fatigue

Poststructural Pub
1

Ok, in the past few days I have been feeling really tired and worn out. It’s a really “chronic” tiredness, where I just don’t want to move I am so tired, even after a full night’s sleep.

I sleep 8 hours a night, but my schedule starts at 6:30am and ends a little bit after 8:00 or 10:00pm (depending on which day of the week it is) and there are only 2 “breaks” in there during the day both of which last about 2 hours.

Between going to school full time and working part time and finding time to eat and to do homework and to attend extra curricular activities (well, activity–I quit all but one because I just don’t have the energy I thought I would), I just am feeling so exhausted and worn down lately. I (obviously) don’t want to feel this drained, but I do.

Besides seeing a doctor (which I am planning on doing in two days), what else should I do?

2

Go get tested for mononucleosis. Many freshmen get it.

Robin

3

When I first got here there were optional meningi…something vaccines and another kind of shot that cost over $200 so I couldn’t get them but now I’m wishing I had because I probably caught whatever disease it was supposed to prevent.

4

I hope you don’t have to get a spinal tap.

5

You should REALLY get the meningitis shot. It can kill you if you get it. And it’s extremely common among college freshmen. Something about living in close quarters, or something, as I recall.

But your problem could just be exhaustion. I mean, you’re in a new environment, and you’re running ALL DAY, and your body might just not like it much. Doctor is a good idea.

Hope everything turns out ok!

6

As a side note,

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

7

Yeah, that was it. I looked it up after Robin mentioned mononucleosis, I thought meningococcal meningitis was what she was talking about. The meningococcal meningitis (if it weren’t for google I could never spell that!) was the shot I couldn’t get, not the mononucleosis one.

I’m going to ask if I can get it and pay in payments. I have health insurance through the college but it doesn’t pay for the shot for some reason, that’s why I couldn’t get it (but I know I’m not the only one, because two of my friends also didn’t get it).

edit: I looked up spinal tap, too. Walden, you’re not the only person who hopes I don’t have to get one! :boggle:

edit again: I’ve read a bit about meningococcal and mononucleosis and I’ve decided to go to the doctor tomorrow instead of in two days. I’m emailing my professors to say I’m not going to be in class, and I’m going to ask for a doctor’s excuse.

I’m getting scared that I have contracted all these diseases now, but luckily I know the dangers of Internet self-diagnosis and to avoid it…and I’m thankful that I can walk to the doctor’s here and don’t have to worry about a ride.

8

I think it’s just reaction from all the nervous tension you’ve been under these past few months. First you were all worried about if you were going to get into this school, then worried about what furniture to get, then worried about your roommate, then worried about what to tell folks about your lifestyle, then you had to move, and start a new job, AND start school . . . whew! I’m worn out just writing it!

I’m pretty sure the doctor won’t find anything wrong. But it’s a good thing to check anyway, and it will make you feel better. Do get the meningitis shot if you can.

9

Almost no (American) health insurance pays for preventive medicine. They typically only pay when you are sick, have a diagnosis they approve of, and get treated.

10

Cranberry, I think someone else mentioned this. But it probably has been stressful at the beginning of the semester, and stress can make a person very tired. Plus you have actually been extremely busy, running from early morning until night.

It’s good to go see the doctor if this particular fatigue is a new thing for you just to rule out illness if nothing else. It’s extremely unlikely that you have meningitis. Put the spinal tap thing out of your mind. You don’t need to be thinking about that. There is a blood test for mono I believe. I had that in college and it did make things rough until I got better.

Sadly, it seems very common among all the college students I have met to be very tired all the time. It hardly seems like a state in which good quality learning could take place. But they have so much to get done.

11

When left to the whims of the insurance industry that is quite true. And quite sad if you think about it from a cost-saving perspective for the insurer and a life-saving perspective for the insured. I tried for years when I was healthy to get companies to realize that paying $200 for a diagnostic test, catching a developing illness early and curing it with minimal expense was best for their bottom line. But insurers still refuse to acknowledge that it is costing them more in the long run to have an insured not get a diagnostic test because it’s not covered under the policy, then wait several years as the disease grows in their bodies and then at that time begin paying benefits for all of the physican, radiological, pharmaceutical, hospital, nursing and hospice care that may likely follow. Not to mention the disability income and life insurance payments they will end up paying. But if you talk to a CEO of the insurance company, your high medical premiums are based on the medical industry charging exorbitant fees, and those shyster trial lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits. So make sure that when you write your legislator about those trial lawyers causing your insurance premiums to be so high (as your insurance company wants you to do), do not mention that more regulations changing your insurer’s business practices might also leave folks with more money in their wallet and more years in their life span.

Luckily, some of this started changing thanks to the Clinton health plan that fell apart. State Insurance Departments at that time began grabbing ahold of some of Hillary’s ideas and requiring that insurance companies selling new policies in their state include coverage for certain diagnostic tests. Such as the payment toward mammograms every so often depending upon the woman’s age and medical history. Ironically, the mammography benefit was pushed by a staunch foe of insurance reform. A staunch foe until his wife or mother died from breast cancer and he realized, too late, that she could have been saved if it had been detected earlier. Ironic how things like that work.

Sadly, though, there are many things that are deemed experimental or preventative in nature and still are not required to be covered.

Will O

12

It’s impossible that you’re sleeping 8 hours. Last night, you were on C&F after midnight. I can prove it. If you had to get up at 6:30, that was no more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep.

From 6:30 in the morning to 10 at night is a looooong day. That’s a 16-hour day, and if you’re not getting to bed until midnight, it’s an 18+ hour day!

I think you’re tired because you aren’t getting enough rest. :wink:

Sleep deprivation is cumulative, too. You just get more and more exhausted until you can sleep enough to make up for all the hours you missed. For this reason, it does not pay to miss sleep.

Getting all sorted out in college can be a strain. You’ve been going like a house afire for weeks now. It’s begun to catch up with you. This is very normal–there’s nothing wrong.

You have a lot to do between classes and work. Studying has to be a priority, and you still have to eat, wash, and sleep.

This is normally the point where you have to take stock of your situation and decide what you have to do and what you can shelve.

If you haven’t already done so, mark out a daily schedule that includes the necessaries. Put a bit of time in there for a bit of a nap in the afternoon. Or two. Even ten minutes will tide you over.

If you have a full class load, you can assume that you need to be either in class or studying for a total of 40 hours a week. Then, you’re working about 15 on top of that. That does not leave much for anything else.

Aim for double-duty activities, such that you can study while you do something else. Study while you eat, study while you wait for things, study while you do laundry. Spend part of your study time preparing a note card or something with stuff on it to study during those times.

Extracurricular activities are nice, but the necessaries have to come first. I used to manage about 2 of them a semester. Not two ongoing ones, but two activities of maybe an hour each. Two total hours per semester. :roll:

I wouldn’t worry about meningococcal meningitis. You have to be living like sardines, i.e., crammed in bunks like in a submarine, for the lack of space to contribute to transmission. And, if most everyone else had the vaccine, you don’t need it because there won’t be anyone to catch the disease and transmit it to you. Besides, you don’t have the symptoms.
(Don’t look them up, either, or you’ll start thinking you have them.)

I wouldn’t worry about mononucleosis, either. You’ve only been there a few weeks.

If you’re reading this on Monday night . . . you’re up too late! :smiley:

13

Man!!! You must be a mom.

:wink:

Will O

14

No. I have students who struggle with this. Most of them, though, work 40 hours, take care of a family, and still have to study.

Sadly, my lack of social life backfired. Those two hours per semester of extracurricular activities caught up with me. I missed the pair-bonding game and everyone got married without me. And now it’s too late.

I don’t have cats, though. :laughing:

15

Balderdash I say. It’s never to late until you die. Cats or not.

16

If you can’t afford to get the meninigitis shot through school (which I agree you definitely should get), check with the health department of the place you’re living in. You MAY be able to get it for low or no cost through them. I say only may because at our health department we have restrictions on who we can give the low/no cost meninigitis shot to because of the expense and the current supply problems with it. But it’s worth a phone call to find out what the situation is in your area.

Even if you have to pay for it from the health department, it almost assuredly will be cheaper than if you get it from the school. They may also know of someplace else you could get the shot.

17

dbl post

18

Thanks everybody.

Lambchop, of course you’re right. The last couple nights I’ve been up much later because I’ve had to clean my room and get it organized, it’s orderlilessness has suffered as I’ve had 435,978,128,843.91 other things to get done in the day and I thought if my room was neat and tidy I might feel better (but I’m weird like that, if I’m in a pretty place I feel better, lol).

19

Well, it sounds like you sure would have made a good one. :slight_smile:

Will

PS: I tend to agree with Cursor’s assessment.

20

Chances are you’re fine but overtired. Try not to stress even more over it as that in itself can be enough to disturb your sleep pattern.

Good luck with the quack.