When a cold or flu is knocking on your door, sometimes heading to class is just out of the question. For Ian McClung, a sudden sickness had him trading books for a hospital bed.
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Hayden Crosby | rawr Delta Gamma sorority sisters make sure to constantly wash their hands, as it is easy for sickness to spread while living in such close quarters.
“It was pretty sudden,” said McClung, a University of Idaho sophomore. “I started feeling sick, it was like a migraine almost, fever — chills.”
The next day, he went to the UI Student Health Clinic. The medical professionals recognized his symptoms, and sent McClung to the hospital.
“I was hospitalized for like three and a half days,” McClung said.
McClung missed three weeks of class last year as he was treated for meningitis. He slept at home for the next two weeks, and spent the following six weeks catching up with his schoolwork.
“I ended up actually having to drop one (class),” McClung said. “And then played a lot of catch up. …with hard work, it was all right.”
The classes were mostly lecture halls and based on Blackboard with long-term assignments, he said.
“So I was pretty fortunate there,” McClung said. “If I was in my microbiology class right now, it’s just impossible.”
Staying healthy
Staying healthy can be hard with short nights, homework stress, an unhealthy diet and heavy drinking.
“It’s very easy to say ‘this is what a student should do to stay healthy,’ but in fact, the life of a student is pretty darn stressful,” said Mary Baker, a registered medical assistant at UI’s clinic. “Most of the people that we see here at the clinic are lacking some of these things. …They aren’t able, for one reason or another, to get enough sleep, to eat well, to fit in an exercise routine.”
Baker said students should try for at least six hours of sleep a night.
“The goal should be keeping up on your classes so you don’t have to pull an all-nighter,” Baker said. “When you don’t get enough sleep, often times, that’s when people get sick.”
Baker said sleep deprivation could lower performance in school and lower the student’s initiative to eat healthy and exercise.
“That’s a pretty big snowball,” she said.
Controlled substances
Smoking is a key contributor to getting ill, Baker said. And so is heavy drinking.
“Alcohol in moderation,” Baker said. “If you are partying too much, you’re not going to be sleeping well. A lot of kids come in and say ‘oh, I can’t sleep.’ And they want a pill to make them sleep.”
Joe Taylor, a registered nurse with the Student Health Clinic, said while alcohol will initially put the drinker to sleep, it does not allow the body to get the rest it needs.
“You’re going to be out of it the next day,” Taylor said.
Baker said students should avoid drinking completely if they are not well.
“Especially if you are on medication,” Baker said. “The medication is going to stand a much better chance of working faster and more thoroughly if you avoid alcohol.”
Hand washing
The university does not wipe down the desks between classes, Baker said.
“If you’ve had somebody sitting at the same desk, its kind of like going to the grocery store and pushing a cart around,” Baker said. “You have no idea what sick child has been sitting in that seat.”
She said students should also avoid touching their faces.
“Don’t rub your eyes, don’t put your hands on your face near your mouth, unless you’ve washed them,” Baker said. “I think that’s a really good way to get sick.”
Eating on the go with unwashed hands is another way students can infect themselves, Baker said.
When to stay home from class
Fever, coughing or sneezing uncontrollably, Baker said.
“You’re contaminating everyone around you,” she said. “Both of those things, typically, you can control with over-the-counter medications. You can take Tylenol, ibuprofen for fever, body aches.”
An antihistamine can control sneezing.
Taylor said rest and sleep is instrumental to recovery.
“I’d push water,” Taylor said. “Fluids.”
The body doesn’t function properly without enough water, he said.
Students should seek medical attention when a cough has drug on for two or more weeks, Baker said.
“Or if you’re not sleeping. If you can’t sleep, because of your sickness, you can’t get well,” she said.
Sometimes a roommate — tired of annoying symptoms — or a professor,will insist the sick student come in, she said.
When a student visits Student Health Services for an illness, the doctor will fill out a note stating that the student has been seen for “a medical condition,” and requests the instructor excuse the student from class for the day. If the illness will stretch several days, the note asks the instructor to “please accommodate as you are able.”
“We don’t expect to just wipe the slate clean,” Baker said. “Maybe help them whether they need to take a test on another day, but we’re just letting them know they have a legitimate reason for missing more than one class.”
Ellen Kittell, a professor in the history department, said she simply requires the student give some proof of illness — a note from Student Heath or a comparably reliable source.
“Then they have a right to not only get the material that is given out in class, by they also have the right to delay in turning in homework,” Kittell said. “They also have the right to come in and ask me what went on in class.”
Kittell said she tries to get information to students without infecting others, even if some are abusing the system.
“It’s very noble of someone to come to take a test when they’re dying of some sort of disease or have a migraine or are sick,” Kittell said. “But it doesn’t give me what I want, which is how much they know… If performance is impaired by illness, it is no reflection of what the student can or can’t do.”
Kittell said faculty and staff — at least in the history department — are most interested in student success and health.
“If you are sick and you’re not coming, just send us a note,” Kittell said. “It’s simple courtesy, and we all flower better under courtesy.”
Getting through
McClung said it took desire and drive to get through his classes after recovering from meningitis.
“I hung on, it wasn’t the best semester that I ever had, but I’m definitely glad that I didn’t withdraw because I feel like that would almost give me less of a drive just ‘cause I gave in already,” McClung said.
He said life is hard sometimes, so if you really want something you just have to get through it.
