Can people have mono without knowing it?
And is chicken pox a possible trigger? It is a nasty virus...I had chicken pox when I was 29 and 4 wks. pregnant. It was a bad case...lots of pox and terrible pain.
MS is such a weird disease...

yeah, I think if it's a mild case of mono, you might think you just have a really bad cold or a flu of some sort.

But, when I had mono, there was no mistaking it for a cold. I was sick for weeks. Took me nearly a year to recover. I never did feel as good as I'd felt before then. I'm pretty sure all my problems started when I got mono.

Mild mono can be confused with the flu. Mine was severe and lasted months. I was out of work and slept 20 out of 24 hours. It took me a year to recover.

I have no idea how I got chicken pox but I gave them to my 2 year old son at the time. I was very sick....had sores all over my body including on my head. I thought Mono was bad.....it was nothing compared to having Chicken Pox as an adult.

I believe that these two illnesses set me up for MS later in my life. I've had MS sx dating all the way back to 1987 when I was pregnant with my 2nd child. My first disabling "attack" was in 2003. Second disabling attack in 2005. I was dx in 2005.

Those who've never had Mono or EBV illnesses but are dx with MS.....I wonder what triggered their disease?

I'm repeating myself here, but, I say it's the Herpes 6 (?) virus, who's the culprit... It is the cause of all those illnesses...EB. Mono, Chicken Pox, Shingles...etc...

I'll bet, if they find a way to do away with that virus, most of, not all of MS would be eradicated.

Mono, MS and Shingles for me. The trifecta!
Do I win anything? Oh yeah, progressive disability and atrophy of the brain and spinal cord.

I'm feeling lucky, maybe I'll play the lottery.

My PCP told me that "almost everybody" has a positive EBV. I'm going to do a little research on that.

From the CDC:

"Epstein-Barr virus, frequently referred to as EBV, is a member of the herpesvirus family and one of the most common human viruses. The virus occurs worldwide, and most people become infected with EBV sometime during their lives. In the United States, as many as 95% of adults between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected"

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/ebv.htm

Yep, that's true and I am not one of them but, I still have MS

Herpes 6 doesn't cause mono , chicken pox, or shingles. They are all different numbered herpes viruses (all related).

I find myself saying this often on the forum but I had a 9-10 month case of bad mono as an adult. I had my first MS symptom ever (optic neuritis) about 6 months later. I'm convinced the mono (Epstein barr) triggered the whole cascade.

I don't know whether or not I had mono, but the Epstein-Barr test results were astronomical when they drew blood. I am not surprised that this does show up in people with MS. One of the major triggers I get is a total meltdown where I can't do anything for days before I get enough energy again to be up and about.