A sip of a smoothie ended in a debilitating illness for one 21-year-old who is now unable to leave the house because she is in such excruciating pain. 'Prior to all this happening I was living a normal life,' Mia Ristaino explained in a TikTok. According to Mia, her symptoms started after she shared a smoothie with a friend when she was a freshman in college. 'I didn't have the best immune system but I was normal, everything was fine,' she shared.

However, in February 2023, Mia recalled waking up with the 'worst headache of my entire life.'. 'I had had migraines before, but I was like "this is something else, something is seriously wrong,"' she recalled. 'Since that day, there has not been a second that has gone by that I have not had that same migraine headache,' she continued. 'Its been 696 days.'. Mia said she spent six months going to doctors, specialists and neurologists to get MRIs, CT scans, and trying 'every treatment imaginable.'.

A sip of a smoothie ended in a debilitating illness for 21-year-old Mia Ristaino who is now unable to leave the house because she is in such excruciating pain. 'Some of the treatments I tried were so strong that they put me to sleep, some of them made me hallucinate, one of them made me think that I could not speak English,' she listed. After trying invasive treatments that ultimately failed, she was diagnosed with New Daily Persistent Headache Disorder, or NDPH.

'Basically just means I gave a chronic, debilitating migraine that never goes away and it's a chronic illness/autoimmune disorder,' she explained. Around the same time she was diagnosed, one of Mia's doctors suggested they test for mononucleosis and Epstein-Barr, both which came back positive. 'How this all connects is I got mono, and from mono I got Epstein-Barr,' she explained. Mia described her symptoms as 'not just a headache,' but a 'debilitating migraine.'.

'[It's] excruciatingly painful, and it comes with a whole other list of things,' she added. Mia listed her symptoms, which included constant migraine, blurry vision, ringing in ears, decreased hearing, TMJ, facial pressure, swollen lymph nodes, neck pain, numbness in her face, head and ears, numbness and tingling in her arms, hands, legs and feet, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and full body soreness. According to Mia, her symptoms started after she shared a smoothie with a friend when she was a freshman in college (stock image).

'It pretty much makes you unable to live life,' she somberly continued. 'There's been times where it's been better and times where it's been worse, but currently, I'm 21 years old and I'm barley able to leave my house because the amount of pain I'm in is just bizarre and it affects my entire body so I can't even drive,' she lamented. 'Although I look fine I'm in excruciating pain all of the time, I have not found a treatment that works for me so just don't share your drinks,' she urged.

According to the Center of Disease Control, the Epstein-Barr Virus is one of the most common human viruses in the world and spreads through bodily fluids, primarily saliva. Typical symptoms of infectious mononucleosis usually appear four to six weeks after you get infected with EBV. Symptoms may develop slowly and may not all occur at the same time. The virus spread most commonly through bodily fluids, especially saliva.