Swollen lymph nodes and/or Mono???

Ok so I took my son to the doctor today for an Endo. check up. And while I was there I pointed out that one of his lymph nodes on his neck started swelling up over the weekend. By the time I got there it was a pretty good size. Though he has no fever or anything. Doctor checked several other areas and he has 6-8 other swollen glands. The neck both sides, under both arms, groin and I think he said the ones on the back of the neck are swollen as well. These are not swollen nearly as bad as the one on the side. Doctor ordered some tests and a CBC. He said it could be Mono but would not be sure till the results come back later this week at best.

If it is Mono what can I except out of this. If its not Mono what could cause this? Anyone here had it. My son is only 5 yr old. I have no idea how he could have gotten this.

I got mono in highschool from a friend I was visiting who was sick with pnenumonia. I was told that it is an airborne virus.

If it is mono, your son will be totally exhausted and want to do nothing else but sleep. I literally slept for 24 hours straight. He'll have no interest in food, since his throat will be so swollen that he won't be able to eat and he'll feel sick to his stomach (I lived on popcicles, icecream and ice). The pain he will experience will be severe, and when I had mono there were no drugs the doctors could give to me (I don't know about now, as I had it many, many moons ago). Instead, my doctor told me to put an aspirin on the back of my tongue and let it dissolve. (You'd think that'd be totally gross, but it was the only thing that provided any relief - and, I couldn't taste a thing).

He will have a fever, body aches, etc. Think of someone with a terrible flu and mutliply that by 100%. For me, it lasted almost 2 months -- during which time I could not go to school.

I wish you luck, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it is not mono.

I had mono in HS. I didn't have it nearly as bad as Sadie's Mom. I was really tired & the back of my head was so heavy. I just slept a lot. I don't remember a sore throat but that wasn't too uncommon for me anyway.

I hope it isn't something bad.

If it is mono, you might want to read up on it on the net. It's highly contagious! So you don't want to be sharing his dishes.

http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/231/main.html

My dd had mono in 2nd grade. She was complaining about a sore throat. And she was SO tired. All she did was sleep. Poor kid would fall asleep after sleeping for 12 hours. The up side was that since she was so little, she was really bad for about 2 weeks, then it got better.

The one thing she missed was PE/recess for a whole month. And her dance teacher said it was ok if she missed the whole month too. With mono, one of the risks is an enlarged spleen, and it can burst really easily. She didn't like that very much. She was doing 1/2 days at school. She'd already missed a bunch of days at the beginning of the year b/c my dad had passed away, I wasn't real thrilled with the prospect of her missing much more.

As far as how she got it, beats me. But I have a feeling somebody at the lunch table had the virus in them. The kids share EVERYTHING, at lunchtime drinks, food, straws etc. I had a big talk with dd about sharing food at lunchtime, and that sharing drinks is NOT a good idea.

They will do a monospot to see if it's positive for mono. If not, the CBC will show whether or not his white blood cells have increased. Another possibility depending of if the white count is extremely high, they might take out a lymph node (biopsy) and see what's going on. At this point you just have to wait for the monospot and CBC and go from there.

Thanks for all the replies. From everything I read and what I have been told I don't think it is mono. He is not tired, still eats fine, and shows no pain. Hopefully the CBC shows whats going on.