Cough Cough

What a fun day. Wednesday night, just before I went to sleep, I planned the events of the following morning. I had a tutorial for one of my subject CU1010 (Effective Writing) and a tutorial following for JN1001 (Journalism). I was then going to attend a social gathering that a close friend of mine organised at the university Refectory, catching a bus back home after it was finished. In the afternoon I was rostered on at my workplace for a three hour shift. However my body had other plans, waking me up very early so that I could throw up everything in my stomach from the day before. Apparently I had picked up a stomach bug, causing me to miss both my tutorials and call in sick to my work (which my boss was not impressed with). And you know what? Being violently ill for an entire day makes you really start to think about hygiene and how important a strong immune system is.

Some people may not care about what they do to their body (or more importantly what they DON'T do), but as Newton clearly states in his laws, "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Newton is actually referring to the laws of physics, but you can take it deeper into general laws of living. Think of it as every action has a consequence. So if you have a common cold and sneeze without covering your mouth, that action will result in the spread of your harmful germs, potentially giving your sickness to a perfectly healthy being. Depending on the state of their immune system, a simple cough could actually be dangerous for some people.

From a young age, I have suffered from a lack of iron pumping through my veins, more commonly known as 'anemia'. This causes me to faint at random intervals if I don't take my vitamins every day. I also start to turn blue in cold temperatures because iron helps your skin keep that pigment of pink in your face and body. This also creates holes in my immune system, giving simple things like a common cold or a stomach bug real consequences. If I hadn't taken my meaningless stomach bug seriously, it could have quickly escalated to something like organ failure, possibly a form of pneumonia or even some sort of internal poisoning due to my terrible immune system. All because someone in a lecture, tutorial or just around campus decided to sneeze without covering their mouth.

Now, this sad tale has a happy ending (and a point). It is rumoured that in the first few weeks of classes, JCU has a habit of being a breeding ground for bad germs. However, my experience could actually help enlighten other people with the same problems! My advice? If you feel like something is up with you and it's been going on for a while like feeling faint or your lips turning blue when you go swimming, go get it checked out. A blood test should tell you if something's wrong and what you should do about it. If not, the doctors will tell you what's up. Pretty simple really.