Getting sick in college

<p>E-
Can your boyfriend be tested for mono, strep, and whatever else you are being tested for? He could be asymptomatic and just unknowingly passing stuff to you.
I know it is boring and stressful to be ill. I have a chronic illness. One thing I've had to learn has been the discipline of keeping my life simple and not expanding what I'm doing just because I'm bored with being ill or just because I'm feeling a little better. For me, it leads to a relapse or not making progress in getting better. Get measurably better and THEN add extra things (a concert, more involvement online, etc.). Feeling a little better is deceptive. Use the extra energy for healing. If you are like me, it is sometimes hard to remember or understand the toll being low-level ill for extended times takes on one.
I don't see any mention of physical activity. It's not the time to take anything up. When you are better, you may find that regular exercise makes you feel better and helps prevent illness and feeling stressed out.
Good luck!</p>

<p>OP - it's been almost a week since we've heard from you... are you OK?</p>

<p>I'm an hour and a half away and would be happy to drive down and check on any suffering students.</p>

<p>Dearest E,</p>

<p>Please let us know how you are. I got asthma my freshman year at college and it overwhelmed the Health Center, though it did try mightily. However I did get through college and graduate school just fine, so try not be be afraid of long term consequences. Just work to feel better.</p>

<p>My D had to have an underload her first semester as well -- she was failing ancient Greek. The first year dean gave her this one time only offer, and she took it, and she is now a junior doing fine. She never had to repeat an underload, and she did catch up with her credits.</p>

<p>So don't worry. Just heal.</p>

<p>As annoying as parents are, it's hard to carry this load yourself. I'm glad they care.</p>

<p>As a side note: Agree with bethie -- nurse practioners in my experience spend more time listening. Not knocking doctors; a competent professional is just that no matter what the label.</p>

<p>E -- will PM as before if we do not hear from you soon.</p>

<p>Thanks for checking in. :) I did decide to drop anthropology and have been working on catching up in my other two courses. I still have a cough and runny nose and feel generally low-energy, but I'm not sleeping 12 to 16 hours a day anymore and don't feel quite as miserable. I do have some work to make up (the week or two when I was at my worst I'd get a full night's sleep, go to class, sleep all afternoon, wake up for dinner, and go right back to sleep; needless to say I didn't get much done), which is discouraging and a bit overwhelming, but my professors have been pretty understanding. I'm definitely looking forward to a fresh start next term, though. </p>

<p>I'm excited about the classes I've registered for, but I worry that my schedule is too heavy on the social sciences (but I love the social sciences!), so I don't know if I should change it (we have until the 15th to register). This is what I'm signed up for right now:</p>

<p>Economics 1: The Price System
Government 5: International Politics
Public Policy 5: Introduction to Public Policy</p>

<p>All of them look extremely interesting, but is it a terrible decision not to take anything outside of the social sciences? I'll probably take a geography class, statistics, and another art class in the spring.</p>

<p>... that had nothing to do with the topic of the thread, but I was wondering.</p>

<p>So glad you're feeling a bit better. I felt just as you describe when I had pneumonia. It took 3 courses of different antibiotics to knock it out.</p>

<p>The only input I have on your courses is that my son is currently taking 4 classes in 4 different departments that are all basically history classes. He finds that they overlap a bit and really reinforce each other. If your 3 have some overlap, it might be helpful--each illuminating the others.</p>

<p>It's not necessarily terrible, but are you setting yourself up for having to make up for it later on? i.e. are their distribution requirements you will have to cram in later? One thing I'd look at is the requirements for these courses - will they have exams and due papers at the same time? Are they all heavy reading courses? When I was in college I found it helpful to offset the heavy reading and writing classes by taking studio art classes where the homework never felt like homework, or language or math classes which required a little work every night, but no last minute cramming for tests or all-nighters writing papers. But I know the temptation, my son said he was setting up his schedule for next term and he wanted to take nothing but computer science classes except for the required freshman writing course. His adviser wasn't too thrilled.</p>

<p>E,</p>

<p>Don't worry about it. Your course load looks fine but it is going to be heavy on reading. I would suggest going to the SA guide to see what others have said about the course/professor so that you can get an idea of what you are in for. In addition, blitz the professor and ask for a recent syllabus. The great thing about college is that you are taking courses that you are interested in. </p>

<p>You will be suprised tht everything will work it self out and you will discover a major or minor that you had not considered when you started this journey. D told me about a week ago that she recently realized that she will have a double major and a minor completed by the time she graduates this may (not intentional, just worked out that way simply taking courses she enjoyed).</p>

<p>You know you have already knocked out the art requirement, and your freshman seminar will knock out a dist requirement (unless it is another soc course ;) )</p>

<p>econ- soc
govt5 -intl or soc
pbpl- soc</p>

<p>my only recommendation is that if you are looking to do a FSP or LSA next year, work toward knocking out those pre-recs.</p>

<p>Well, those classes sound like my hell, but you know yourself best. Since Dartmouth is on the quarter system, not the semester system, you'll have plenty of time to take other things in your last quarter, so I don't think it's an issue.</p>

<p>So so glad you're feeling better. Keep up the good work.</p>

<p>Ok, so I'll do the motherly nagging..... Just be careful, and take things slow, even though you feel better. People make the mistake of doing too much too soon, and end up getting sick all over again. (and wear a hat, and zip up your coat, and eat your vegetables, and....!!!) Glad you're feeling better!!!</p>

<p>These are the distribution requirements: one course in the arts (ART), one in Literature (LIT), one in Systems and Traditions of Thought, Meaning, and Value (TMV), one in International or Comparative Study (INT), two in Social Analysis (SOC), one in Quantitative and Deductive Sciences (QDS), two in the natural sciences (SCI/SLA), one in Technology or Applied Sciences (TAS/TLA).</p>

<p>My first year, hypothetically:</p>

<p>GOVT 7 (Love, Friendship, and Marriage) - TMV
SART 15 (Drawing I) - ART</p>

<p>ECON 1 (The Price System) - SOC
GOVT 5 (International Politics) - SOC or INT
PBPL 5 (Introduction to Public Policy) - SOC</p>

<p>GEOG 15 (Food and Power) - SOC or INT
GOVT 10 (Quantitative Political Analysis) - QDS
SART ? (Some Art Class) - ART</p>

<p>Requirements left to fulfill: LIT, SCI/SLA x2, TAS/TLA (four courses total)</p>

<p>Not too bad, I think, even if I'm a little heavy on the SOC.</p>

<p>astrophysicsmom: Could you email my son? He sat through the Williams-Amherst game yesterday in just a t-shirt until the forth quarter when he put on a sweat shirt. He has wonderful jackets (three of them!) that he refuses to wear. And vegetables? Haha.</p>

<p>Guilty as charged re: not wearing hats. However, I most certainly eat my vegetables (I'm vegan). :D</p>

<p>E: DS could be vegan and only eat spaghetti and tomato sauce. No problem. If you consider tomato sauce a vegetable, then he's in. He's told me that he hasn't had one dinner in the dining hall that didn't include pasta. He's very skinny, but I worry that he'll develop a wheat allergy! He does gravitate toward salads whenever he's home, says they're not good at school, and he eats string beans when provided. I bet that's it.</p>

<p>Cami,
Can you really take courses called: "Love, friendship, marriage, food and power"??</p>

<p>Gosh, those are all my favorite subjects.</p>

<p>Move over, I'm coming back to college wit'cha.</p>

<p>"Love, Friendship, and Marriage" is my freshman seminar. It's inexplicably listed in the Government department when it's actually a philosophy course... we've read Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, and Weil. I'm not particularly enjoying the course (I didn't get into my first-choice seminar) and am tempted to conclude that most philosophy is self-indulgent BS, but I will admit that I would never have picked up those authors on my own and that I'm probably a more interesting, critically-thinking person for it (though perhaps not in the ways my professor would like). I'm getting that well-rounded</a> liberal arts education, for sure. :D</p>

<p>On the other hand, the "Food and Power" class looks fantastic and I can't wait to take it.

[quote]
In a world glutted with food, why do millions still suffer chronic hunger? In an international community committed to free trade, why is food the most common source of trade wars and controversies? In a country where less than five percent of the population farms, why does the “farm lobby” remain so politically powerful? In societies where food has never been faster or more processed, why are organic and “slow” foods in such demand? These are among the questions this course will consider, drawing on the insights of both political economy and cultural analysis.

[/quote]

<3.</p>

<p>(And mythmom, I do find myself eating more pasta and marinara sauce here than I'd like to, although I try to maintain a relatively balanced diet. I miss cooking for myself!)</p>

<p>Cam,</p>

<p>Take Engs 3 sophomore summer to fulfill the TAS requirement. You will meet a lot of your classmates (as this class is very popular - there were over 300 students when my d took it. Lasky broke it down in to 2 section and would take the class to dinner in groups of 15 to get to know them). D says Lasky is phenomenal, the course was interesting and if she had the opportunity to take this class freshman year, she may have become an engineering major.</p>

<p>While you are on the food theme; she is taking a comparative lit class: From Hand to Mouth: Writing, Eating and the Construction of Gender </p>

<p>
[quote]
Our perceptions of food are often limited to familiarity with its preparation and consumption, but do we consider food as an extension of the self or as a marker of class, gender and sexuality? This course will look at food as an intersection of production, consumption and signification, and at how different cultural traditions regulate gender by infusing food with socially determined codes. Readings include Margaret Atwood, Isak Dinesen, Marguerite Duras, Laura Esquival, among others. Dist: SOC or INT; WCult: W. Reyes

[/quote]
</p>

<p>She said this is a really great class also.</p>

<p>I've been told that the intro drawing course is great for sophomore summer, too. Lots of non-artists take it, and it's very low pressure that summer since the students in it aren't big artists. My sister regrets not taking it then because she's nervous to take it during the year when students who can draw already take it.</p>