Man, your in for a bad couple of months! I had it end of 2002, didn't get out of bed for a couple of weeks, and my throat swelled up so bad i couldn't talk or eat for 3 days! The doc told me i had it bad, and it took me ages to get completey over it.... like half a year!
But having said that, a mate of mine had it and didn't even know, went to work as usual and went to the doc after a month of feeling like crap and she said he had had it for the past month and couldn't believe he didn't realise!! I guess it depends on the situation....