Photo by Sydney Wemple
You hit the snooze button one more time because you long for those 9 minutes before the alarm goes off again and then you hear it…a cough. With the constant change of the weather here in East Texas, allergies swarm all around and the next thing you know, you’re sick. But you can’t be sick, you live on your own whether it is a dorm, or an apartment and you have bills you need to pay, a paper due this week, and a party this weekend with your crush. You don’t have time to be sick, but your mom isn’t here to nurse you back to health like she used to. Having been sick myself this week and definitely missing my cozy bed back home, here is what I did to get over my cold and some tips to help you get over yours:
Go to the Health Clinic
If you are feeling so bad and you feel like nothing is helping, go visit the health clinic we have on campus possibly get a prescription needed to help you feel better. The nurses and nurse practitioners are here to help you get better.
Stop it before it gets worse
Whether it starts off as a runny nose or a scratchy throat, stop your cold in its tracts as soon as you feel unwell. If you forget about it and don’t attack it in the beginning, it will just become worse. The convenient store and the Barnes and Noble on campus have small packs of cold medicine like DayQuil and NyQuil to help stop the cold before it gets worse.
Be prepared
Keep plenty of water on you to stay hydrated, you never realize how much water you need until you’re sick. Take a break from the sugary sodas and get plenty of fluids like water or Gatorade and such. You will also need to make sure you eat. Maybe not McDonald’s or Domino’s but try to eat some of the soup at the dining halls or at least some toast or crackers to ease an unhappy stomach.
Buy some individual packs of tissues that your mom used to keep in her purse and keep them in your backpack. You don’t want to be sneezing all day in class and have to keep leaving class because you don’t have tissues.
Vaporub is an easy and cheap way for you to clear your sinuses. You either put it on your chest and jump in the shower, or you can put it on your feet, put on some socks and hop into bed. The menthol ointment helps clear up sinuses and helps you start feeling better.
Get some sleep
Getting as much rest as possible will help in the long run. That is what has helped me the most. I don’t get as much sleep as I probably should, so when I got sick it hit me even harder because my body was already so tired. Go to bed at a decent hour and maybe not stay up this week binge-watching the newest season of Stranger Things like I did.
These are a few tips that helped me, but everyone is different. Just do what you can, and your body will thank you later.