Everywhere I go around this point in the semester, I see sickness. Coughing, sneezing, blowing noses! Sleep-deprived college students dredging through classes with mandatory attendance policies. I myself have found that my body runs on a cycle of having one aggressive illness that puts me out of commission for a few weeks every semester.
We may ask ourselves why, but it makes sense when you think about it. College campuses are practically as full of ways to get sick as a kindergarten classroom. There are so many surfaces that can be contaminated with germs that we all have to touch—door handles, food order touch screens and more. Even your ID card is covered in germs—you pass it to everyone who takes your food order, you scan it to get into buildings and you even drop it on the floor.
Moreover, college campuses have people from all different areas of the state, and even the world, who all have their own germs. You system can get accustomed to the germs in your area of the world, but once we are exposed to people with other kinds of germs, it’s all over. My first year at college was a mess of sickness and getting used to a broader ecosystem of germs.
How can we avoid getting sick at school? Well, the immediate response might be to visit the college health center, but they are very limited in what they can do because of funding and resources. I’ve also heard many stories about people who were told they either weren’t sick or that their illness wasn’t as severe as it turned out to be.
So, how can we take our own precautions and avoid getting sick? Here are a few ways that I’ve compiled together. Keep in mind that I am not a medical professional and these suggestions cannot replace the advice of your doctor! This is just what I’ve found that helps me and the people around me.
- Wash Your Dang Hands!
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It seems like something that shouldn’t be said, but alas: Wash. Your. Hands. Please, dear god, wash them! The amount of times I’ve been in the bathroom and heard people walk right out without washing their hands makes me want to cry. Or even when you’re blowing your nose, you should use hand sanitizer at the very least. Don’t forget that with increased hand washing comes dryer skin! Carry around hand lotion with you in your backpack to make sure you don’t dry out your hands so much that you start to crack.
- Get Yourself some Over the Counter Medicine!
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Over-the-counter medications and vitamins have helped me out so much during illness seasons. I stand by using allergy medications (antihistamines) to stave off the common cold. I’m not sure if it’s a legitimate medical thing, but I got it from my mother and it works for me, so I’ll never go back. Decongestants are also a life saver if you often get very congested. It helps to clear out your nose and maybe get you to be able to breathe out of both nostrils again. Vitamin C will help with sore throats, but if you take too much it won’t help more than if you take the recommended dosage. And finally, my secret weapon: robitussin. It’s a cough medicine in the form of a pill, instead of disgusting liquid cough medicine, and it doesn’t taste horrible like Mucinex. I take two pills every half a day and it makes all the difference. Cough drops won’t work like legit cough medicine will.
- Carry Around Tissues (I’m Serious!)
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It’s not a cute look when your nose is running during a lecture that has a strict “don’t leave” policy and you resort to wiping your nose on your sleeve. In lectures that you can get up during, toilet paper is so rough on your poor nose that it gets irritated and hurts for weeks—especially with the cheap one-ply stuff that colleges buy for their bathrooms. The solution? Carry tissues around in your bag! During most of the semester, I have a pack or two of travel tissues, but when my congestion gets bad, I have started to carry around an entire box in my bag to all of my classes. Do I look ridiculous? Probably. Am I wiping my nose on my sleeve? No. Have no shame and walk around with all of your tissues like a champ.
- Minimize Contact to Other People’s Germs
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This includes not sharing utensils, straws and food, among other things. However, this also includes limiting intimacy and kissing, especially if you know your partner may be sick. Beyond transferring regular germs, kissing can also spread mononucleosis. Mono can appear to be a bad cold for the first few days, but will knock you out for a few weeks and get you behind in everything. General rule of thumb: don’t swap spit with people if they seem under the weather.
- If You’re Sick, Don’t Go to Class!
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Or work. Or club meetings. You don’t want to be the person that gets everyone else sick because you’re a workaholic and missing class strikes more fear in you than the devil. You will be the target of all the teasing and jokes for the next few weeks because you had to come into work with that nasty cough. For milder sickness, like the common cold, take precautions to avoid spreading sickness when you do go places.
Stay healthy out there, folks!