Your guess is as good as mine. The mono virus incubates in our system for as long as 6-8 weeks before we start showing any symptoms. I’d like to think I wash my hands often. I don’t share food or drinks with other people, mainly because I enjoy eating and might be a lil selfish about that! I am suuuper careful not touch my mouth to water fountains. And during that time I was only kissing one person who was also only kissing me back. So if your uncle or classmate makes some dumb comment about how you’re a rabid makeout bandit and that’s why you got mono, they’re wrong (even if you are a rabid makeout bandit! Good for you!). I can report that for the two months before I fell ill, I was overcommitted, overextended, and operating at ~110% capacity, which must have compromised my immune system in some way.
I was put on a 10-day 2x daily regimen of penicillin pills for the strep. Take all of your medicine during this 10 day period. Even though swallowing is hard, the pills aren’t too tough to swallow. And guess what! After the last pill on the last day of my penicillin the white spots on my throat disappeared. After this, I was able to slowly resume eating normal food. I don’t know if this was just a coincidence, but if you’re wondering how long you will feel like death, for me, it was 10 days. My tonsils were still large for a while after that, but they weren’t inflamed.