Being sick in college doesn’t sound like a big deal superficially, but ultimately this could be your first health concern on your own. Keep reading to hear how to handle sickness in college and what you can do to be prepared!
- Stock Up on Sickness Supplies
You do not want to be lying miserably in bed weak and sick with the need to walk downtown to get medicine and tissues. Here is a list of things you should always have on hand in your room to prepare for sickness.- 2 Boxes of Tissues: One box untouched as backup, one being used
- Cough drops
- Medicine for your cold (DayQuil/NyQuil, Cold-eeze, Musinex, etc)
- Painkillers (Tylenol, Aleve, etc)
- Soup and Crackers!!! Lots of it (I go through about 5 cans or packets of soup when I’m sick)
- Decaffeinated Tea (I like lemon tea when I’m sick)
- Vitamins (vitamin C packets like Emergen-C, zinc, and multivitamins)
- A thermometer
- Cleaning supplies (disinfectant wipes/spray, paper towels, soap, hand sanitizer)
- Read the syllabus THEN email your professors
If you just email your professors that you are sick and ask what you need to do, you may get a snarky reply to look at the illness protocol in the syllabus. Every professor handles illness differently, so be on the lookout if you need to fill out any university forms to get your absence excused, attend office hours to catch up on missed in-class assignments, or just look over the class slides on your own time. Whatever you need to do for your class, muster up the energy to send an email saying you will be absent BEFORE class time. Many professors cut off in-class assignments once class starts, regardless of the excuse unless they know of your absence ahead of time.
- Schedule an Appointment with Student Health ASAP
Student health appointments are paid for by fees included in your tuition, so you might as well schedule one when you start to feel under the weather. Appointments fill up fast and are scheduled pretty far out, so get one as soon as you start to feel ill. You never know how bad your illness is going to get on day one, so it’s best to be prepared and cancel it later if you are feeling better.
