We at the Clog feel it is fairly safe to say students hate getting the flu. Although temporary sickness allows for catching up on “Homeland” or old “Breaking Bad” episodes, being immobile because of the flu is possibly the worst. When you have the flu, you can’t sit up to finish your reading, do your math homework, walk or function.

All UC Berkeley students should get flu shots immediately. It takes all of one minute for the nurse at a CVS pharmacy or Walgreens to give you the shot, and it is virtually painless. Be an adult, and get the vaccine — it is foolish to think that you will “beat” the flu season, because the flu season will beat you.

If you tell your roommate you refuse to get the flu shot because you are scared of needles, expect him or her to respond like this:

When you decide to get your flu shot, your roommates and floormates will be thrilled at the prospect that they have less of a chance of catching this nasty illness.

If you end up contracting the flu but refused to get the flu shot, never complain. It is your fault.

If you do not get your flu shot, you run the risk looking like this for an entire week:

Image Source:  Mark Turnaucka under Creative Commons, gifs for the masses, gifs for the masses, gifs of the masses and gifs for the masses.

Contact Ava Klein at avaklein@dailycal.org.

The post The process of deciding to get a flu shot in Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.

With only a few weeks left in the semester before final exams, it’s the absolute worst time to get sick. There’s obviously never a good time to run into the flu or catch a cold, but seriously, some times sure are better than others. Trying to get through a presentation of your entire semester’s work is daunting enough without having to deal with fever-induced hallucinations and a headache you can only describe by reference to the Richter scale. Although getting sick really sucks, check out the Clog’s suggestions for getting yourself to feel better!

1. Ice cream

This is what we call self-medicating. Ice cream is like aspirin minus the acetylsalicylic acid. It’s the best cure for a sore throat — plus, it’s delicious. It can be taken in soft, regular or sandwich form. We would suggest CREAM or Ici, but you can’t even go wrong with that 7-Eleven Choco Taco.  Overdosing recommended.

2. Cash in on favors

Remember all those times when you helped your friends out with moving, gave them your class notes or took care of their dog while they were out of town (who, as it turned out, wasn’t nearly as well-behaved as your friend promised)? Well, being sick is a perfect time to cash in on all those favors. Feeling too shitty to trek over to Crossroads? Call up a friend and have him/her bring you food in bed — they owe you one.

3. The sympathy card

It’s OK to feel sorry about yourself when you’re under the weather. It’s also OK to try to make other people feel sorry for you. And, by some weird law of physics, when other people feel sorry for us, we somehow feel better about ourselves. Don’t hesitate to call up anyone who’ll listen to you list all the stages of your headache or how many boxes of tissues you’ve had to go through.The more colorful and exaggerated the description, the better.

4. Be lazy

It’s definitely hard to kick back and take it easy when you feel like you have a gazillion things you should be doing. However, stressing out about next week’s paper really isn’t going to get you any closer to writing it, and it sure isn’t going to make you feel any better. Don’t be “that kid” in class whose constant nose-blowing and coughing make it impossible for anyone to catch what the professor is actually saying. Why not slap on your PJs, cuddle up on the sofa with a hot drink and trust that a little R&R will do you a whole lot of good.

5. Be respectful

We all know sickness etiquette but tend to forget about it when we’re actually sick. Coughing into your elbows, throwing away used tissues and avoiding sharing drinks with friends will go a long way. After all, if your friends get sick, who is there to take care of you?

Image Source: mcfarlandmo under Creative Commons

Contact Corinne Platten at cplatten@dailycal.org.

The post How to: deal with a cold appeared first on The Daily Californian.