Help! Sick with no voice, an interview, and a plane ticket!

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clairephillips

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Hello all! I have a situation I'm pretty worried about and not sure what to do. I have a virus that caused croup and nearly killed me as a child, though I understand that adults don't get true croup. My trachea gets all inflamed, I sound like an old lady and I cough a dry, painful cough. Sometimes, I even have to stand in a steamy bathroom with the shower going or sleep outside on our balcony (I'm in Texas) in order to breathe. Every year about this time, with the dry heat of internal heating and the stress of the holidays, crunch time in the semester, etc, It flares up. Of course, when I'm flying out tonight for an interview tomorrow morning, it starts this morning. I'm not contagious... My fiance never gets sick from me. I just feel terrible and sound worse. Is it okay to go to the interview? I can function enough, but I don't want everyone to think I'm going to get them sick and that I'm irresponsible. Can I get some thoughts?
 
Apparently my answer is BS. Regardless, feel better and good luck!
 
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I would go to the interview and explain the situation, I had a cold at an interview and it was not a problem at all. I don't even think they noticed.
 
Heplayer's advice is completely BS. You can reschedule the interview if you want but its kinda last minute. And you will never get any money from airlines unless you have purchased the ticket with a refund policy. So you will lose money if you choose to reschedule and if you do reschedule then you may get a date later next year. My sugesstion is if you can talk and can look nice then go for it tomorrow. Maybe having a humidifier in your home may help but I am sure you know how to get better since you have had experience with this condition.
 
PlaqueBuster said:
Heplayer's advice is completely BS. You can reschedule the interview if you want but its kinda last minute. And you will never get any money from airlines unless you have purchased the ticket with a refund policy. So you will lose money if you choose to reschedule and if you do reschedule then you may get a date later next year. My sugesstion is if you can talk and can look nice then go for it tomorrow. Maybe having a humidifier in your home may help but I am sure you know how to get better since you have had experience with this condition.
Click to expand...

Apparently, I really can't change the ticket. I'm leaning towards toughing it out, but I wonder if eating a cough drop would be acceptable in order to sound the best that I can.

Yes. I sleep with a humidifier every night, but it malfunctioned last night and the fan blew without water coming out. Grrr!
 
Good Luck. I think you will be fine. Regardless of how you sound, as long as you can talk and bring your best personality then that's all that matters
 
Yeah, I'm gonna go with the last two responses. I caught the worst cold of my life the weekend before my interview. On the day of, I kept cough drops, a water bottle, tissues, cough medicine, and hand sanitizer in my purse.
I had a cough drop in my mouth all morning leading up to the interview but I spit it out right before (I just don't think it looks that professional...not as bad as gum, but not great either.) I sipped water throughout the interview...I ran it by the interviewer first (said something like "Is it okay if I grab a sip of water?" with an apologetic smile.)
 
clairephillips said:
Hello all! I have a situation I'm pretty worried about and not sure what to do. I have a virus that caused croup and nearly killed me as a child, though I understand that adults don't get true croup. My trachea gets all inflamed, I sound like an old lady and I cough a dry, painful cough. Sometimes, I even have to stand in a steamy bathroom with the shower going or sleep outside on our balcony (I'm in Texas) in order to breathe. Every year about this time, with the dry heat of internal heating and the stress of the holidays, crunch time in the semester, etc, It flares up. Of course, when I'm flying out tonight for an interview tomorrow morning, it starts this morning. I'm not contagious... My fiance never gets sick from me. I just feel terrible and sound worse. Is it okay to go to the interview? I can function enough, but I don't want everyone to think I'm going to get them sick and that I'm irresponsible. Can I get some thoughts?
Click to expand...
Hey, I would say still go to the interview! I was sick on one of my interview days, still woke up 6:15 to drive down, felt dead the whole day, and I just apologized to my interviewer from the start. It turned out fine and I was accepted. As long as you mention it in a respectful manner you should have nothing to worry about. So I agree with @PlaqueBuster and say go in and kill it!
 
I'm joining in with the mob to say go ahead if you can tough it out and think/speak coherently. I'd been fighting bad allergies this whole interview season and was particularly congested the morning of an important interview. Like kalteenbars above, I was stocked with supplies and sipping on cough drops and warm beverages the whole morning. I took a water bottle in with me to the interviews and explained/apologized to my interviewers that I was fighting allergies. I also kept sipping water, had a few moments where my voice got rough and I had to sip more, but my interviewers were understanding. One of them (a physician) even commented on how I was doing the right thing by drinking lots of water. As future doctors, we'll have to study, work etc sometimes even when we're sick. And I was also accepted. Good luck!
 
I think it makes you more memorable if you were to go to the interview despite all your troubles.

Not that I'm advocating everyone to go into interviews pretending to be sick, lol.

You should bring a mask just because it serves the dual purpose of trapping humidity for your throat ( I think), and makes your interviewers less anxious. Well, you might want to wear it anyway to prevent other pathogens from entering your throat while it's already inflamed...
And maybe a doctor's note so your interviewers have proof you're not contagious.
 
Be considerate with sanitation and you'll be fine.

They aren't there to determine whether or not you have the voice to be a doctor...they are screening for red flags, checking your interpersonal skills, clarifying details of your package, and seeing how you handling pressure. All of the above can be demonstrated with a cold. Doctors get sick...if you can still pull off a good interview I think that will be a positive. I know it would if I was interviewing you.
 
if you can talk and think/speak coherently (not doped up on robitussin) then you'll be fine.
 
PlaqueBuster said:
Heplayer's advice is completely BS. You can reschedule the interview if you want but its kinda last minute. And you will never get any money from airlines unless you have purchased the ticket with a refund policy. So you will lose money if you choose to reschedule and if you do reschedule then you may get a date later next year. My sugesstion is if you can talk and can look nice then go for it tomorrow. Maybe having a humidifier in your home may help but I am sure you know how to get better since you have had experience with this condition.
Click to expand...
Not commenting on the rest of this, but the bolded is somewhat airline dependent: Southwest has a extremely generous, no questions asked flight change/cancellation policy! You can change up until boarding time, pretty much, and if you cancel, you get credit for the full price of your ticket which can be applied to any future flight with them.
To quote them:
Southwest Airlines website said:
We don’t charge you for changing your mind, your plans, or otherwise. So you can rest assured when booking your next Southwest Airlines flight that change fees don’t fly with us.
Click to expand...
 
clairephillips said:
Hello all! I have a situation I'm pretty worried about and not sure what to do. I have a virus that caused croup and nearly killed me as a child, though I understand that adults don't get true croup. My trachea gets all inflamed, I sound like an old lady and I cough a dry, painful cough. Sometimes, I even have to stand in a steamy bathroom with the shower going or sleep outside on our balcony (I'm in Texas) in order to breathe. Every year about this time, with the dry heat of internal heating and the stress of the holidays, crunch time in the semester, etc, It flares up. Of course, when I'm flying out tonight for an interview tomorrow morning, it starts this morning. I'm not contagious... My fiance never gets sick from me. I just feel terrible and sound worse. Is it okay to go to the interview? I can function enough, but I don't want everyone to think I'm going to get them sick and that I'm irresponsible. Can I get some thoughts?
Click to expand...


HOT Lemonaid with honey in it, and gargle salt water. I had to go to a speech tournament with no voice once... these were the only things that helped.
 
FedSquarewall said:
Well that's awesome! Wonder what the h*** the three schools I'm waiting to hear back from have been doing the past month plus some. Good luck!!
Click to expand...
I think this school is pretty unique in that way. They said they don't wait to make a decision on big groups, but meets on Fridays, right after Thursday interviews. It's nice. I, too, am waiting to hear back from some schools I'd rather attend. This does make me happy though, of course.
 
clairephillips said:
I think this school is pretty unique in that way. They said they don't wait to make a decision on big groups, but meets on Fridays, right after Thursday interviews. It's nice. I, too, am waiting to hear back from some schools I'd rather attend. This does make me happy though, of course.
Click to expand...

It would actually make sense to do this. It's kind of hard to advocate for someone when it's 2 months later and all you have to go on is some chicken scratch notes.

I'm in the same boat. I have an acceptance but would much prefer a few other schools I interviewed at.
 
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