disc golf before work. As I get to work I feel like my heart is beating faster and more noticeably than normal. I go in the cooler to cool off (grocery store) and feel slightly better. Over the next few days, I get dizziness, flu-like feelings, a sore throat and occasional bouts of a brief racing heart. Tacking it up to the flu or something, I press on. I go on a trip to Canada that I'd scheduled months before that I'd been looking forward to. Climbed for four days despite frequent bouts of dizziness, faintness, exhaustion after climbing. August continues on and I continue to experience intermittent symptoms like this. I go to a Naturopath and he thinks I have a combination of allergies and a low grade virus. I get essential oil blends for immune health.
September, sick feeling at times but still taking climbing trips and going to the gym frequently. October is the same. End of October I get a racing heart at work and feel panicky, fluey, unwell. Halloween I drag myself to the local climbing spot and manage to do my most difficult route ever, knowing it'll be rain for months after that day. It takes so much out of me I'm severely exhausted. I make an appointment to a GP and get tests done. At first all they can find is my blood pressure reads a bit high. I insist I get tested for mono because after scouring online its the only thing that roughly matches my symptoms and duration. A few nights later I wake up feeling very flu-like, heart racing, feel panicked and unwell. That morning I go to an urgent care, who have me go the the ED. I get my chest x-rayed and get an appointment with a cardiologist. I eventually get to wear a holter device for two weeks that takes readings of my heart. That came out normal, they said. Chest x-ray normal. They prescribe me a low dose medicine for blood pressure which I take for two rounds and then stop. A few days after the ED visit I get the results that I have a recent EBV infection and I have mono. I am relieved to have a diagnosis. I am granted a week off of work and then reduced hours for several weeks after.
The next few months I experience all manner of symptoms, I make it to work all but a handful of days, and I experience gradual, cyclical improvement.
On New Years Eve, I go to a movie with my girlfriend and almost have to leave because the dark room and loud noises from the theater overwhelm my system.
Mid February I wake up weak and lethargic, yet manage to get myself to an endurance climbing competition at my local gym and get second place out of over 100.
March I go on a five day trip to Bishop, California to climb. I am nervous to be away from my girlfriend and be camped out in the desert in case I start feeling ill out there. I feel very flu-like on the long car ride over and have visions of asking my friends to drop me off and let me catch a plane home. But it passes and I commit to the trip. I am weaker than I used to be outdoors but I still have fun and stick it out.
April I get engaged. I have mostly good days in April.
May I go on the Whole 30, eat very healthily for a month. I also quit my old job and started at the climbing gym. I feel mostly good this month too, just a few moments in a few days a week where the flu-like feelings come into my head.
June I eat crappily after all the diligence of May. I feel like my climbing performance is almost back to where it was the previous year. The one big bummer is I'm noticing I have a mysterious allergy in my living room of my apartment. We try everything, carpet cleaning, dehumidifier, expensive purifier, fans, cleaning every inch of the wall. Landlord swears we shouldn't have mold, its not an old building. No sign of major water damage really, and no one feels anything but me. I lived here for almost five years without this sensation. Its like mono exacerbated my allergies.
Then July. Fresh off another four day climbing trip, I continue the high pace. Its summer, its heating up. On July 4th, after ten days straight of climbing, I start feeling rather bleh. I try to take it easier, but it seems like my high pace and lazy diet is catching up with me. One night I wake up middle of the night with the malaise, which hasn't happened since like December or so. We have a heat wave mid month, and one day after work I'm driving home, its so hot and I feel so stressed, and I get the racing heart feeling again for the first time since November or December. Needless to say, I'm discouraged. I'm worried I overdid things and in combination with the heat suffered a major relapse. I call in sick one day in July, and barely make it through a couple others. As I realize the potential severity of what has happened, I scale back my climbing like crazy. I know it sounds crazy to you guys, but the longest I had gone without climbing this whole year was 7 days back when I first got diagnosed. The doctor had checked my spleen and said I was okay to exercise. So I'm back on the horse of eating healthier, and resting more from climbing than I have all year. The last two days I've felt a lot better than the previous three weeks. I'm rally hoping its just a bump in the road.
So as you can see, I've lived a pretty functional life this year, though I've had at least some symptom of this virus almost every day. It hasn't kept me from living life, but it has given me a lot of suffering and stress. I think I'm finally understanding the need to take it slow and look into the future, that I will have years ahead to give things my all, but I need to scale back if I want to be rid of this thing for good. I believe that I will get over this thing for good. I appreciate all on here who have given me encouragement. Anyone who has a question or comment I'm happy to talk to.
Thank you,
Nick