“Who have you been kissing lately?” the doctor asked.

I haven’t eaten anything other than ice cream in two days. I have to use a spit cup because it hurts too much to swallow.

Mono is a common illness also known as the kissing disease that can leave you feeling tired and weak; however, tired and weak is quite the understatement in my case.

I was diagnosed with mono and strep throat. I got a steroid shot as well as antibiotics to subside my pain. That night I became sleep apnic. As soon as I fell asleep my throat would close up, causing me to stop breathing, and in result I would jolt awake.

The following morning, my mom took me to the ER. My severely dehydrated body was immediately hooked up to an IV and multiple pain killers. I was admitted to the hospital with my snazzy plastic bracelet and my IV pole that had to be dragged everywhere I went causing me to feel like a grandma with an oxygen tank.

They put me in a hospital gown that was covered in faded, pastel blue squares. It was the furthest thing from fashionable and it had me matching with the 87-year-old man in the room next door … Lucky me.

Little did I know I would have to spend the next 72 hours here. Over the course of those hours I spent the majority of them lying awake in pain. I had a fever and body aches and I was hungry but couldn’t eat and I swear it felt as if nothing else could go wrong.

My mom is a nurse practitioner so she was taking care of me for the most part, while the rest of my family and friends would come and go throughout the day.

Three days and three gallons of ice cream later, they let me go home. I am on four prescriptions to take in the coming weeks and sleeping in my own bed that night has never felt so good. I lay restlessly in bed for the next week as the thought of getting up is even too much to fathom.