The flu season has appeared, and influenza viruses are floating around, with the CDC warning community members that influenza activity remains high and the H3N2 influenza virus causing severe illnesses likely takes a more significant proportion of cases than earlier in the season.
In December, you wouldn’t want the influenza virus to interrupt you and your family’s festive atmosphere with the approaching Christmas and New Year festivities when the weather will likely drop further. Therefore you must seek treatment for cold and flu symptoms using home remedies or over-the-counter medications. However, if you have nausea, cough, sore throat, headaches, chills, runny or stuffy nose, and fatigue associated with mild to moderate cases of flu, leaving you bedridden for several days, you must schedule a meeting with your primary care doctor for advice on whether you need treatment from an emergency room or can visit the urgent care center. While you might find it challenging to determine which option is best for your needs, the severity of your symptoms or those affecting your loved one will determine which option is best for your needs.
Should You Consider the Emergency Room or Urgent Care for Flu
Many doctors suggest that visiting urgent care facilities and requesting urgent treatment proves beneficial in many cases. Receiving essential treatment at an urgent care center gives you an effective and convenient option for diagnosing and treating mild or moderate flu symptoms.
When you develop any symptoms indicating a cold or flu, you can get your symptoms checked immediately by seeking essential treatment or immediate care at the urgent care facility near you. They have shorter waiting times and get to patients faster.
Most often, people visit emergency rooms for non-emergency situations. However medical professionals suggest the following to determine whether you find urgent care or emergency room suitable to receive treatment for flu based on the symptoms you exhibit.
What Do Medical Professionals Suggest When Dealing with Flu?
If you or a family member exhibits severe warning signs of flu, including chest pain, confusion, respiratory stress, and challenges breathing, or are in a high-risk group, including the elderly, infants, and people with medical conditions affecting their ability to fight infections are better served by the emergency room Abilene than visiting an urgent care center.
However, if you or your loved one experiences mild to moderate flu symptoms like the ones described earlier, you can consider urgent care, especially if you can schedule an appointment with your primary care doctor and seek immediate medical attention.
Urgent care centers have the infrastructure and staff to test and confirm whether or not you have the flu and prescribe medications to begin self-treatment at home. They can also execute x-rays, IV fluids, and blood work to assess whether you are experiencing severe life-threatening symptoms that require attention from an emergency department. In such cases, they swiftly transfer you to an emergency room to ensure you receive excellent care from the Abilene facility to start your recovery without wasting time.
How to determine the severity of your condition?
Determining the severity of your flu symptoms is challenging because many colds mimic flu-like symptoms in healthier people. Therefore whenever any family member exhibits signs of flu, you must have them evaluated by your primary healthcare provider or visit urgent care seeking immediate treatment.
You find it beneficial not to visit emergency rooms unless you have severe flu symptoms to avoid exposure to the flu virus and putting yourself at risk of severe illnesses.
Your approach at the start of the flu season should be to remain in touch with your primary care provider by reporting any symptoms resembling the cold or flu. The medical professional, besides providing you with preventive medications, can also suggest the best course of action if your symptoms worsen to make you need urgent care or emergency room visits.
It would help if you considered visiting urgent care for general flu symptoms such as high fever, muscle and body aches, congestion, loss of appetite, and cough or sore throat.
However, if you have flu-related complications, including chest pain confusion, confront challenges with breathing, and are in the high-risk group, visiting the emergency room in Abilene becomes essential to receive appropriate treatment.
If you need treatment for severe flu-like symptoms, including chest pain, difficulty breathing, and other complications, Express Emergency Room Abilene can help provide the treatment required by remaining available 24 x 7 with extensive infrastructure for testing and treating patients. Kindly consult this practice if dealing with severe symptoms of the flu.
