How To Deal with Being Sick Away from Home (…when you have a low pain tolerance)
I’m sick. I hate being sick. I actually just hate pain, in general, which is why I refuse to eat any food that could cause me bodily harm (I see you, hot sauce). But I really do hate being sick. It’s like being a baby all over again: you sleep for twelve plus hours a day – I slept 20 last night – and you become dependent on other people. I had to phone a friend and bum some advil and water off her. Water. I had to ask her for WATER.
Basically, I’m a huge child with the pain tolerance of an ant and I hate being sick.
Even so, in the enormous college world that I now live in, I have had to learn how to fight for myself. Thankfully, I got better at it over time. If my life was a nature documentary, I would not be the first gazell to be eaten by the lion. Maybe the second. Definitely the third.
It’s hard out here for a collegiette.
My first instinct is always to cry. If I’m happy, I cry. If I’m sad, I cry. If I’m angry, I cry. And I especially cry when I’m sick. I think crying is good for the soul (not that I’m a pretty crier; classic red, puffy face right here), which confuses my poor significant other when I start crying for no apparent reason.
Last night at 11pm, wrapped up in three blankets like a burrito while crying (because why not) I called my mother: the mother who wakes up at 3am to work every morning (and because of her insomnia – diagnosed by yours truly). And yet, she still got up to talk to her sobbing daughter. Seriously, I have been blessed by the gods.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: Mommy, help me. I’m sick and lonely, and no one likes me, and I want soup, and, I can’t lie down because my head hurts too much, and I have a fever, and, there is probably a virus inside of me. Or a tapeworm. Oh god, Mom, I have a tapeworm and I am going to die. I AM GOING TO PERISH AT THIS GODFORSAKEN SCHOOL.
My mother’s eternal wisdom has always been to take some kind of pain medication and sleep when you’re sick. This advice has never failed me. It is also good advice for breakups and after chemistry exams. But you don’t need to remember those.
So that is what I did, I took some pain meds and slept for 20 hours.
Mother always knows best.
So here is my advice for when you’re sick but have a low pain tolerance. Ha! I bet you thought I was going to go on about finding ways to be independent and how to find resources for yourself. I bet you thought I was going to tell you to come up with a future plan so the next time you fall ill with tapeworms, swine flu, mad cow disease, or a cold (which, surprise, is what I had) you will be able to deal with it in an effective way.
But no, my advice is this: CALL YOUR MOM.