What One Text Can Mean

Being chronically ill in college comes with many obstacles. One of the hardest ones is avoiding normal people illness. Being an education major makes this even harder. I spend lots of time in elementary schools and so do most of my friends do as well. It is safe to say there is always something going around our classes. On top of that no one ever wants to miss a class especially since we are on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule to accommodate our field placements (which I totally get because I hate having to catch up what I miss). This leads to my classmates coming in to class sick all the time. Once one of our professor even came in and told us she had a low grade fever.

For me this is really scary. Let me give you a little history of what has happened to me when I have gotten normal people sich since being chronically ill. In high school one I had a small cold or bug that was only bad for a couple days but then triggered a had joint flare, forcing me to miss multiple days of school (no morning classes for a week), led to needing a completely new med regiment, and back tracked my hip surgery recovery by weeks. A year ago when I had a simple viral infection gastroparesis was triggered and now I have a feeding tube. Yet without knowing this history most of my peers think I am crazy for never leaving my apartment without hand sanitizer and carrying around a travel sized lysol spray and wipes.

Most other college kids do not think twice about coming to class sick and do not realize how it may affect those around them. So last night when I received a text from my friend starting with her saying she had a low grade fever, me being half asleep and not bothering to read the text, assumed she probably was asking me to take notes for her or come over after class to help her catched up. When I woke up this morning and read the whole text I found out she was letting me know because while she could not miss class she wanted me to know to stay away from her (we usually sit next to each other in one class) so I do not get sick.

I do not think she realized how much I appreciated that text. Not only did I avoid a bug but I also saw that she really understood my challenges today.

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