The ABC of university life (2019/20 cohort) - Will NewModelArmyMayhem18 forgive me?

[MrKlaw]

previous thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3701968-The-ABC-of-university-life-2019-20-cohort-settling-in-we-hope

Hope you don't mind - people have pent up comments about cheese graters and traffic cones to get out of their system!

@MarchingFrogs
Not sure about them accepting her address.
I have said she could send it here and we will post it on to her.

Talk of ‘care packages’ sends me into a spin about FIL who has vascular dementia! I finally thought I had finished sewing Cash’s name labels into school uniform then had to start up again for his clothes when he went into a home! He randomly remembered Dd last week and asked how she was, which was a bit for Dh. Dd is so good with FIL and a tear may have just escaped my eye. He always makes her sit on his knee!

My DD at Durham has had her loan paid in and college fees.@Benjispruce @bigTillyMintShe sent us an email to tell us because we are topping up the college fees for her.
I was shocked today when she phoned. She says she’s so tired as she has 3hrs of back to back lectures. 25hrs contact time a week bit expected to do about another 25 personal study. Any more than 60hrs a week then they should worry. All I thought was ‘please don’t tell my ASD DD that it she will take it literally’! 🙈 then I suggested she didn’t take it literally!

HoldMyLobster, is your DD at Durham? - I know they have an acapella group...

She's in Chicago. They have 14 different acapella groups at her university! She auditioned for 11 of them :-)

Sounds as if she's really making the most of university life @HoldByLobster. Well done to her for getting into the acapella group too.

She really is - between band, acapella and boxing training I'm not actually sure how she'll fit in her lectures. She should also be finding herself a work-study job, but she's going to wait till band season finishes, which will give her 10-20 hours more free time each week.

I have never heard of children getting flu jabs at school. Is it a boarding school?

It's not, but we're in the US and as far as I can tell all schools have a flu jab session around this time of year. They don't have to have it but it definitely helps with uptake.

DD was at boarding school last year and she got flu despite having the jab, but she fought it off very quickly, possibly because of the added protection. They also gave her Tamiflu very quickly. The school ended up closing for a week because of the flu going round and they did all their classes via something like Skype - maybe Google Classroom?

DD had her loan paid last week too.

Now lectures and work have started I'm not hearing much from her. I hope this is a good sign and she's not retreating to overwork.

Slight panic attack there on realising previous thread had reached 1000!
Even though i haven't been posting much, it still feels like "My group" .

DS has cooked lentils, once .

@mum2eim. Gosh, what subject?

Proud that DD has made huge quantities of home made pasta sauce with fresh vegetables. Long may it last!

@ZandathePanda, I know - had that with my mum!

I’m expecting DD to get to the shops herself for biscuits etc. I sent her up with some and hot chocolate, coffee, tea etc but I’m not sending parcels up when she can buy it herself! She’s fully catered anyway so no need.

Flu spray in primary schools now.

Have heard nothing @bigTillyMint. I just text to say she had a letter arrive at home today. She replied ‘Open it’ and it was a dentist bill. So just given them a moan as her checkup was free! 2 word texts from here then

@WheelDecide she doing maths and physics so there are a mixture of lectures, tutorials and labs so it was always going to be a bit full on but I was a bit shocked when she said 50hrs a week! Her room mate is doing English and apparently has 2 days with nothing timetabled. I do hope DD remembers to chill out a bit!

@Benjispruce, I agree (having given him quite a lot of stuff when we took him up), and DS text that he was just being tight and he was off to Tescos this afternoon
We have had a few 2 word (or even just one) texts too!

@mum2eim, arts subjects have a lot less contact time (for the same fees) but are expected to do a lot of independent study. DD spends a lot of time in the library as well as working/going out, often at strange hours! Fingers crossed DS will manage it too - it's s lot less structured for them than science subjects, but they still need to put the hours in!

DD just called! Throat better but said can barely hear her lectures due to the coughing and spluttering of everyone. Super busy playing sport, still out every night either at college bar or pub crawl/college crawl. Not getting lots of sleep. I’m slightly concerned but she won’t have any of it. On the plus side she said it’s the best time of her life
She’s been locked out of her HSBC account just when she needs access so have told her to prioritise that. Any others having problems with HSBC memorable details etc?

@Benjispruce, now you know why only 2 word texts - because her throat was sore I think DS is HSBC, but hasn't reported any probs yet....

Ha ha. I asked for her timetable and she said I didn’t need it, wouldn’t mean anything to me and it’s complicated lol
Said Fridays are mostly free but might not be due to an extra module. When I said that might mean she could get home on a Friday she said she’s not planning on coming back any time soon. That’s me told

Dd had the shame of leaving the lecture theatre because she had a coughing fit. Then double shame when watching it back on video and hearing herself coughing

Zanda hope she gets better soon (and all the other flu-ey freshers)

DH asked for DD's timetable the first week (apparently it changes regularly anyway) so we wouldn't message her in lectures. Her reply was her phone is always on silent anyway (which is true - old habit from school, not that useful when she lost her phone in the canteen in year 7 though).

She only has 13 contact hrs per week, but alongside their independent study they are encouraged to volunteer at the animal unit (room full of cats anyone?). She needs no encouragement on that score .

DD has been suffering every day with severe headaches. She's had one migraine until now (a couple of months ago during a levels and had to just go to bed) but yesterday during a lecture she had a really bad headache, felt dizzy and sick and had blurred vision but didn't leave as she was blocked in. When she made it back to her room she was shaking uncontrollably and called me. I advised she turn all the lights off, drink some water and eat something and try to sleep. When she woke up this morning the headache has eased bug is still lingering and she says the lights in the lectures are so bright it makes the headaches worse. Do you think this was another migraine?
It's so hard being apart from them when they're ill 😩
From what I've read a lack of sleep, alcohol and stress are all triggers and there has certainly been more of all of those during the past two weeks. Hopefully if she catches up on some sleep and doesn't drink as regularly now that freshers is over they will be less frequent.
Do any of you or your DC suffer from migraines? Any advice greatly appreciated.

@Benjispruce, aww, it's hard, isn't it? Especially if it's the first one to leave. Could you pop up to see her?

@ZandathePanda

DS seems to have escaped so far, but DD is feeling ill and coughing, etc. However she is very susceptible to throat viruses.

@juicy0 no experience here, but maybe she should see the GP?

I’m fine if she’s fine. I can’t get up there until half term anyway, it’s too far. I’ll see how she feels then.

JuicyO, DS2 suffers from migraines - he gets flashing lights and then the headache. He usually has a couple of hours when he knows he's going to get one, then 4 hours or so with the headache, then a few hours of feeling a bit rubbish. He has had them in clusters though, where he's had a new migraine every day for three days or so. He used to take both paracetamol and ibuprofen at the first sign of the aura, but now he has sumatriptan from the GP which he takes. This doesn't stop them but makes it possible to do something other than lie in a dark room feeling sick.

I think if your DD keeps having headaches as bad as that she should see a GP, but it's possible if she has a few early nights she may feel ok again. We don't really know what DS's triggers are but we think lack of sleep, loud noise (eg gigs without earplugs) and deydration all play a part.

Hope your DD feels better soon.