After taking one last gulp of fresh air and hugging my roommate goodbye, I braced myself for the fateful locking of the hotel door behind me -- a sound that would commence my solitary confinement for the next five days and nights.
A quick survey around my fairly spacious room revealed two double beds, a desk and a medium sized TV set. Not exactly The Hilton, but not Super 8 either. And considering the four trips it had taken to lug my belongings upstairs from the car, I didn't think I would be that bored.
But why, you may ask, was I voluntarily cutting myself off from civilization at a time when most University students were well on their way to a tropical island or New Orleans for Mardi Gras?
Well, to put it bluntly, I was getting sick. I was, in a sense, selling my body to science -- in exchange for an $800 check at the end of my five days in isolation.
My logic? Instead of spending my money, energy and time on a riveting but short-lived spring break trip, I would add to my bank account, catch up on my sleep and study for my upcoming midterms. While my friends would come back a little more exhausted and a lot less moneyed, I would emerge from my confines rejuvenated, richer and ready for a wild end of the semester.
And so the cold study began.
Bring it On
Shortly after our arrival and before absolute isolation began, the 80 or so other guinea pigs and I were instructed to line up downstairs for inoculation. When my turn came, I was told to lie down on one of the four doctor's chairs in the inoculation room. With my head tilted back and my nasal passage open, I braced myself for the rhinovirus that was about to enter my body.
As the doctor approached me with a tube of pink fluid to be put in my nose, I couldn't help but wince. After all, I was about to willingly make myself ill.
Surprisingly, however, the process was quick, simple and painless.
After infection, though, it was time for isolation to begin. It was 3:00 on Friday afternoon, the beginning of Spring Break and the end of my freedom.
So there I was -- alone, hungry and ready (relatively speaking) to get sick.
Since I had about three hours till dinner, I decided to take a nap. Shortly after drifting into a dream about wild parties, beads and nakedness, though, I was woken up by a knock at my door.
"Room service!" a muffled voice said.
Stomach grumbling and mouth watering, I all but ran to answer the door. Sadly, my three meals a day were one of the main highlights of my stay.
The Grub
From the delectable Double Tree cookie waiting for me at check-in to my first dinner of vegetable lasagna, I had no room to complain -- the food made the stay quite bearable.
The fresh fruit plates at breakfast made my 6:00 a.m. wake-up call that much more exciting, and the snacks before bedtime nicely complemented my movie of the night.
Since I don't tend to trust meat in bulk, most of my food selections were from the vegetarian menu. And with no two meals the same, my taste-buds were far from bored.
As an added bonus, the Double Tree chefs made sure to keep the dessert plates coming. Considering the yummy brownies at lunch and daily slices of cake at dinner, I'm surprised I didn't gain 15 pounds. After all, sitting in one room for five days is not exactly conducive to a Spring Break-worthy figure.
The Daily Grind
I must have made up for the extra calories through my daily jogs around the room.
That's no joke, either. It gets kind of tiring doing absolutely nothing.
To keep my muscles limber and my mental state positive, I blasted music, ran around my room and practiced dance moves in front of the mirror.
When followed by a soothing bath before dinner, my days clearly were not spent in bed.
I took full advantage of my free time.
From making a scrapbook with the billions of pictures I'd neglected for so long to trying on virtual clothes at www.glamour.com, I kept myself surprisingly busy. Not to mention my various visitors throughout the day.
Shortly after my daily wake-up call, Cold Study Co-Coordinator Pat Beasley would come to assess the severity of my cold symptoms.
According to Beasley, "three people got a good bad cold." But even those participants easily tolerated it.
"With this last study, we had no complainers," Beasley said. "Each group of volunteers seem to have their own personality, and we had a wonderful group this last time."
After last week, the Cold Study team will need two more groups of participants in order to complete their three-year grant, Beasley said.
Although she has been coordinating cold studies for the past 25-30 years, Beasley said the current study is the first to test echinacea.
The study, funded by a National Health Institution Grant requested by Dr. Ronald Turner, seeks to look at the prevention -- as well as treatment -- for the common cold with echinacea, Beasley said.
And the Cold Study staff sure did use various measures to determine the effects of our "medicine."
After symptom evaluations came the dreaded nasal wash. Basically, a nurse came in and dropped salt water into my nose that I couldn't swallow. Then I had to tilt my head forward and drip the liquid back into a cup. Glamorous, I know.
According to Beasley, the daily nasal wash was a way of assessing whether or not each participant had actually become infected with the cold.
Next in line was tissue collection. Each day, each participant received a large Ziplock bag containing a packet of tissues. These were the only tissues we could use to blow our nose that day. The following morning, participants' bags were weighed in order to see how much mucus they had produced, Beasley said.
Last but not least, Cold Study Co-Coordinator Marilyn Potter came around to give each participant their "medicine."
Since the experiment was double-blind, however, neither participants nor administrators knew whether or not their medicine was placebo or the real thing.
The bitterness of the "medicine" was disguised by a cup of cranberry juice Potter gave each participant to add to it. My neighbor across the hall, however, seemed to like the thrill of taking the medicine straight and chasing it with water. My thoughts in a word? Yuck.
Getting Sick
For about a day and a half, I had the sniffles -- okay maybe they were a little more than that -- but for the most part, I didn't suffer too much.
According to Beasley, some people had no symptoms at all, about three or four got really sick and the rest were in between.
I think I fell into the latter group.
Nothing earth-shattering but not complete smooth sailing. I must admit that the first few nights were a little rough. All I wanted were two little pills for my headache, but no medication was allowed!
I survived though, and I can't say I regret spending my Spring Break getting sick. And the fat check I'm about to pick up sure does ease any lingering symptoms. That's more than I can say for the thousands of people who paid to get sick -
Read More
Virginia Policy Lab — a hub for student-led policy action
By Katherine Haden | December 9, 2024Students propose their own projects and collaborate with other members to research their issues of interest, brainstorm solutions and write policy proposals.
Perfecting the subtle art of the ‘sexile’
By Val Vixen | December 7, 2024Approach this sacred college ritual with a newfound confidence.
Top 10 ways to ring in the holiday season in Charlottesville
By Sam Saks | December 5, 2024With temperatures down, lights up and spirits high, not even pesky final projects and exams can dampen this holiday season.
