Tons of doctor’s appointments and early nights perfectly sum up my summer here at Penn State. The first week went pretty well health wise, but week two hit me like a truck. I woke up Monday morning sweating profusely, I had a fever and I was achy. While all of this was occurring, I was trying to figure out which places accepted my insurance, but I just ended up taking some Tylenol and I would wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt every night to sweat out my fever.
The fevers would go away for a little while and then come back usually a week later, but I just kept doing the same methods of treatment: drink tons of water, wear sweatpants and sweatshirts and take Tylenol. By the end of week three, I developed a significant cough. It was not one of those coughs that are relatively quiet, mine was incredibly loud, very disrupting, and occurred, what felt like, every two seconds. It honestly sounded like I smoked 20 packs of cigarettes every day of my life since I was born.
By this time, I was very weak, I was not eating, I would wake up for class, drink a bottle of water and take Tylenol, go to my classes, take a three hour nap immediately after, get my homework done, an go right back to bed. During week four, my cough had gotten worse and my throat was so sore I thought it was going to close at any second. This made going to bed fairly difficult because I would wake up in the middle of the night not being able to breathe.
My roommate found her Robitussin (but it was the liquid kind, so it was disgusting), so I started taking that, and it put a temporary band aid over the problem. I started to feel better, but it did not last very long. My grandparents came and visited me and ended up having to bring me to Urgent Care. We waited an hour; I was finally seen by the doctor and within five minutes I was told I just had to let whatever sickness I had run its course. I attempted to let my sickness fade away, but that time never came, I just kept feeling worse.
I went home for the weekend to see a doctor, and he said I had asthmatic bronchitis. So, he gave me a steroid that was supposed to obliterate my sickness. I knew from the first day taking the medicine that it was not going to work, but I kept taking the medicine in hopes of getting better. After five days my cough was still around, and my throat was sorer than before. My mom had to come pick me up after class on July 30, and take me to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor by my house. At my appointment my doctor told me I had tonsillitis, and he prescribed me two different medications to take. Interestingly, this is actually my fourth time this year having tonsillitis, so the chances of me getting them removed in the near future are quite high.
This experience of being sick and not having my parents around to take care of me was something very new and kind of scary. Usually when I would get sick my parents would make sure I was drinking enough liquids and eating soup, but I had to do that all on my own. I had to gage what I could do and what I should not do. When my friends would go out on weekends, I had to be responsible enough to stay in my dorm room and get to bed early. It was definitely difficult, but I am glad I experienced this so early because now I know how to handle being sick while I am away from home. It was also very helpful that I do not live terribly far from campus, so I was able to get home.
