<p>I remember being surprised that my S, a normally extremely healthy kid, came down with pneumonia a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving break last year. Our doctor said that it was very common for freshmen to get sick in some way due to the irregularity of their schedules their first extended length of time away from their accustomed ruling parental guidance! He stressed regular sleep habits (whether from 10pm-7am or 2pm-10am, whatever goes for "regular" for the person's schedule), balanced meals, and frequent hand washing. This year away, the S has been fine, not even a cold.</p>
<p>My roommate moved from Korea to the US for college and got sick a lot first semester, with colds and sore throat, etc. At first her hair was shedding more than usual and she skipped her period for a while (she said, "I know I'm not pregnant!" hahaha), which she thought was odd but I suggested that maybe it was because of the transition. She said it also happened when she was an exchange student in Michigan during high school, so I think it's common to have adverse reactions to a new environment.</p>
<p>She got back to normal after a month or so, but then the season change sicknesses kicked in...poor thing!</p>
<p>Well, I'll think of this transition into a new environment as practice for studying abroad...I plan to study abroad in Japan my junior year, but after this I'm a little nervous about my immune system settling. I guess I'll have to pack a suitcase full of vitamins, haha.</p>
<p>Freshman son just called, he’s sick again and he’s getting a bit scared. His tonsils were flaring yesterday. He went to the Health Services Clinic and indeed it was strept throat. He said that the nurse who looked at his throat said that she had never seen anything like what his tonsils looked like. She called the doctor to come over and take a look. It seems as though son has bloody “holes” in his tonsils with a layer of white yuk over that. His temp was 97. They gave him Z-pack and but hinted that if the antibiotic doesn’t start to work by Friday, he should come back to the health center. She hinted that he could have mono with strept throat because of the severity of the throat infection. She gave him a note stating that he should not attend class for 24 hours (excuse note to give to professors). Son woke up today and said that his throat is worse. He said that he can’t even swallow his own saliva. This info is from his phone call to me about 40 min. ago. I told him to go back to the Health Center and tell them that his throat is worse and that he thinks he may need to go to the hospital emergency room. I also told him to tell them about the feeling he has that his throat is closing up and not getting enough air. He has a history of croup until the age of 10 (because of a slightly smaller than normal airway). He’s said that he was going to wait for a friend to get out of class so the friend can go to the Health Center with him (probably his girlfriend).</p>
<p>Anyway, husband and I are on hold wondering if we’re going to have to drive up there. It’s a 3 1/2 hr. drive which isn’t too bad. He’s been sick on and off since 1st semester but it’s only now that his voice sounds bad enough that we’re thinking about the possibility of actually driving to the college to check on him. </p>
<p>I’ll probably spend the next couple of hours close to the phone waiting to find out about his status. I’m thinking that the worst case scenario might be that he’ll have to go to the emergency room (hospital is just down the road from the college). If he ends up needing more than an IV drip of fluids and antibiotics, I guess we’ll hop in the car and drive up.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son, hopefully the Z-pack will kick in and he will feel better tomorrow! The only good news I have is that my S1 who almost never was ill in his life except a cold now and then, was very sick his freshman year living in the dorm. This year he hasn’t been sick one day. I think it takes awhile for the kids to acclimate to each others germs LOL.</p>
<p>update: health center took him off z-pack and started him on clindomycin (spelling?). They also gave him an oral steroid to reduce the swelling. They did a mono test on him and will get the results back by this evening. We’ll see how this works out and as of now, we won’t make the drive up.</p>
<p>momofthreeboys: same here. Son has been very healthy up until this freshman year in college. For the first 18 years of his life, he only needed antibiotics maybe 3 times.</p>
<p>It happened to my D1 in January. Her tonsil was so swollen they were afraid it would block the airway. After they started her on almost double dose of antibiotic, it didn’t start to go down until 3 days later. Her fever did go down 24 hours after she started on the antibiotic. If the swelling didn’t go down they were going to drain it. Funny thing was it started to feel better as she was waiting to go into the “surgery.” We did bring her her home for a week because she wasn’t able to get out of the bed for food or water. Good luck with your son - if he could afford it, maybe you could bring him home.</p>
<p>Good news tonight. The mono test came back negative so it seems to be a very bad strept infection. He’ll continue with the antibiotics and steroids and we will hope for the best.</p>
<p>Good luck to all, I appreciated your hints. On admit day, I am going to walk over to Student Health or whatever they call – so I am certain D knows where it is.</p>
<p>kayf–that’s a very good idea and pay close attention to their office hours. Older son’s Health Service is only open Mon-Fri until 4:30. Younger son’s Health Service is open 7 days a week and until 9:30 pm. Both colleges are within 1 mile of a hospital so if necessary, they can easily get to an emergency room.</p>
<p>another update: The Health Services at son’s school has been wonderful. His tonsils are a complete mess and they’ve been keeping a close eye on him since yesterday. They checked him out again this morning, gave him vicatin because the pain in his throat is bad. The health service doctor called us to let us know how things were going and their plan of action.</p>
<p>The doctor called us about 20 minutes ago to say that son was back in the Health Center because started spitting blood. She said that the right tonsil is very raw and is oozing. She used a topical solution on it to try to stop the oozing (not gushing). The doctor said that she isn’t comfortable with releasing him and said that she is going to bring him over to the hospital emergency room to be looked at by their doctors and hopefully a throat specialist. I was impressed–she’s not sending him there. She is bringing him there and will stay with him (his girlfriend is also going for moral support). He didn’t sound worried (maybe because of the vicatin :)) and I can always tell when he’s upset. The college doctor said that she will call us as soon as she gets an update. In the meantime, we are on standby to make the trip up if needed. The college doctor felt that they may want to either cauterize the area or use a stronger topical solution on the tonsils. </p>
<p>For parents out there, this is a good time to be reminded that it is a very good idea to check out the Health Services of possible colleges. In addition, this is another reason why distance from the college to your home should be a consideration. If we have to, we can make the drive up to son’s school in 3 1/2 hours–very reasonable.</p>
<p>Best wishes for a speedy recovery for you son. How fortunate that you are so close. You are sounding very calm yourself, are you sure you didn’t take some vicatin? :)</p>
<p>Nysmile - you do indeed sound incredibly calm… best wishes to your son for a speedy recovery to full health.</p>
<p>I am unusually calm–I think it’s because the college doctor is actually accompanying son to the hospital. She will fill the hospital in on what’s been going on. She has all of his records which includes his medical insurance info and will bring the info with them. She also clearly explained the situation to me. She also started the conversation by saying–“Mom to mom, I don’t feel comfortable releasing him from the health center not knowing what the night time hours will bring. I would feel better if he went over to the ER and some other doctors and maybe a specialist take a look.” Also, son didn’t sound distressed. </p>
<p>Husband is home from work and he keeps telling me we should let son handle this because it’s a very good life lesson. If there is a change in the situation, we will not hesitate to jump in the car and head up there. For now, we’re sitting by the phone.</p>
<p>My H was also very calm when my D1 was sick. I got off the phone with her, put on my snow boots and took off. When I got her back in her bed at home, I felt a lot better. I got up a few times at night to feel her breath - old habit of mine.</p>
<p>Your son sound like he is in very hand. In my daughter’s case, there was no one there take care of her and her school doctor didn’t make me feel comfortable.</p>
<p>Well, son called. Hospital discharged him. The ER doctor and a specialist took a look in his throat and according to son, “They didn’t do anything”. According to him, the hospital doctor said that the bleeding looked worse than it is because it’s mixed with saliva and it makes the amount of blood seem more than it really is. Huh? I’d like to know what the criteria is for “not a lot of blood”. Son and school doctor witnessed quite of bit of bleeding but it had slowed down by the time the hospital doctor looked in his throat. </p>
<p>It seems as though the Doctor at the school is more concerned than the doctor at the hospital. I told son to go back to the hospital if the tonsils start bleeding again during the night. </p>
<p>We’ll keep our phones close by. We have people on standby to watch our dog and cover for husband at our store if we need to leave in a hurry.</p>
<p>Hmm… Get him some vitamin C. Whenever i had strep, that helped me.</p>
<p>Dreaded mono! S1 never missed a day of school due to illness. Not one. He breezed through freshan year of college with just a cold or two. This past fall mono caught up with him and ever since it’s been one thing after another. Continual lingering colds, bronchitis, tonsilitis, strep. I think it might have something to do with never getting the proper rest and taking care of himself when he had mono. He insisted it was a mild case, and seemed annoyed that it was even diagnosed. Take good care of yourself, try to avoid germy habits, and definitely get enough rest.</p>
<p>NYSmile- thank goodness your son is in such good hands with his school doctor. Hope he’ll be well soon.</p>
<p>Good news–son feels better today. The pain medication was of great help because his throat was so sore and raw that he couldn’t even swallow his own saliva (I know-gross). He spit up a little blood this morning but nothing like what happened yesterday. Supposedly, his surface of his right tonsil was so raw that he may have broken a blood vessel.
The college Health Services wants him to come in on Sunday so they can check on his progress. I’m very impressed with how they are handling him. </p>
<p>The combination of double strength antibiotics, steroid, and pain medication seems to be working. The health services doctor said that she may repeat the mono test in a week (to definitely rule it out) because she has seen about 10 kids test positive in the past couple of weeks.</p>
<p>PS–The Health Services doctor filled out all of the forms in the ER. I thought it was a very nice touch. Also, the College Security at the school drives kids to and from the hospital if needed. The hospital across from the college is the #1- Level 2 Trauma Center in NYS (very convenient). If I can give any parents a bit of advice it is to definitely check out the college’s Health Center and distance from the college to a Medical Center/Hospital.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone on CC for your positive thoughts.</p>
<p>nysmile, you should really have him seen by an ENT. The emergency room doctor is looking for life threatening issues and the Health services doctor is not trained in ENT issues. This severe infection can lead to other more serious infections. An ENT will do a more thorough analysis of impact of throat on whole system and look at what needs to be done. See if the HS doctor can get a referral if you do not have any contacts. At DD’s school, the music department has contacts with several excellent ENTs. Not sure where your S is, but if there is a good music school they may have a similar contacts if HS doctor does not.</p>