Surrounded by plastic garbage bags filled with clothes and personal items ready to be shipped home for cleaning Friday afternoon, the journalism sophomore said she doesn't know how she can continue to live in the Hubbard Hall room.
Her roommate, also a journalism sophomore, was diagnosed early that day with meningococcemia, a meningitis-like disease.
Meningococcemia is a potentially fatal disease that infects the blood stream and inflames blood vessels. It can be transmitted by respiratory droplets and close contact. It occurs more frequently in winter and early spring. Family members and those in close contact to a person with the disease are at an increased risk.
"Oh my God, how am I supposed to live here?" she said in between phone calls from her mother and instant messages from friends wishing for the best.
The roommate and her suitemates had been administered antibiotics to ward off the B-strain of the disease that had attacked their friend.
But Ingham County Health Department Medical Director Dean Sienko said only those in close contact with the woman need worry.
"The only students who need to be concerned are her roommates and those who've been in close contact with her," Sienko said. "Those across the hall, next door or in her classes are not in increased risk."
Both students originally thought the woman had the flu, but the ailment that knocked the her unconscious on her bathroom floor was far more severe.
Hot flashes, ringing in her ears and knee pain kept her awake Wednesday night.
She went to Olin Health Center on Thursday morning and was immediately transferred to Lansing's Sparrow Hospital.
After a weekend stay in the hospital, she has made slight improvements, but it remains unclear how she contracted the disease.
"Me and my suitemates are completely 100 percent fine," her roommate said, wearing a light jacket keeping her warm.
The roommate said she is taking updates from her mother almost hourly.
"She's making little, tiny progress," she said, adding she visits Sparrow Hospital often and takes updates from family members almost hourly.
The roommate said she visits as often as possible, though she is not allowed in the room.
Even though the bacteria is only transferred through saliva and bodily fluids, her roommate said she can't help but be concerned.
"If her cup or something was next to mine," she said. "I'm just freaked out. I feel the need to Lysol everything. When I got back from the hospital, my suitemates had everything bleached."
But the roommates said doctors warned this particular strain of meningitis can infect without indication.
"She was completely fine all day - no symptoms," her roommate said. "She was just tired, burned out, from her classes we thought."
