College Tips for Undergrad and Graduates with Chronic Illness.

For today’s post, we are going to discuss my top tips for Undergraduate and Graduate students who have Chronic Illness. I’ve been through it all, and it can be quite a ride at times. Some good, some bad. For me, I did the not so advisable route for people with Chronic Illness, I didn’t sign up for any kind of disability services. I didn’t talk to my professor to get any kind of accommodations, etc. I just went full swing like any other student. And it was rough. Looking back, I’m not even sure what kind of accommodations they would have given for someone with my sort of chronic illness (crohn’s disease). But when I finally started college I was in remission, I thought, and was told by my doctor that I would always be in remission. So I started full swing I to my degree like the rest of the students. I took full course loads with my largest being 21 credit hours a semester.

I only took 2 summers off the entire time (and I worked those summers). Unfortunately, I took the summers off while in remission and the 21 credit hour semester while changing biologic’s and in a flare. That in itself illustrates some lacking in planning. But I have learned a lot from the many many mistakes I have made going through this. I’ve read some fluffy tips about bringing warm blankets and gloves to class, as well as notifying everyone under the sun about your disease you can read those tips here too. Those tips didn’t work for me (aside from a blanket and I had a large blanket scarf to look a little classier. But here are some tips that I learned from my mistakes, that would have or did make life easier.

Carry the Essentials:

My bag was massive, and very heavy, but mind you I had all the essential in case of whatever I deemed to be an emergency. I had lotion perfume, poo pourii to combat the smells of Crohn’s disease. I had Germx to prevent getting sick. I had a drink or two to stay hydrated and keep from feeling like I was going to faint after the long walk around campus or up the stairs while in pain and carrying that huge bag lol. I also had a snack most of the time.

I had some money stashed away in case I forgot those things or what I brought wouldn’t set well on me in that moment. I occasionally had extra cloths stuffed in if I was having a rougher week. I also had my notes/pens. With this I always went light. Because everything else in my bag was so heavy and bulky. I had a small notebook or even just some blank paper, and some pens. I got to where when I was flaring I didn’t carry books. I tried to only carry a laptop on days I would for sure need it. I also had pads and tampons for random pop up periods that were a complete surprise (or even pads for bladder leaks). I had gum/mints, I also had my phone.

Oh and clorox wipes to wipe off the bathroom toilets. That bag had it all. Very heavy but carrying the essentials made me feel better when I stopped at every bathroom along the way.

Know where the bathrooms are!

This is key for any kind of IBD related illness. Know where the bathrooms are in every building you go to and every building you go by. By the time I left my undergrad carrier I could tell you which bathrooms on campus were always empty, which ones to avoid. Which ones were clean, quiet, and even which ones had fun soap/hair spray, free tampons, lysol etc! Unfortunatly, I think I’ve been in almost every girls bathroom on campus. Over my years their I learned all about them. Toward the end I would plan my route even a little out of my way just to go to a better one.

Find a person!

I wasn’t for announcing my disease to everyone under the sun like most websites say to do. But eventually when I was flaring I did find my person, or rather my person found me. Even just having one person there that knew me, that would come find me on a bench if I was sitting there in pain, that would ask me how I was doing. That knew where I parked, knew where I liked to sit etc. It was nice because for one it didn’t feel like such a lonely existence in a sea of people I felt I had to be normal for, that I had little connection with as a result because they never understood.

It was also nice because it I was struggling through the brain fog, through the lostness and sickness of medicine transitions, etc my one person would check up on me to make sure I was doing okay. Help me pass the classes when I couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. (Laughs at the massive amount of stuff you carry in your bag) So, while I’m not for telling everyone under the sun if that’s not you. I am for finding your one person who helps you through those rough college years of active disease while you are on campus.

Know your limits:

After being diagnosed with crohn’s disease I was always one to set my limits. And then I was always one to hit them, re-evaluate them, and push past them. Here’s my advice…set your limits and don’t push past them, or at least not too far. So, here’s an example of me, not doing this. This is a grad school example. I go several sick from a blockage. So sick that I could barely hold anything down. I was nauseated, exhausted, and weak, very weak. Then I got into the bathtub one night and couldn’t get out. I was just sitting there in pain, with so much exhaustion that only someone with Chronic Illness can really comprehend. Then there was the brain fog on top of it as well as a sever migraine. I was a mess. My daughter brought me a poweraid and I tried to sip it slowly because I knew I was dehydrated. My limit? Well this was it. I told myself, long before this that if I hit this point that I would go to the hospital.

I knew from previous blood work that I was also anemic. I sat there for a long time trying to think through the pain, the fatigue, the migraine. For me I knew I couldn’t go to the hospital in that moment. We were in the middle of a pandemic, hospitals were filling up, and I had a life at home to worry about. I couldn’t bring something home from that hospital to my daughter. So, I began to try to sip more poweraid. I said a prayer, I forced myself to get up, I was shaking but I knew to avoid that hospital I had to do it on my own. So, I pushed as hard as I could passed those limits. It took me a long time to recover from that night. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t graceful. But I fought it every step of the way.

That’s an example of a limit I pushed passed. In the circumstances it was simply the choice I had to make. But one thing I recommend, if you are in a circumstances where you have reached that limit, know when you can push passed and when you cannot. Keeping going when you need blood transfusion, iv fluids, or whatever aid a hospital might offer you isn’t a wise idea. For a normal college students, your classes work isn’t worth the long road ahead of you and you will get better faster if you seal the help you need.

It is hard to get through school when you have a chronic illness. Sometimes you have to know your limits and sign up for fewer credit hours when you are sick. You have to realize that you can’t do it all. Take the summers off. That’s one thing I wish I would have done. It would have been like a recharge. Plus having to attend class the day before a colonoscopy after you have had a bunch of colosopy prepare is not an idea situation. Honest, when you push your limits and leave no time for your disease not ends up consuming you. Your courses become this race from one assignment to another instead of about learning anything. Sometimes you just need a reset so you don’t come out of college knowing more about the bathrooms than the courses.

Get an electric heating pad or heated massage mat!

There have been so many college nights at the end of the day that the arthritis is flared up, or the stomach pain is bad. I find having an electric heating massage mat for my bed, a heating pad to go over my stomach, and then a nice ice pack for my ankle is litteraly the best way to get into bed! It probably seems like a bit of overkill, but it is the best! I find that I have so many ice packs, but they are never in the freezer because I take them all for my neck and ankles lol.

Find a way to keep track of it all!

I have changed methods over the years from planners, to notebooks, to sticky notes on my phone or in my bag. To the Google calendar on my phone, to a personal tello account. Keeping track of kids stuff, class stuff, disease stuff, appointments, etc. It can all get really hectic. Honestly, I’ve walked into a doctor’s office with my list of questions, walked out deleting them because they weren’t takin seriously or forgotten. I’ve lots a massive amount of notes when my phone crashed once. But I have a solution from that from the disease standpoint anyway. I have a series of amazon journals for tracking/coping/being prepared for doctors appointments you can get off Amazon. There are ones for IBD related illness, insomnia, and chronic pain issues. I also have a self care journal for keeping it low stress as possible!

Anyway, hopefully this listed was helpful to you on surviving college with a chronic illness!

Brie