When a doctor uses the word "interesting" . . .

The physician's assistant (my new doctor) that I saw last week called today. Last week I saw him for the first time. He referred me to the sleep clinic and the fibromyalgia clinic, and gave me prescpriptions for a muscle relaxant and some sleep medication to try (not at the same time) to see if they help.

He also talked with me about the fibromyalgia research studies I've been invited to participate in over at Excellent Teaching and Research Hospital. I think we've pretty much decided to wait on taking part in something like a study for now, until we've tried some other things first.

And, he had the lab take blood to run a bunch of tests again.

Today he called and said, "Most of your test results were normal. But a couple of them were very interesting."

I always hold my breath when a doctor says something like that.

#################################

First, he said, my Vitamin D levels were low. Very low, actually. Normal is in the range of 30-150, with 30 considered low. Mine was 11.

Secondly, my monospot test was positive. Again. Even though it's been more than 7 months since the first monospot test was positive. This particular test does not detect previous or even chronic but currently dormant mono infections; it only detects a current active infection.

Since I'm pretty sure I came down with mono at least a month or two before I was diagnosed, this means I've either had an active mono infection for about 9 months, or I'm having multiple recurrent infections. Either one would be very rare and unusual.

Either way, it's not good.

My doctor was rather stymied. He said he really didn't know what to make of it. It's extremely rare for a second monospot test to be positive that long after a first was positive. But my doctor said that he has a good friend who is an infectious disease specialist. He's going to consult with her about my case.

From what I've been reading, passing the 6-month mark is a criteria for diagnosing Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus (CAEBV). To be considered a Severe Chronic Active EBV infection (SCAEBV), it has to be found at a certain level in your tissues.

I'm assumming they'll be doing more tests to try to figure out whether this is what it is or not, the severity of it, etc.

One thing is for sure: I found out pretty quickly tonight that googling CAEBV or SCAEBV is not something I want to be doing right now. I keep coming up with results that start with sentences like, "Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection (CAEBV) is a rare disease in which previously healthy persons develop severe, life-threatening illness . . . "

Let's not go there.

Since all my other tests were normal, I'm thinking it's highly unlikely that it's the severe chronic form of the illness, even if I do have the chronic form.

The thing I'm most concerned about at the moment is that, either way, I'm most likely contagious. It's quite possible at this point that I'll be either intermittently or consistently contagious for the rest of my life.

Mono or EBV isn't something that most healthy people need to worry about. 90% of cases are asymptomatic. Almost everyone has had it by the time they're teenagers, and most people get it so mildly they never knew they had it. For most people, once they've had it as a child they are immune and will never get it again. It's generally very mild in young children. And it's not highly transmissible, although it is possible to get it by casual contact with an infected person.

It's really only immune-compromised people that need to worry about exposure. But I hang out with quite a few immune-compromised people. Including my mother, a good friend, my sisters and my father-in-law.

So I'll be asking a lot of questions about that.

Meanwhile, I'm singing this song (silently, because my sore throat and swollen glands won't allow singing at the moment):

My peace I give unto you
It's a peace that the world cannot give
It's a peace that the world cannot understand
Peace to know
Peace to live
My peace I give unto you.

It's a paraphrase of John 14:27, where Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."