<p>Hello, i'm a Transfer student from CC so I will be dorming for the first time in less than 2wks.</p>
<p>I will likely have 2 other dormmates and i'm sure at least one of them is gonna end up sick with the cold or flu. And since I will be sharing a room with them, i'm at a higher risk of infection.</p>
<p>So what can I do to reduce the risk of getting sick from them and saving myself of a week or more of misery?</p>
<p>Wash your hands, eat healthy, exercise. Normal precautions.</p>
<p>I’ve had a roommate sick with the flu before. I just spent a lot of time at the library that week so she could sleep and I wouldn’t get what she had. I wiped down the door handle everyday and always washed my hands before I ate. She was very cautious as well to not spread it. My two suitemates got it, but I did not!
Wash, wash, wash your hands!</p>
<p>get flu shot and a pneumonia shot!</p>
<p>Communal illnesses are part of the dorm experience, especially if you have floor-wide bathrooms.</p>
<p>not the answers that i was hoping for, lol</p>
<p>Were you hoping that the college would quarantine your roommate so you wouldn’t be “infected”?</p>
<p>Wash your hands, don’t touch your face/eyes/mouth, eat healthy, and get your sleep. Those are the things you need to do. If you get sick, you get sick. It’s a part of life.</p>
<p>Use normal precautions. I’m not sure what you expected us to tell you, but all you can do is take care of yourself and make sure you have meds in case you get sick.</p>
<p>OP–</p>
<p>out of curiousity, what were your expectations?</p>
<p>I’m going to tell you what one of my roommates was like when she got sick just so you can feel better about whatever situation you end up in. She got terribly sick in the winter, and besides being absolutely disgusting, she’d never lie in her bed. She had to be in the common room at all times throwing her kleenex everywhere and expecting us to clean them up. She used two of my other roommates blankets and ate pickles out of my roommate’s pickle jar with her bare hands. She kept the window open at all times because she was “hot” even though we insisted it would just make her more sick and she’d be up at all hours of the night microwaving soup which she’d leave out to make the whole dorm smell. It was awful. So whatever happens to you, just remember my roommate and maybe you can feel a bit better. :-)</p>
<p>But I guess there’s another point to the story too and that’s to set boundaries if one of your roommates gets sick - no eating food out of common places (offer to get the pickles out of the jar for them), designate a trash can just for all their tissues and whatnot, and put a thing of Chlorox wipes within their reach so they can disinfect all day long! You should definitely be sympathetic and help them a little, but in the end it’s their responsibility to keep things clean for you.</p>
<p>unless you live in a sealed negative pressure plastic bubble, you will get sick…it is part of life. wash hands, sure…do it often, but when you are exposed to a roomate , family member , random person in the supermarket…unless you have an immunity to what they have or they are actually have allergies, or something not infectious, you can wash your hands all day, not touch the door knob etc… it is just not really going to make a difference. watch a slow motion video of a someone sneeze…the entire room is covered, if you are that room you are exposed no getting around it.</p>
<p>Buy a container of those lysol (or store brand) disinfectant wipes. If one of your roommates gets sick, use them a couple of times a day on the doorknob, etc. But realistically, if you are sharing bathrooms (where people touch the faucets and door handles), opening doors to building, etc. on a campus, you are going to get exposed to germs and probably get sick. I also have to say, every time me (or my kids) have gone to another part of the country to a class or program, we end up getting some kind of crud. I think we are exposed to new germs that aren’t circulating yet in our city, and we get whacked. Not sure there is any way around it.</p>
<p>If you haven’t had your flu shot yet, get it this week so it has time to take effect before you get to school. While you are there, eat well, and get enough sleep so you have a better chance of fighting something off if you catch it. Work REALLY hard in your classes for high grades so you have some leeway for your grades to slide a little if you get sick.</p>
<p>It’s really not a huge deal. But if you really want to avoid getting sick (and trust me, you can catch things from your classmates and fellow students just as easily as from your roommates/suitemates) then I have two pieces of advice: sleep enough and keep your stress levels down. I’ve been living with college roommates for two and a half years now, and I’ve gotten maybe…two colds?..both of which were mild and neither of which I caught from anyone I lived with. (I’ve never had a flu shot either, for what it’s worth.) As long as your immune system isn’t compromised, it’s mostly about taking care of yourself. You WILL BE exposed to viruses - it’s a matter of whether your body succeeds in fighting them off!</p>
<p>And worst case scenario…you sneeze for a few days. You’ll be okay, I promise.</p>
<p>Okay, here are your steps.</p>
<p>You need to find 4 tons of titanium plates, an industrial arc welder + 2 tanks of fuel. Next using solid steel bolts with magnetic locks. You must craft a containment and quarantine chamber and put her in it. Remember to build an airlock style area to pass food in and out of. Burn and incinerate any possible waste. Next you must put her into it, you may set up a phone with 256 bit AES encryption to communicate and a 3 layer fiberglass window. Make sure to clean up the outside of the chamber after sealing her/him in with a UV light. Disinfect and wash everything in bleach and wear a bio-hazard suit 24/7. </p>
<p>And that is how not to get sick.</p>