I was diagnosed with mono as a teenager. I don't remember if it was through a Monospot test or EBV bloodwork. I had very typical symptoms: crushing fatigue, fever, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, etc.
Fast forward to age 31 and I went to the doctor again with crushing fatigue and night sweats, but no fever, sore throat, or other typical symptoms. After the second visit I convinced her to test for mono, despite her telling me it was "extremely rare" to get mono again. EBV lab results showed I had a raging mono infection. Abdominal ultrasound showed a very enlarged spleen and liver. Lab results were as follows:
EBV VCA IgG >600 (reference range 0.00-17.9)
EBV VCA IgM >160 (reference range 0.00-35.9)
EBV Nuclear Antigen IgG 479 (reference range 0.00-17.9)
EBV VCA IgM >52.2 (reference range 0.00-35.9)
EBV Nuclear Antigen IgG <18 (reference range 0.00-17.9)
Doctor consults with another doctor in the practice and they don't quite know what to make of it. Is very wishy-washy and says it COULD be a new infection, or it COULD be that my numbers were so high two years ago that it's taking them a long time to go down. Is also puzzled at the lack of EBVNA antibodies, as they show as positive with 95% of confirmed previous EBV exposure. After doing some Googling, I see that EBV IgM should go back to negative within 3-6 months after an infection (or VERY rarely after a year)...mine still shows as positive 2 years later. I'm getting concerned about Chronic EBV. Seeing some very scary stuff about its prognosis, and the link to lymphomas and cancers. I have a preschooler and am currently 37 weeks pregnant and would like to stick around to see my kids grow up. Brought my concerns to my doctor and was told "we can't really tell if you have it, and even if you did there's nothing we can do to treat it. We'll test you again a few months after you give birth".
Can someone help decipher my results and what they could mean? Could it really take that long for my IgM to go down? Am I really just one of the 5% of the population that never develops positive ABVNA antibodies to EBV?