How To Know If You Should Go To The ER When You Have The Flu

It’s hard to believe that in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic that there would still be cause for concern with the flu. The flu goes around every year and seems to have gotten worse with each passing year. There are flu vaccines, but the vaccination rate for it is not that high.

This means that it is possible to catch the flu during the pandemic. The trick is to know how to take care of yourself if you end up getting the flu. Often, people fail to realize how serious it can be. This is especially true considering how overshadowed the flu has gotten since the pandemic began over two years ago. In this article, we will go over the signs to look for to understand if you need Utah urgent care or a visit to the emergency room.

What Are The Symptoms?

The flu starts out feeling very much like it’s a cold. You will likely feel a scratchy and sore throat and a runny nose. A cold can linger like that for days and then go away. When it starts to get worse then you may have the flu. The next symptoms that could be the flu are fever and cough along with body aches and chills.

Where it starts to get serious is when you start getting diarrhea and vomiting. Between the high fever and the vomiting and diarrhea, you can easily get dehydrated even if you are drinking lots of liquids.

This can continue for up to two weeks until it finally subsides. During this time none of those symptoms on their own would seem to necessitate a visit to the emergency room or urgent care. You can treat some of the symptoms to not feel so bad but essentially you have to wait things out. The problem is that complications from the flu during this time can be quite serious.

Should You Get A Prescription?

There are some antiviral medications that can reduce the time that you suffer from the flu. You can shorten the illness by a couple of days but with a big caveat. You would need to start taking the medication within 48 hours of having the flu for it to be effective. Not many people will do this as it usually takes longer than that to realize that you have the flu.

When To Head To The ER

There are some signs that things are getting serious. If you are feeling short of breath or have difficulty breathing in general then you should get to the ER. you could have a chest infection or even pneumonia caused by the flu which requires antibiotics right away.

Also, if you have pain in the chest or abdomen then these are signs of something serious and need to be checked out right away. The most likely reason that you will need to go to the emergency room is that you are getting dehydrated from vomiting and diarrhea. If those are persistent and you are starting to get confused or disoriented then you need to go to the ER right away.

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