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How to get over your sickness fast!

Freshers flu is real. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. I didn’t go out very much during freshers week and I still managed to end up with the flu – it will catch you, so be prepared. If you are looking to enrol on an education course, you will no doubt come into some nasty coughs and colds during your time on placement. It luckily fell over a weekend and I managed to fight it and although I wasn’t feeling 100% on the Monday, I felt well enough to go in and teach.

Taking precautions
Make sure when you pack for university you hit up Home Bargains and stock up on paracetamol, cold and flu tabs, lemsips, cough medicine, lozenges and all that jazz. Do not overpay, supermarkets massively overcharge. The first sign of a tickly cough or a runny nose, I straight away start taking medicine – it acts fast and you will feel worse but only because the medicine is flushing it all away. I also start taking cold and flu tablets, eating fruit and drinking hot drinks straight away, don’t just wait until it becomes a problem, do it straight away.

What’s effective?
I always have cold water, orange juice and lots of cups of tea. Lemsips are also really soothing for the throat but they’re not necessary, and they’re quite pricey. Orange, bananas and any other fruit really are effective at boosting your vitamins. Day and night, cold and flu tablets are the best ones, for me personally, and an Olbas nasal stick is the best thing if you have a cold. It completely unblocks your sinus and relieves that stuffy feeling. Cough medicine works wonders, like I said before it will make you feel worse but you’ll get better faster. The most important thing you can do is rest. Sleep. I spent the Saturday in bed, in and out of sleep and when I woke up on Sunday I felt miles better. Stay hydrated and fed, but sleep as much as you can.

Thanks for reading, keep those bugs away!

Amy

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The Things You Don’t Think About…

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t give a second thought as to my doctors/dentist situation before coming to uni! The first time I thought about this was when it was mentioned at freshers’ fair during the first week!

At the freshers’ fair there are stalls of local doctors and dentists in Ormskirk which offer more information on signing up. I highly recommend that you do this as you’ll be at uni for around 9 months and unfortunately there’s a high chance you’re going to get ill – especially with freshers’ flu knocking about!

I was ill quite a bit during my first year, I didn’t have the best luck! I would suggest that you visit your doctors before you come to university, they may suggest getting a meningitis jab, something worth thinking about it to stay on the safe side.

Anyway as a heads up I can tell you what’s available at Edge Hill/Ormskirk, the best facility I’ve found is the walk-in centre at the hospital. It is literally a 5-minute walk from the back entrance at uni, not far at all! You don’t need to be signed to a GP either to visit which is great if you’ve forgotten or haven’t got round to it! Here’s a link for more information in regarding what they treat at the walk-in.

The Uni also offers a health and wellbeing service at Milton House, which again is about a 2 minute walk from the uni’s back entrance! The Student Wellbeing team provides a range of support on areas including mental health and wellbeing, sexual health, diet and exercise, and drugs and alcohol. For more information please look at this link provided by Edge Hill to the available health services on campus. Also via the link you can look at the nearby GP/dentist services in the local area.

Best of luck, take care of yourself!

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Freshers’ Flu

If you’ve heard any tales about university you might have heard of Freshers’ Flu. It is not actually, as I thought before I became a fresher, a mythical disease. Freshers’ Flu is a real thing, and apparently up to 90% of new students contract it when they start at university. Fear not though, it’s not nearly as bad a real flu. The most common symptoms are a temperature, sore throat, headache and coughing, so it’s more like a bad cold really, although it can still be annoying when you’ve just arrived at university and all you want to do is enjoy yourself.

flu

There are quite a few things that can be responsible for Freshers’ Flu. Firstly, upon arriving at university you find yourself surrounded by a whole new group of people who come from all over the world, all of whom carry different strains of viruses etc to which you might not be immune. Also, it’s quite likely that the meals that you cook yourself at university won’t be as nutritious as those that you would normally eat at home, weakening your immune system. Unfortunately, this susceptibility to illness can also be the result of increased alcohol consumption during those wild nights out! And of course, any stress you feel as a result of starting university, moving out, the pressure of making friends, or anything else that induces stress can leave you open to contracting Freshers’ Flu by also weakening your immune system.

So how do you combat Freshers’ Flu? Well if the 90% statistic is correct, then you don’t have much chance of avoiding getting it altogether, but there are a few things you can do to make the whole ordeal a bit easier. I definitely recommend taking Vitamin C supplements if you don’t have enough in your diet, as it is really good for your immune system. Having a supply of painkillers, tissues and cough medicine is also advisable. Something I found really useful when I felt like I was overdoing it during Freshers’ week was taking a night off from going out clubbing and just having a night in. Letting your body relax for a bit really helps speed up recovery.

Despite what I’ve written, getting Freshers’ Flu really isn’t the end of the world and even if you do get it during Freshers’ week, you still have the best part of three years to enjoy your time at university so there’s really no rush!