Be Your Own Health Center

Listen to me: your mom is not coming with you to college.

There is not going to be anyone there to feed you soup when you have a cold or hand you band-aids when you’ve had too much to drink, fall, and cut yourself on glass. There is only the student health center and they don’t want to hear about your minor ailments; they’ve got a whole campus worth of people with real problems. Like broken limbs… and broken condoms.

Because of this you have to be prepared to take care of yourself when it comes to the minor things: the tummy aches, the colds, the bumps and bruises. And you have to be prepared.

Below is a handy dandy list of things you’ll need to build your very own medicine cabinet. No more unnecessary trips to the Health Center (where they probably can’t help you anyway), or crying to your mom on the phone. Well, you can still cry on the phone, but at least you won’t have to leave the house to get some Pepto.

1) A container

First things first – you’re going to need a place to store your medical supplies. This can be an under-the-bed plastic tub or a cool toolbox you decorate with stickers. Anything you want really, as long as it’s storable. And make sure that whatever you pick can hold a few 20 oz and cans.

2) Band-Aids and Bandages

This is the most basic part of your kit; the thing that you will probably be using most of all. You should stock up on band-aids of all sizes. You never know what you might need one for: blisters, shaving nicks, paper cuts, drunken falls. Also keep a few ace bandages handy. Thanks to the combination of stilettos and alcohol, sprained ankles and wrists are inevitable.

3) Neosporin, Peroxide, etc.

Or pretty much anything you put on cuts to disinfect and keep them from getting infected. Because infection is nasty and can KILL YOU. Seriously – clean your wounds!

4) Medicine

And not just pain meds either. I’m talking about cold and flu stuff as well. I don’t know how many times I had to walk to the damn Rite Aide with snot dripping from my nose because I needed some Nyquil. Not a great feeling. Keep it on hand – both nighttime and daytime because you will get sick and you will have a teacher that doesn’t let you off for it. Also, keep some stuff for upset stomachs as well; that dining hall food can be killer.

5) Ice Pack

Once again, people are constantly spraining stuff and, chances are, you don’t have a frozen pack of veggies in the fridge to use. An instant ice pack comes in handy in these situations, especially if you don’t have a fridge. Bonus: also good for hot days in a dorm with no AC.

6) Food stuffs.

Ok, this consists of the foods that you need when you’re sick: saltine crackers, soup, ginger ale, water. That’s it. Nothing special and elaborate. Just some things to get you through the worst of whatever is plaguing you so you don’t have to go down to the cafeteria and ruin everyone else’s meal with all your hacking and wheezing.

7) A flashlight and extra batteries

Ok this technically has nothing to do with meds, but you need these things and where else are you going to keep ‘em? The electricity goes off all the time in dorms. All. The. Time. And you need batteries for all your stuff (yes, even that); nothing is worse then being sick and realizing you have to actually get up and change the channel. Stock up!

So there you have it; an easy-as-pie supply list to keep you going semester in and semester out. Good luck and stay healthy!