How do you manage to concentrate and study despite being sick/pain?

Student Lounge College Life
1

I have a cold which now led to really bad sharp ear pain on my right side and my pain tolerance is low. I know that it will eventually go away on its own (I’ve had this before, my right ear simply sucks), but in order to start the semester off right, I need to be productive NOW, not in two days or a week. I’m really scared to fall behind.

I can’t sleep, can’t concentrate on anything because of the pain but I have to. However, the pain really keeps me from thinking clearly.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who ever had to study with bad pain, so how do you it? Pain killers never really help me. How do you direct your attention away from the pain and on the textbook/task in front of you? Even as I’m writing this, all I can think of is my stabbing ear pain (I have a low pain tolerance lol). Thank you

2

Go to health services right now-you may have a secondary bacterial ear infection that needs antibiotics.

At the very least, they’ll be able to suggest something to alleviate your pain based on you. Don’t take medical advice over the internet.

Unless it’s advice telling you to go to health services. Then yeah, do that.

3

I’m not necessarily looking for medical advise (I know what it is and that it will eventually go away) but study advice because the semester obviously doesn’t pause for me.

4

If you are determined to wait out this episode of chronic secondary bacterial ear infection, you may at least be able to get antipyrine and benzocaine ear drops, which will mask the pain. Personally, I’d recommend antibiotics, and a different antibiotic than you have used previously if this is a common thing for you.

5

We are saying you don’t need to be in pain because you can easily get antibiotics to kill the bacteria that is giving you the ear infection that is making your ear hurt.

6

If you continue to resist seeking health services for treatment, there is no magic to keeping up, you push through it. But that is not the functional choice, health care, is.

7

I literally have something called Central Pain Sensitization. The tl;dr version is that I am constantly in pain. My rules for working through pain are as follows:

1- If you can get rid of it, DO IT. If there is a chance you can even tone it down a bit, DO IT. There are no bonus points in life for unnecessarily being in pain. Go to your school clinic.

2- If you really can’t kill it (after going to the clinic), then there are likely times when you’re in less vs more pain. In the less times, you just have to push through it.

3- When you hit the wall that says you’re done, you’re done. Go take a nap. Go do something to try and relieve the pain. Stressing about it and having it interfere with sleep doesn’t do anything.

If you repeat 2-3 for more than a few days, it’s time to talk to your professors and provide them with medical documentation of what’s going on. (Notice that this means following #1.)