I try hard not to get sick, and usually I do a pretty good job of it. I get one or two colds a year, but I usually manage to ward off disease by drinking a lot of water and taking some vitamin C when I feel like I'm at high risk. This tends to work pretty well. When my roommate gets sick, I start taking preventative measures, and I'm usually fine.
This doesn't always work, of course. I managed to contract a nice little cold at the end of last week. It wasn't fun trying to get all my work done and sleep more and walk around with a sore throat, but I managed it pretty well, with the help of cough drops and perseverance.
Until Sunday night, when my ear started to hurt and I couldn't fall asleep. Around two in the morning, I started doing research on ear infections and determined that I could take Advil for the pain and deal with the rest of it in the morning. I fell asleep around three o'clock, woke up and felt like I hadn't slept at all, went to physics, and then went to Student Health.
There are some things said about Student Health. The main one is that they'll give you a pregnancy test even if you think you have a cold. I'll say right now, I wasn't given a pregnancy test.
In fact, it was actually a pretty good experience, under the circumstances. I had to wait for a while, because I didn't have an appointment and went during drop-in hours, when anyone can show up. But once it was my turn, things went well. My ears were looked at and it was determined that I definitely had an ear infection. Then I was prescribed some antibiotics and I made my way back to my room.
At this point, my ear feels a lot better than it did, though it's still a bit odd. The good news is that I can listen to music again, which I couldn't do earlier in the week. It echoed strangely in my head and then clashed with itself, and that got very irritating.
The moral of this story? If you're sick, go to Student Health, and they'll probably help you, despite what you've heard.
