My mono experience in college was crazy. When I first got sick (didn’t know what it was) I was deathly ill and thus allowed to skip 3 swim practices. Then I spent 2 weeks dragging myself through classes, an internship, and practice/swim meets including exercises which could’ve easily ruptured my spleen. Then I got diagnosed and was allowed to miss an additional week of swim practice (yay!). That week was the week of the 2016 election (lol) and I binged the Crown during it (lol). I do not recommend this course of treatment!!
omg this is so scary I am glad you're okay... a few people I talked to had really fucked up spleens/livers (thankfully no rupturing but some mild jaundice in peers is freaky as is!). I binged S1 of the Crown at some point, maybe non-illness related, and never went back. IDGAF about those people and Josh O'Connor can't trick me into caring!!! I hope to be well enough to hang outside with you soon...
Fran it is THE time to get into Eldin ring because now that I beat "crab souls" I am about to get back into it!!! Also I definitely recommend "crab souls" as a more accessible genre entry point and it will definitely get you *hooked* (fish joke)
I got mono at 29! I will say… it had a really long tail for me. I was severely ill for maybe a month but the fatigue really lingered for well over a year. So don’t get impatient with yourself if that happens.
I won't 😩 learning a lot about hubris already from this whole thing... I seem to be rounding the corner of the actual discomfort of the strep-like symptoms (though my infection is definitely lingering) and otherwise trying to adjust expectations for the next little while. Good thing I have so much backlogged to read...
not to live-comment your essay back to you, but my mom was also the first person who upon describing my symptoms went, "I think you might have mono, actually..." though my experience with it didn't really line up with hers from college or my brother's (who I think will not object to me sharing his story about sitting down in a comfy chair after a class and then waking up the next morning, still in clothes from the day before). The doc at the ER initially was like, "there's no way, you're too old" and even when the on-staff tech called the next day to confirm diagnosis and steroid treatment, she said, "Just confirming your age of... uh... 13?" and I had to be like uh, lol... close...
Feel better Fran Magazine! When I had covid a few years ago and was sick in bed for a week, I got into Love Island because it has 100,000 episodes…something to consider. Most recent time I was sick I put on Drive to Survive, something I never would’ve picked while well but actually it kinda slayed
the first time i had covid, roughly 13 months ago, i was soooo tired and i had just accidentally left my macbook at the philadelphia international airport and i set up my new laptop with like a 104 fever while watching let them all talk and crying
i had seen the film before, but over the next week i watched for the first time the american friend and fedora, both of which were transcendent experiences
Get well soon! I came down with a fairly mild case of mono at the end of winter quarter my senior year of college that 1) still had me sleeping 16 hours a day and 2) forced me to drop the 3-credit class that was the only thing standing between me and an English minor. I was so bitchy about it that by the time the end of the quarter/spring break rolled around, one of my housemates and her family kidnapped me for a few days to go to the Oregon coast so I would stop griping at the one housemate I was always at loggerheads with. Still passed all my classes, but the only other “productive” thing I managed to do while I was sick was read the entire fourth book in the Eragon series on my phone. Deranged behavior, I know. Cannon Beach is still beautiful even when it’s cold and you’re too sick to function.
Phil has been reading the Neapolitan quartet and I am always envious of the way in which they go to the beach whenever one of them is vaguely ill... I wish rather than "take acetaminophen" the doctor just told me to go to the beach (but alas I also have to work thru this). I'm relieved to hear you had a relatively mild case and I hope the same for myself in the long run!!!! I also fell one credit short on a double major due to extenuating circumstances and I feel a lingering bitchiness about it as well.
never have i related to anything more than the need when something is off with my health to get every single person i know to weigh in on whether i am overplaying it or the thing in question isn’t normal — hope you have a speedy recovery !
speaking on watching movies while sick, one of my favorite Marty Moments is him talking about being sick and watching Leave Her to Heaven on TV https://youtu.be/ATfhKmkM-rE?si=jzktjFiTFcHbwFIJ
omg love this is iconic Marty Moment... reminds me a little of his whole thing about watching Joanna Hogg films late one night after shooting, idk, Hugo maybe? and turning it off after 10 min and then going back to it the next day being like, "wait I can't stop thinking about this." A lot of his non-perfect viewing experiences wind up being some of his most influential!!!
I started!!!! I am playing as a Confessor and otherwise stumbling around Limgrave getting my ass beat. I have no idea what any object is and I am trying to watch some guides but otherwise content to wander aimlessly <3 I tried to fight Margit the Fell Omen and that went so bad.
omg!!! i am also doing my first official play through (i watched my partner play just so many hours so im super familiar with the game but had never actually played myself). you’re gonna kick margit’s ass and it’s gonna feel so good (fun fact there is a subsection of elden ring fandom on tumblr that is just So Horny for margit). in our elden ring era fr
I'm really lol... there are a lot of hotties in Elden Ring I look forward to getting to the character I know of as "grad school boss" (Rennala)
I watched my roommate play so much at time of release - I should have played then (and tried to...) because I think I would have had a greater understanding of the general systems and how to use stones and whatever else. I'd tried playing Dark Souls 1 at the time which was too tough though not unenjoyable. The combat is def easier for me in Elden Ring tho.
i too belong at the feet of my beloved font of knowledge and motherhood (i have a lot of intense feelings about rennala in that game she is so important to me😭)
rennala my beloved you don’t deserve what they did to u…super excited to follow ur journey, i played hades bc of you talking about it so this is a delight for me. fran’s video game newsletter in my heart
i hope and pray you have the speediest recovery and feel like your remarkable self, sooner than soon!!! if you end up consuming most of Lynch's catalogue, would you recommend his movies + Twin Peaks as a certified Save for When You're Sick Watch? I tend to love horror in the arch & goofy vein, and am much more terrified and unnerved by media where the evil is the fact that Something's Slightly Off, so I wonder if his work may not be for me in general!!
thank you so much!!! I am really not sure yet re: Lynch... I don't know that being sick is enhancing his work in any way beyond just squishing together the time between my watching. really, you should just seek out if you're interested!!
fran i'm so sorry to hear this and i hope you are soon firmly in a steady mode of recovery. personally, i think you should fill the Lynch blind spot. when I was near death (exaggeration but...not *that* much) with COVID a few years ago I oscillated between filling some Jarmusch blind spots and taking melatonin to try to just sleep for 24 straight hours.
I got mono when I was in fifth grade and was sick with "strep throat" (what they kept telling me) for Six Months before someone said.. okay maybe not?? and diagnosed me with said kissing disease. Honestly a miracle that my baby spleen did not burst! Everyone in my grade thought of me as a little whore and my mother thought I got it from putting my whole mouth on a drinking fountain (I did NOT do this). The cool part was getting to watch The Price is Right with Bob Barker and eat loaded baked potatoes every day - the only two things that sounded good to me. No idea how I got those bacon bits down my swollen throat! Your crunchy phase is right around the corner! xoxoxo
Oh FRAN! I’m so sorry. Do you think your body just crashed once you finally made it to your residency? (This happens to me with vacation and holidays.)
I struggle to find soothing media to watch when I’m sick. I was sick all last summer (cold…into sinus infection…got antibiotics that then caused other problems…you get it) then in September I got covid. I realized that almost all the media on my list is not soothing! Studio Ghibli is a blind spot for me so I watched Ponyo and mostly paid attention. I wish you luck with Lynch. I also laughed quite a bit during this interview even though you’re suffering.
you know - I had that similar thought, I was always getting sick immediately in June once school was out when I was a kid, and a lot of friends joked that me escaping the smog and trash of New York actually made my immune system collapse, like I need the garbage to survive!!! but I do think given the infection window I was probably sick way before I left :( so it all remains a total mystery. I would love to know how this happened though...
I did a ton of Ghibli during the pandemic with my then-roommate <3 truly so special
FCL an unmitigated success!! the people want more!!!
THIS
My mono experience in college was crazy. When I first got sick (didn’t know what it was) I was deathly ill and thus allowed to skip 3 swim practices. Then I spent 2 weeks dragging myself through classes, an internship, and practice/swim meets including exercises which could’ve easily ruptured my spleen. Then I got diagnosed and was allowed to miss an additional week of swim practice (yay!). That week was the week of the 2016 election (lol) and I binged the Crown during it (lol). I do not recommend this course of treatment!!
omg this is so scary I am glad you're okay... a few people I talked to had really fucked up spleens/livers (thankfully no rupturing but some mild jaundice in peers is freaky as is!). I binged S1 of the Crown at some point, maybe non-illness related, and never went back. IDGAF about those people and Josh O'Connor can't trick me into caring!!! I hope to be well enough to hang outside with you soon...
Wait same I binged the first season during my allotted mono week and never watched any more, although Gillian Anderson did briefly tempt me…
Fran it is THE time to get into Eldin ring because now that I beat "crab souls" I am about to get back into it!!! Also I definitely recommend "crab souls" as a more accessible genre entry point and it will definitely get you *hooked* (fish joke)
I started!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sucking!!!!!! What do any of the stones do I'm losing my mind
no one can help you sadly that's kinda how it goes
I got mono at 29! I will say… it had a really long tail for me. I was severely ill for maybe a month but the fatigue really lingered for well over a year. So don’t get impatient with yourself if that happens.
I won't 😩 learning a lot about hubris already from this whole thing... I seem to be rounding the corner of the actual discomfort of the strep-like symptoms (though my infection is definitely lingering) and otherwise trying to adjust expectations for the next little while. Good thing I have so much backlogged to read...
also I watched Crimson Peak and Phantom Thread IIRC
two great films
I wrote an essay about it at the time which I think holds up all right https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/animals-and-us/articles/the-ills-that-flesh-is-heir-to
not to live-comment your essay back to you, but my mom was also the first person who upon describing my symptoms went, "I think you might have mono, actually..." though my experience with it didn't really line up with hers from college or my brother's (who I think will not object to me sharing his story about sitting down in a comfy chair after a class and then waking up the next morning, still in clothes from the day before). The doc at the ER initially was like, "there's no way, you're too old" and even when the on-staff tech called the next day to confirm diagnosis and steroid treatment, she said, "Just confirming your age of... uh... 13?" and I had to be like uh, lol... close...
moms… how do they know…
Feel better Fran Magazine! When I had covid a few years ago and was sick in bed for a week, I got into Love Island because it has 100,000 episodes…something to consider. Most recent time I was sick I put on Drive to Survive, something I never would’ve picked while well but actually it kinda slayed
I've been too scared to step foot into the Love Island world but I do love muttering "a hot new bombshell has entered the villa." and thank you!!!
the first time i had covid, roughly 13 months ago, i was soooo tired and i had just accidentally left my macbook at the philadelphia international airport and i set up my new laptop with like a 104 fever while watching let them all talk and crying
i had seen the film before, but over the next week i watched for the first time the american friend and fedora, both of which were transcendent experiences
never had mono - i don’t kiss
i love let them all talk
let them all yap
Get well soon! I came down with a fairly mild case of mono at the end of winter quarter my senior year of college that 1) still had me sleeping 16 hours a day and 2) forced me to drop the 3-credit class that was the only thing standing between me and an English minor. I was so bitchy about it that by the time the end of the quarter/spring break rolled around, one of my housemates and her family kidnapped me for a few days to go to the Oregon coast so I would stop griping at the one housemate I was always at loggerheads with. Still passed all my classes, but the only other “productive” thing I managed to do while I was sick was read the entire fourth book in the Eragon series on my phone. Deranged behavior, I know. Cannon Beach is still beautiful even when it’s cold and you’re too sick to function.
Phil has been reading the Neapolitan quartet and I am always envious of the way in which they go to the beach whenever one of them is vaguely ill... I wish rather than "take acetaminophen" the doctor just told me to go to the beach (but alas I also have to work thru this). I'm relieved to hear you had a relatively mild case and I hope the same for myself in the long run!!!! I also fell one credit short on a double major due to extenuating circumstances and I feel a lingering bitchiness about it as well.
never have i related to anything more than the need when something is off with my health to get every single person i know to weigh in on whether i am overplaying it or the thing in question isn’t normal — hope you have a speedy recovery !
communal opinion from non doctor friends >>>> reading WebMD
and thank you!!!
speaking on watching movies while sick, one of my favorite Marty Moments is him talking about being sick and watching Leave Her to Heaven on TV https://youtu.be/ATfhKmkM-rE?si=jzktjFiTFcHbwFIJ
omg love this is iconic Marty Moment... reminds me a little of his whole thing about watching Joanna Hogg films late one night after shooting, idk, Hugo maybe? and turning it off after 10 min and then going back to it the next day being like, "wait I can't stop thinking about this." A lot of his non-perfect viewing experiences wind up being some of his most influential!!!
feel better fran, this made me laugh a lot!
yay :) thank you!
fran please play elden ring i would love to read your feelings about it < 3
I started!!!! I am playing as a Confessor and otherwise stumbling around Limgrave getting my ass beat. I have no idea what any object is and I am trying to watch some guides but otherwise content to wander aimlessly <3 I tried to fight Margit the Fell Omen and that went so bad.
omg!!! i am also doing my first official play through (i watched my partner play just so many hours so im super familiar with the game but had never actually played myself). you’re gonna kick margit’s ass and it’s gonna feel so good (fun fact there is a subsection of elden ring fandom on tumblr that is just So Horny for margit). in our elden ring era fr
I'm really lol... there are a lot of hotties in Elden Ring I look forward to getting to the character I know of as "grad school boss" (Rennala)
I watched my roommate play so much at time of release - I should have played then (and tried to...) because I think I would have had a greater understanding of the general systems and how to use stones and whatever else. I'd tried playing Dark Souls 1 at the time which was too tough though not unenjoyable. The combat is def easier for me in Elden Ring tho.
when tristan and I were playing eldin for the first time we kept telling fran she was the "little culvers" that crawl around on rennala's floor
i too belong at the feet of my beloved font of knowledge and motherhood (i have a lot of intense feelings about rennala in that game she is so important to me😭)
rennala my beloved you don’t deserve what they did to u…super excited to follow ur journey, i played hades bc of you talking about it so this is a delight for me. fran’s video game newsletter in my heart
you gotta do Animal Well when you're done w Elden Ring as a palate cleanse
i hope and pray you have the speediest recovery and feel like your remarkable self, sooner than soon!!! if you end up consuming most of Lynch's catalogue, would you recommend his movies + Twin Peaks as a certified Save for When You're Sick Watch? I tend to love horror in the arch & goofy vein, and am much more terrified and unnerved by media where the evil is the fact that Something's Slightly Off, so I wonder if his work may not be for me in general!!
thank you so much!!! I am really not sure yet re: Lynch... I don't know that being sick is enhancing his work in any way beyond just squishing together the time between my watching. really, you should just seek out if you're interested!!
fran i'm so sorry to hear this and i hope you are soon firmly in a steady mode of recovery. personally, i think you should fill the Lynch blind spot. when I was near death (exaggeration but...not *that* much) with COVID a few years ago I oscillated between filling some Jarmusch blind spots and taking melatonin to try to just sleep for 24 straight hours.
also, i would like to see the lymph node.
filling in Jarmusch blind spots is like taking melatonin to me 😭
I got mono when I was in fifth grade and was sick with "strep throat" (what they kept telling me) for Six Months before someone said.. okay maybe not?? and diagnosed me with said kissing disease. Honestly a miracle that my baby spleen did not burst! Everyone in my grade thought of me as a little whore and my mother thought I got it from putting my whole mouth on a drinking fountain (I did NOT do this). The cool part was getting to watch The Price is Right with Bob Barker and eat loaded baked potatoes every day - the only two things that sounded good to me. No idea how I got those bacon bits down my swollen throat! Your crunchy phase is right around the corner! xoxoxo
not the whole mouth on the drinking fountain 😭 one of my fav ever parks and rec jokes
I am also so glad your little spleen did not burst omg!!!
Oh nooooo Fran I'm so so sorry what the hell!!!!
life can be truly random...
Oh FRAN! I’m so sorry. Do you think your body just crashed once you finally made it to your residency? (This happens to me with vacation and holidays.)
I struggle to find soothing media to watch when I’m sick. I was sick all last summer (cold…into sinus infection…got antibiotics that then caused other problems…you get it) then in September I got covid. I realized that almost all the media on my list is not soothing! Studio Ghibli is a blind spot for me so I watched Ponyo and mostly paid attention. I wish you luck with Lynch. I also laughed quite a bit during this interview even though you’re suffering.
you know - I had that similar thought, I was always getting sick immediately in June once school was out when I was a kid, and a lot of friends joked that me escaping the smog and trash of New York actually made my immune system collapse, like I need the garbage to survive!!! but I do think given the infection window I was probably sick way before I left :( so it all remains a total mystery. I would love to know how this happened though...
I did a ton of Ghibli during the pandemic with my then-roommate <3 truly so special