When I was 23 years old, I started running a fever and it didn’t go away for over a year. Thankfully, my physician was determined to figure out what was going on inside of me and referred me to many colleagues, including infectious disease specialists and immunologists. 

Sometimes, it felt like mononucleosis, which I’d had before, but it wasn’t. I also didn’t have lupus even though some of my symptoms were similar. Later, I pushed back against a diagnosis of fibromyalgia because I already knew too many women who ended up with that “catch-all” diagnosis. 

I wanted more information.