Tag: pain

College Rule #1: Take Care of Yourself

This was the week that the professor’s hit us with tests, papers, and lots and lots of homework. Which hits us college students with lots and lots of mental breakdowns.

Honestly, reflecting on my week helps me to actually realize that it goes much better than I think during the rough situations. It’s weird how the bad always pushes out the good. You could be having the best week of your life, one thing goes wrong and it becomes the worst week. Odd.

But now that I think about it….

Last week was busy. Very busy. That is probably why this past weekend, my body felt like it’d had enough. The cool thing about our bodies is that if we don’t stop to take the the time to properly care for ourselves in every sense, physically and emotionally, our bodies force us too.  Sunday evening I began to get migraine symptoms. I don’t use the term ‘migraine’ lightly because it bothers me when people refer to a headache as a migraine. In my opinion, they are not the same at all.

Migraines don’t hit me very often, maybe once a year or every two. The last one that was pretty bad hit my freshman year of high school, so it’s been awhile. First, I’ll wrap up my week so you can follow and compare the events that led up to this. Feel free to skip my weekly wrap and head to my main point at the bottom.

Monday: Early morning position sessions for volleyball, practice, cafeteria, and a soccer game. I really should have been starting a paper, but that’s beside the point. Not a bad day all in all.

Tuesday: The volleyball team had an away game, and I didn’t travel so I got the evening off. After class that day, I started reading the chapter for next theology class. And I woke up and hour and a half later. Looking back, that was the first sign that I was tired and needed to pay a little extra attention to myself. I proceeded to stay up late that night to finish several homework assignments.

Wednesday: quiz over chapter that I fell asleep reading (don’t worry, I did finish it!) and then practice. Then bible study, then more homework, another late night.

Thursday: I looked at my planner and stressed about all the things I needed to do and wouldn’t be able to because of our home volleyball game. Those who know me know that I stress out pretty fast and it consumes me. Don’t be like that. I am currently working on it.

Friday: 6:30 am morning practice at which we ran SO MUCH. Literally, probably the most I’ve ever run in any practice of any sport for discipline reasons. That afternoon, my management class was cancelled and my day was made. We had a test (which I of course was stressing about) and because class was cancelled, it got moved to Monday! I was so happy that it was finally the weekend and I could just relax. I sat down that afternoon, wrote a paper, felt super productive, and allowed myself to stay up into the early morning hours watching a Netflix show. (I highly reccommend The 100!)

Saturday: I got up and and drove back home with my boyfriend to watch the Husker game and stop by my house to pick up a few things. We got back around 4:15 and I had to leave to work the Brett Eldredge concert at 4:50. The team works concerts for fundraisers and it’s not a bad gig, except you end up standing in place literally the entire night. And believe me, it’s different to work the concert instead of just being there. We aren’t allowed to sing or dance, we have to be very professional, and be mean to people who try to finess their way into the wrong section.  Yet again, another late night.

Sunday: I get up, my roommate and I go get tickets for the Royals game, and then we leave shortly after. It was a super hot day. When we left, after what felt like the longest game ever, we got some free chocolate so that was cool. Towards the end of the game, I began to feel weird. It was that feeling that something was off, I just couldn’t figure out what. I dismissed it as being tired. That night, I had some homework to catch up on and a test to study for. The weird feeling never went away, but I still couldn’t figure it out.

Monday I woke up with extreme pressure in my head. Not the sort of pressure you get from being sick or having allergies, just pressure. It was behind my temples and back farther, and then behind my forehead. It wasn’t exactly painful, just uncomfortable. As the day went on, it got worse, and it got more intense whenever I chewed or pressed my teeth together. I called my mom (aka my doctor, basically) to see what she thought. She warned me of a migraine and I took a concoction of meds that have proven to work against migraines in the past.

This morning I woke up to slightly less pressure, but a little bit of a headache. I took some pain meds, went to my morning position session. When I came back, I noticed my vision was a little blurry. My eyeballs felt really hot and felt like they were too big for their sockets. It has continued all day and I know that is one of my migraine symptoms.

Moral of the story: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IN COLLEGE. Stay hydrated. I know for a fact that I have been dehydrated several times while I’ve been here, and I ONLY DRINK WATER. Imagine how much easier it is for kids who drink pop on a daily basis, too. Take vitamins. They actually help so much and you don’t realize it until you stop taking them. Take your allergy medicine. It will help prevent sickness caused by allergies. SLEEP. I can’t stress this one enough. Yes, you need to get your work done and study for your tests but you need sleep to do any of that well.

Last week, I was a mess and I was stressed. I had late nights and early mornings. As a result, I am now fighting off a migraine. This was my body’s way of telling me that I need to slow down. So put the effort into yourself. You might not get a migraine. It could be a cold, or you could get injured in practice simply because your body is so stressed. (It does actually happen.)

Listen to your body. It’s the only one you’ve got.

Related image

Sometimes, you get burned.

Hello everyone! The past week went by sooo fast. Because everyone has been at school for a few weeks, all the clubs and organizations are starting to get established. Which means we all become 3x busier…

Sometime a couple weeks ago, the school held an activities fair where students could walk around and talk to all the different clubs. Typical freshman, I signed up for 8 (ish) clubs and there is no possible way I will go to any of their meetings. Last week, all the clubs sent out their emails for their first meetings. I noticed that at least three of the clubs all met this week, on the same day. I wrote them all down in my planner, organized student that I am, and didn’t think anything of it. Until yesterday. Yesterday, I put this week’s athletic schedule in (games, practices, individual sessions, etc.) It just so happens that we have a home volleyball game the day of all of those meetings.

Coincidentally, all of the meetings occur right before or right after my game, but they are just close enough in times that the chances of me making any of them are slim to none. Leaning more on the none. Moral of this story, don’t sign up for 8 (ish) clubs.

On a completely differnt note, my search for a “college church” continues. It’s hard to not judge every little detail of a new church, comparing it with what I’m used to. Some of the things I’m judging don’t make it wrong, just different. I’ve been to two different churches since being here and still don’t feel quite like I’m home there. Of course, it’s hard to tell in just one service what a church is like so I’m trying to just focus on the main aspects of what I’m searching for. Back home, I go to a large church with an amazing praise band that I now realize I took for granted. You can’t find a praise band like that just anywhere. My pastor tells funny stories, not all pastors do. (It certainly makes the sermon more interesting, though!) At my church, the offering plate goes all the way down every aisle. In others, they have some sort of weird pattern that I can’t figure out. Basically just a bunch of small details that make my church search more refined because of what I’m used to and what I like.

Speaking of church, Sunday morning was an interesting morning for me. I woke up an hour earlier than I intended (no clue why or how) and I wasn’t tired. I decided to take advantage of this extra time to curl my hair. I haven’t really had time while at college to set aside for myself for doing my hair,

This is what the burn looked like Sunday evening.

painting my nails, etc. As I was curling my hair on Sunday morning, I began to feel a burn on my wrist. I had set my wrist down on the curling iron….go me. I think I had it sitting there for a while because it is quite the burn.

I’ve been keeping neosporin and a band-aid on it to prevent infection. Yesterday at practice, I passed a ball and felt a little pain from my wrist. Instantly, I had the thought that the blister had popped. This thought was soon confirmed by the feeling of liquid gushing out. As my dad said, “that’s gonna leave a mark.”

College has taught me many lessons while I’ve been here. Sometimes, when you sign up for too many things, you’ll get burned and won’t be able to keep your committments. Or, you get burned out on doing something you used to love doing. You might have to burn bridges connecting you to other people, but it might be for the best. Othertimes, you’ll literally get burned. By a hot object. Who knew growing up could be so painful?