Whilst ‘freshers flu’ may be behind us, there’s no time to get too comfortable, as the flu season of the winter months is officially upon us. The respite you can get from university work while ill is limited, and pushing through the all consuming misery is often a must. Which begs the question: how do you keep going when you literally feel like the living embodiment of a wet sock?
Aidan Crawley, a fourth year student, told The Student that their solution to sickness is “sleep, raw ginger, and comfort food.” For them this meant pasta with marmite, cheese, and sweetcorn. But, as someone for whom that dish would only make feel sick, it’s safe to say comfort food means very different things to everyone, so yours should be whatever feels right for you. Another student said blueberry porridge was perfect, whilst “something simple like toast and tea” was a popular suggestion. Personally, I would recommend a warm bowl of dhal, which Amelie Dryer has a great introductory recipe for.
Aidan also recommended listening to the radio and watching gentle comedy, describing this as the only thing that got them through their relentless suffering of three UTIs as well as glandular fever in third year. A number of students stressed the importance of allowing yourself to rest, and suggested allocating specific time for switching between listening to the radio and watching University Challenge, or whatever your preferred form of cozy TV may be, with no pressure to do anything but recover and take time to breathe.
When sick, often the last thing you want to do is clean and tidy. But sickness often means bedrest, or at least staying cooped up in your room so as not to infect others. So it can be worth powering through to, as one student put it, “make sure [your] space is clear so [your] mind doesn’t feel cluttered while [your] body does.”
If the clutter is piled too high, and this doesn’t sound up your alley, I would recommend moving yourself to a location that is already clear, for me this means any patch of nearby grass. While you can face the challenges of the weather ruining such plans, I find that the best thing to do when sick is to take yourself to a nearby outdoor space and set yourself up with a picnic blanket — and maybe another blanket to keep cozy — and bring along whatever entertainment you would busy yourself with while recovering in bed. A day outdoors doesn’t have to be an action-packed hike, sometimes lounging on Portobello Beach gives you enough fresh air to recover from your ailments.
If you’re quick enough to notice a friend or flatmate getting sick first, and realise you are beginning to experience symptoms, then there are good preventative measures available too. One such example is Vicks First Defence Cold Virus Blocker nasal spray, which can save a great deal of unnecessary pain and suffering. At first I was hesitant to buy into it, as I had thought surely nobody would get sick with a cold if it actually worked, and was wary of the price tag —at the time £5, but this has since risen to a whopping £8.35! However, I can now wholeheartedly advocate for it, and confirm it delivers on its promise to “help stop a cold in its tracks” so successfully that I, and everyone I have shared its power with, consider it to be a true miracle of modern science.
Another more adventurous home-made alternative that a student mentioned was Fire Cider. They described to me their efforts blending orange juice, garlic, ginger, apple cider vinegar, lemon, horseradish, thyme, rosemary, and chilli peppers to ward off illness — showing the lengths some students will go to so as to avoid falling sick at this time of year. They did disclaimer that they were “not sure if this is backed by science or just instagram reel nonsense, but it looked quite fun.” But, having looked into the science, I can say I would not recommend the recipe as a medicinal concoction, or anything other than perhaps a rather sharp salad dressing…
Photo by Zohre Nemati on Unsplash
