About the first week of April, something I’ve been dreading while in college finally came into reality: I became sick. It started out simple. I got a small tickle in my throat on my way back from Spring Break. This small feeling turned into painful coughing all day and being a walking virus for about four to five days before I stopped being contagious (according to the internet). Those two weeks when it all took place were really rough. I had to learn to fend for myself because I did not have my parents taking care of me, and I actually had to move and make myself tea. Here are some tips and what I learned while I was sick.
Defend yourself immediately. As soon as you feel like something is going to strike you like a bus, start fighting it. For me, I drank a lot of water and started drinking medicinal tea. Theraflu was my best friend, and I drank it all the time if I remembered to. Also, DayQuil is a must!
Cough drops. Since I did not beat my cold on the first day, I turned to the thing that actually makes me stop coughing, or as an article I read once described it, “creating my own dubstep music.” I was popping cough drops into my mouth one after the other. It got to a point where I had so many I thought I was going to overdose on them. BTW, according to the internet, I would need about 6,800 cough drops to overdose. (Please do not try that at home, kids.)
It’s going to be disgusting. I don’t mean to be so TMI here, but being sick is gross. I was so congested, and I was a force to be reckoned with. My highlight moments were when I had to blow my nose and thought I blew so hard my head exploded. It was really gross, but I feel like it needs to be talked about.
Let yourself be sick. While I was sick, there were times when all my energy was going away so fast, and I just let it happen. I would try everything to maintain energy but nothing worked. I just sat in bed with water, cough drops and tissues at hand, praying for God to make it go away, but it took a while to get better. In addition to the madness, I had a big paper and test too, but through the power of DayQuil, I got through it.
You might still need your parents. Okay, I did all the heavy lifting, but I would occasionally text my dad for moral support and ask him tips and tricks because he fights off colds like a boss. I needed all the help I could get. Your parents are always there to help you no matter what, even if they are a little bit far away.