After nearly 18 years of having daughters in high school and college sports you are finally done with late night visits and day long procedures at local health care centers and surgery clinics. Or so you thought.
The year after your youngest daughter graduated from college was supposed to be relaxing. You would no longer be traveling around the country to watch gymnastics meets or cross country races. You would not need to schedule your lives around the college calendars that had long stretches with no time off and long breaks in the summer and at Christmas. You and your wife planned to take long four day weekend trips without having to worry about the schedules of your daughters. Just when you thought that you were done with the late night calls about an injury that required your one of your athletic daughters to go in for an x-ray, you found yourself dealing with your own pain.
A nagging ache in your right shoulder has now turned into a popping and crackling sound that happens with even the smallest of movements. After enough time at appointments in medical centers with your daughters, you are beginning to suspect a torn rotator cuff. You know that the situation requires an x-ray, maybe a scan, but you simply do not want to admit that things could be that bad. As it is, however, you are not able to enjoy the golfing that both you and your wife are looking forward to if you travel for his upcoming weekend trip. You cannot enjoy a morning of pickle ball with other men from church. Perhaps the worst thing is that you cannot even get dressed in the morning without a sharp pain shooting down your arm.
Although you are used to making these appointments for your daughters, you are not looking forward to making the call for your own exam. You fear the news that you might give. You fear the announcement that you may need a surgery and months of rehab before you can swing a golf club again. Most of all, however, you fear one more interruption in the plans that you and your wife have for quite a few of the upcoming weekends.
Minor Fractures and Torn Ligaments Can Require Months of Rehabilitation
In today’s health care world, consumers have many choices. None of these choices, however, will be of much help if you do not go in for an initial evaluation. The reality is that you can start your way down the road to recovery if you do not go in for the initial evaluation that can help you find out what needs to be done. Even if you start with an x-ray at a walk in clinic, you are at least taking the first step. Avoiding your health care needs typically only leads to bigger problems down the road.
Consider some of these facts and figures about the many times when patients find themselves at local health centers, family physician offices, and, sometimes, hospital emergency rooms:
- 85% of urgent care centers are open seven days a week.
- 80% of urgent care centers provide fracture care.
- Occurring in 70% of the nation’s population at sometime in their lives, dizziness is the second most common complaint heard in doctor’s offices.
- People with strep throat are generally asked to quarantine themselves for 24 hours after the condition has been diagnosed, so it is important to make sure that you are diagnosed as soon as possible.
- 22 million school days are lost annually in the United States because of the common cold, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
- More than 1 million bone fractures occur every year in America.
Whether you are looking for an answer to a health care concern for your children, your spouse, or yourself, it is often important to get a professional medical opinion. Fortunately, there are many options that consumers can select from. Getting the answers that you need to your health concerns sooner rather than later is almost always in your best interest.