Most people with flu have mild illnesses and do not require medical care or antiviral medications. However, if you are affected by flu symptoms, you must stay home and avoid contact with others except to receive medical care.
However, if you have flu-like symptoms and are in the high-risk category, severely sick, and worried about your illness, you must contact your primary healthcare provider for assistance.
Some people are a high risk of severe flu-related complications, including pregnant women, infants, people over 65, and with immunosuppressive conditions. If you are in the high-risk category and develop flu symptoms, it is best to contact your primary healthcare provider early rather than late. It would help if you reminded them about your high-risk category for flu. In addition, the CDC suggests that people in the high-risk group must receive antiviral treatment as soon as possible because they benefit significantly when they receive treatment within a couple of days after the onset of the illness.
Do You Need ER Visits If You Are Merely Ill?
The answer to your question is undoubtedly no. If you feel mildly ill, you should not visit an emergency room but seek immediate care near me from your primary health care provider.
The emergency room in Temple, TX, is best used by people who are very sick. However, if you have the emergency warning signs of flu can visit the Temple emergency room if you are prone to the risk of flu complications or are worried about your illness.
Emergency Warning Signs of Flu
Medical care must be sought by people experiencing the signs mentioned in this article.
Adults experiencing challenges in breathing or breathlessness, persistent pain or pressure in the abdomen and chest, persistent dizziness, confusion, and the inability to arouse, seizures, severe muscle pain, severe weakness and instability, fever, and cough that improves but returns or worsens, and worsening of chronic health conditions.
Children also experience flu symptoms, and the warning signs in children include fast breathing or challenges, a bluish face or lips, chest pain, severe muscle pain causing the child to refuse walking, dehydration causing no urination for over eight hours, dry mouth, and lack of tears when crying, seizures, temperature over 104° Fahrenheit, et cetera. Children below 12 experience fever or cough that improves but returns and worsens or experience worsening chronic medical conditions.
The lists mentioned above are not inclusive. Therefore you must consult your medical care provider about any severe or concerning symptoms.
Medications for Flu
Your doctor may prescribe antivirals for treating the flu. The medications make you feel better and will also inhibit severe complications. However, the effects of the antivirals subside within 48 hours, making it essential for you to remain cautious with yourself until you recover.
How Long Should You Remain Home When Sick?
Staying home for at least 24 hours after your fever subsides is suggested by the CDC. You can move out to get medical care or other necessary requirements. Your fever should subside without the use of medicines or drugs. Until it happens, you must stay home from work, school, travel, social events, and public gatherings. Aspirin or salicylate products are better not given to children and teenagers with flu or suspected flu-like symptoms because they can cause severe complications like Reye’s syndrome.
What Can You Do If You Are Sick?
If you feel sick, you must remain isolated from others as much as possible to avoid infecting them. If you must move around to get medical care, you must cover your face with a mask, if available, cover sneezes and cough with tissue. You must also wash your hands frequently to prevent the spread of the flu to others.
If your symptoms worsen after subsiding for a while, making you feel concerned, you can seek 24-hour urgent treatment offered by most medical facilities operating 24 x 7. However, going to an emergency room must remain a last resort when you cannot access alternative healthcare facilities and need treatment for the flu to prevent it from aggravating.
It would be even better if you adopted preventive measures to ensure the flu doesn’t affect you by vaccinating yourself and your family at the onset of the flu season because it helps prevent unnecessary stress and visits to an emergency room with a preventable condition.
Express Emergency Room Temple provides help to all patients approaching them with flu-like symptoms by remaining open throughout the day and night. Therefore consult this facility if you think you have severe flu symptoms to receive the necessary treatment immediately from them.
