So everyone says that when you get back to school, you’re bound to get sick. I’ve always thought I’ve had a pretty good immune system, maybe getting sick 2-3 times a year. When I came to college, though, I expected I would come down with something much more often. I swear, my freshman year roommate got sick every other weekend, or she was just never healthy. I caught a sinus infection and a pretty bad cold/cough that seemed to be never-ending. Other than those meager sicknesses, I would say that I had a pretty tough immune system. In high school, I had strep throat and mononucleosis but I had never been too ill to function on a regular basis. The most I had ever had symptoms wise was one to three days! That was, until last week. It is now my sophomore year, I live in my sorority house, and I was not prepared for this viral infection to hit me like a brick wall! I have had symptoms for over a week: fever, sore body, migraine, chills, vomiting. It was influenza times 100. It was rough. So this is what I learned while living in a sorority house being what seemed like my death bed.
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1. Not having ANY medicine WHATSOEVER. BIG, BIG mistake.
I don’t know why I didn’t expect to get sick when coming to college, all my roommates had EmergenC and Ibuprofen (can you believe I didn’t even have ibuprofen), cold medicine, vitamins, herbal oils, you name it. I had nothing?! With a nurse as a mother, you think she would have sent me prepared, but on the contrary. I was a fish out of water. The first two days I just stayed in bed and hoped that my fever would subside.
2. Your mom isn’t there to make you feel better.
Not a second went by that I didn’t wish I was at home with my parents. No, they didn’t baby me when I was sick, another benefit of having a nurse mother. She always told me to just suck it up, “if there’s no blood, you’re fine” was the motto. In college, you don’t even get that! You just sit on a huge, freezing sleeping porch, hoping that you’ll wake up feeling better.
3. Your professors DO NOT CARE HOW YOU FEEL.
I learned that one full force. Participation points, homework, in-class discussions, you miss it all. Not one of my professors gave me any sympathy, and it really hurt my feelings, to be honest. I had great friends who would help me in any way possible, getting me participation points and turning my homework in. I have come to realize, if you don’t show up to class, you’re not going to do well on the test. So that was a great fact that I just had to face because, to be honest, I was too sore to walk down the stairs, let alone 10 minutes to campus.
4. Your friends want to help you as much as possible but from as far away as possible.
This is understandable; no one wants to get sick I know that, but the loneliness that started to overcome me when everyone was in classes and I was just in bed was near unbearable. They would all be sleeping, and I would have to jump off the top bunk on porch, as quietly as possible, and go puke for three hours. Especially on the weekend when girls would come into the bathroom and ask if I needed something. “No, I’m not puking because I went and had a blast at the frats, I’m puking because someone decided it was my turn with the flu.” Another great thing about being sick is the fact that whenever ANYONE feels the least bit under the weather, they think it’s a good idea to tell you personally, regardless if the symptoms are even related to mine. No, I did not get you sick, and I hope you feel worse than how I’m feeling right now.
5. You just can’t do it. You have got to go home.
I spent six unbearable days with a fever, chills, and migraine to just give up to my sickness and go home. I drove the hour and half, pulled over twice to puke, all to sleep in my own bed, have all the medicine in the world, and have my parents at my beck and call. Currently, however, I am extremely hungry, and neither of them seem to be home. Ironic. Having the comfort of your animals, hot tub, and own queen size bed makes it worth missing three days of school and it is worth getting better sooner. If I have any advice about being sick in college, it is to get your butt home and actually rest.
