I have managed to have more than one medical emergency during my time in college. Actually, the inspiration for this article is the Mayo Emergency Room I’m sitting in right now.

My muse is a beige room where I’m surrounded by people having days much worse than my own.

I’m having a small amount of difficulty with articulation at the moment due to my on-and-off nausea and the incessant pounding in my head, so the editors really have their work cut out for them this week.

But since I have nothing better to do — other than study for the Behavior Genetics quiz that I’ve been procrastinating due to said head pounding — I thought I’d rank my college ER and urgent care experiences.

Fourth place: The sinus infection

I’ve been the victim of more than a couple of bacterial infections within the past few months. 

While I was studying abroad, I managed to come down with both a sinus infection and bronchitis. The sinus infection made me lose the hearing in my right ear for about a week, and the bronchitis had me shaking and sweating on my bed while going in and out of consciousness.

I returned from galavanting across Europe and landed myself three more sinus infections.

Nothing like a new predisposition as a souvenir.

About a month after moving back to Eau Claire for the summer, I ended up with another gnarly sinus infection. I could barely move my body, but somehow managed to drive myself to urgent care before just about falling over in the waiting room.

The experience was surreal, and not just because I was delirious with a fever and rapidly losing fluids via post-nasal drip. 

I told four different medical students the same thing. None of them asked whether I had asthma — I do — or about any of my medications and I was sent on my way with antibiotics I was told not to take.

I spent the next few days in head and stomach pain from the aforementioned antibiotics and watched two full seasons of “Sex and the City” while camped out on the couch.

This experience was easy to put in last place. Dealing with illness alone is already the worst thing on Earth, and stumbling into urgent care alone really cemented this trip’s position.

Third place: Freshman year concussion

My first concussion was coincidentally almost exactly three years ago. I was goofing around in the dorms with my friends when the tragic — mostly embarrassing — fall took place.

I was sitting on a guy’s shoulders while he was sitting on the ground, and then he stood up. Nobody took into account that he was over 6 feet tall and the room had a ceiling.

I hit my head on the ceiling and fell backward off his shoulders, hit the futon on my way down then hit my head on the ground. Thankfully, the futon more or less broke my fall and prevented me from cracking my skull.

I didn’t consider the possible consequences of a fall like this and continued with my night out anyway. My poor roommate got to take care of me that night when I wobbled into our room and puked in a recycling bin.

One of my other friends took me to urgent care the next day, and I was diagnosed with a concussion and told not to think too hard or I may exacerbate it.

This was not ideal as a full-time college student, but I did my best to take it easy.

This ailment was nothing short of inconvenient, but at least I didn’t have to make the trip to urgent care on my own, which lands the experience in third place.

Second place: My current concussion

I’m feeling less than pleasant at the moment and focusing on typing this article most definitely isn’t helping my symptoms, but thus far, my ER visit has been pretty calm.

For some reason, this room is helping my focus more than any study hall I’ve ever been to.

Telling doctors over and over that I hurt myself in yoga class is somewhat humbling. I’m also a little self-conscious about wearing sunglasses indoors. But I keep reminding myself that the workers see much worse on a daily basis.

I’m more so upset that I wasn’t able to master a headstand before obtaining head trauma. I did learn a tripod, which is about halfway there. I have a feeling it’ll be a while before I’m allowed to attempt it again, though.

Mostly, I’m hoping I can finish this article before being called back to be examined. I’m also hopeful that if I get a head CT, they’ll go ahead and take a look at my messed up sinuses, too.

I saw actual doctors during this ER trip and left satisfied that I don’t have a brain bleed, which lands this trip in second.

First place: My roommate’s situs inversus

A year ago to the day, I dragged my roommate to the ER. Her heart rate skyrocketed while she was playing pickleball, and it took me an hour to convince her she wasn’t being dramatic before she agreed to get in my car.

It turned out she had a rare condition called situs inversus, or more specifically dextrocardia, where her heart is on the wrong side of her chest. Thankfully, she’s ok.

You may be wondering why this is in first place as it wasn’t even my emergency. It turns out, this trip affected me in a completely unexpected way.

I made a silly TikTok about the situation to the song “Heart Attack” by Demi Lovato and it went stupidly viral, amounting about 11 million views. My roommate had people from across the country texting her to tell her they saw the TikTok.

I also gained about 5,000 followers from this TikTok which has gotten me a number of cool social media opportunities. A news outlet even reached out asking about her condition, but I decided it wasn’t really my story to tell.

I promise I asked for her permission to share this story, and we have jokingly coined the hashtag #exploityourfriends.

I’m happy to announce that I’ve made it to the end of this article without being pulled away for examination, although I’m hopeful it will be my turn soon.

But I don’t think I can type much more without nausea medication, which has led me to the conclusion for this article.

Please be careful with your head — you only get one, but wearing sunglasses indoors will make you feel much cooler and more mysterious than everyone else.

Price can be reached at [email protected].