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5 Signs You May Have a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and Need to Seek Urgent Care

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common reasons why people visit urgent care facilities each year. UTIs are caused by bacteria that enter the urinary tract through the urethra, and they cause painful urination, frequent urges to urinate, fever, back pain, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Most cases of UTIs can be treated with antibiotics within two days, but if left untreated, UTIs can lead to kidney damage and even death.

1) Frequent urination
For women, urinary frequency may be defined as urinating more than 8 times during a 24-hour period. For men, it may be described as having to go more often than every two hours or waking up at night one or more times for a bathroom trip. If you think you have frequent urination symptoms associated with your UTI, contact your doctor immediately.

2) Pain while urinating
UTIs are typically characterized by pain or discomfort when urinating. This can often be mistaken for simply needing to use the restroom, but it could also be linked to something more serious. If you experience any pain while urinating, be sure to check in with your doctor right away. The sooner you treat a UTI, after all, the better your chances of avoiding any long-term damage or infection. Pain while peeing may also signify other urinary tract issues that require attention from your doctor as soon as possible.

3) Burning sensation while urinating
Burning sensation while urinating is one of most common symptoms associated with UTIs. It’s imperative that you seek urgent care for such symptoms, as they could lead to serious complications. If your urine has an unusual color or odor, if you experience back pain or cramping, or if you notice blood in your urine – these are also tell-tale signs of UTIs. These infections require immediate treatment, so see your doctor ASAP if you experience any of these symptoms.

4) Blood in the urine
If you think you’ve urinated blood, or if there’s blood on your underwear when you wake up in the morning, it’s important to get checked out as soon as possible. This could be a sign of serious issues like kidney stones.

5) Fever
Frequent urination is one of several urinary tract infection symptoms, but it’s also one that shouldn’t be ignored. In most cases, UTIs don’t cause fever, but if you notice your temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher with other UTI symptoms like painful urination, get yourself to urgent care immediately—it could be an infection that requires antibiotics.

The Dreaded Sore Throat: Why You Should Never Ignore It

You’re in the middle of an important work presentation, and suddenly you feel a piercing pain on your left side of your neck. Suddenly, you lose your voice entirely, and before long you can’t help but start coughing uncontrollably. You must stop the presentation and run to your doctor’s office—you must have strep throat!

Fever
A fever is often a symptom of tonsillitis or a more serious illness, such as strep throat. If your sore throat persists, don’t hesitate to contact your doctor—fever without any other accompanying symptoms can be indicative of a serious disease like mononucleosis, for example. In fact, it’s recommended that patients go see their physician if they suspect something may be wrong with them but aren’t sure what it is. When in doubt, contact your doctor!

Back pain
If your back hurts but you’re not quite sure where it hurts, it might be a symptom of something else. Because muscles, tendons, and ligaments throughout your body are connected to your spine, even injuries lower on your body can create pain in your upper back or neck. For example, if you have an injury to your low back (lumbar spine), you might feel pain in your neck or upper back. Seek medical attention right away if you have any of these symptoms

Swollen glands
Your glands are located in your neck, armpits and groin. When they swell, it’s a signal that something is off with your immune system. There are more than 100 different types of glands in our bodies; those in our throat make mucous to protect against germs and bacteria. When we have a sore throat, swollen tonsils (the round, fleshy objects at each side of our pharynx) are often culprits.

Pain with swallowing
Many sore throats come with a dull ache when you swallow, which comes from irritated pharyngeal (throat) tissue. A sore throat is not likely to get better on its own, and there are many causes of a sore throat. Therefore, if you notice pain while swallowing or have other symptoms of strep throat, such as swollen tonsils or red spots on your tongue and in your mouth, it’s best to see a doctor right away.

Numbness or tingling

Earaches can be an indicator of strep throat
If you notice a sore throat accompanied by any of these symptoms, your sore throat could be caused by strep. Tonsillitis (inflammation of your tonsils) may follow within one to two weeks. If you have a fever and/or swollen lymph nodes, along with a sore throat, it’s important that you make an appointment to see your doctor as soon as possible. These are common indicators of bacterial infections that can spread quickly if left untreated.

Treatments for adults
Though many sore throats are caused by viruses and can’t be treated with medication, some sore throats do require medical treatment. If your throat pain is accompanied by difficulty swallowing, fever or discolored patches on your tongue or throat, you may have strep throat and should seek medical attention immediately. Antibiotics are typically given to those with a bacterial infection of any type.

Treatments for children
For kids, sore throats are usually just a passing annoyance, but it’s important to recognize that they can be a symptom of something more serious. If your child is younger than 2 years old or under 5 years old and his throat is sore for more than two days, he may have strep throat. Call your doctor for an appointment to get antibiotics for him as soon as possible—that way you can avoid further complications.

Reasons to go to urgent care for your sprain or strain

If you’ve injured yourself, there are two options when it comes to where you seek treatment – urgent care or emergency room care. While these two types of facilities have much in common, there are some important differences to take into consideration before deciding on one type of treatment over the other. Here are five reasons why you should choose urgent care over an emergency room, and vice versa, when you have a sprain or strain that requires medical attention.

A sprained ankle can get worse
If you’ve sprained an ankle, it can start getting worse at a pretty alarming rate. In fact, if you don’t get treatment for a grade 2 ankle sprain (and it’s not properly stabilized) in about 6 hours, it could swell up and become so painful that walking becomes impossible. Once you’re in that predicament, going to urgent care is your best option—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to do something yourself first.

Prevent Injuries by Learning First Aid
We all know someone who has strained a muscle, pulled a ligament, or tweaked their knee. Most of us have been there ourselves at some point in our lives. If you’re like most people, though, you’re probably not sure when to visit an emergency room and when you can treat a minor injury at home using ice, heat and TLC.

If it feels like a break you should see a doctor
Most sprains and strains are mild and can be treated at home. But if you feel like you’ve broken a bone, you’re concerned about nerve damage, or it’s accompanied by numbness/tingling in your hands or feet, then head straight to Urgent Care. Your bones and joints will thank you later.

When Should You Go to Urgent Care?
If you are unable to get relief by resting and icing, or if symptoms have not subsided within 24-48 hours, it is time to visit an urgent care center. During your visit, a physician will examine you and determine how severe your condition is. They may order X-rays, MRIs, and other diagnostic tests as necessary.

What Happens After an X-ray?
Sometimes, all you need is a good bandage and a few days of rest. In other cases, however, a doctor will recommend an X-ray. While it may seem scary that there’s a foreign object inserted into your body in order to take pictures of what lies beneath, it’s not as bad as you might imagine. Follow along as we tell you what happens after an X-ray:How long does an X-ray last?

How long does it take to heal from a strain or sprain?
Depending on what body part was injured, a strained muscle can take anywhere from several days to three weeks to heal. The severity of a strain or sprain determines how long it will take you to get back on track with work and other activities. Recovery time depends mostly on two factors: how badly you were hurt, and whether you give your body adequate rest and care. Tendons usually need more time than muscles do to heal because tendons have less blood circulation.

7 Ways to Tell If You Need Urgent Care for Your Cold or Flu

It’s the start of cold and flu season and you’re starting to feel the symptoms of one or both making themselves known in your body. The first thing many people do when they feel under the weather, whether it be due to a cold or the flu, is go to their local urgent care center or emergency room to seek treatment right away. Although this might seem like a good idea because you are feeling sick, it might actually do more harm than good if you don’t follow these 7 tips on how to tell if you need urgent care for your cold or flu.

1) Does your throat hurt?
Many cold and flu symptoms don’t affect our throats, so it may be a good idea to suspect that your sore throat is caused by something else. For example, if you have strep throat, you’ll have swollen lymph nodes in your neck. In addition, a strep infection will make your tonsils (the fleshy part of your throat) appear white and sometimes bubble or bleed.

2) Is your cough productive?
Coughing up phlegm, yellow-green in color, with an unpleasant odor is one of the most common cold and flu symptoms. But you don’t necessarily need urgent care if your cough is productive—it just means your body is trying to clear your lungs by getting rid of excess mucus.

3) Do you have a fever?
A fever is one of your body’s ways of fighting infections. It can also, however, mean that your body isn’t strong enough to fight off whatever bug you’ve caught—in which case it may require some professional attention. That said, not all fevers are bad.

4) Are you having trouble breathing?
Shortness of breath is one of the most common symptoms of a cold and flu, but it can also be a symptom of asthma, allergies and other issues. Before you head over to urgent care, check in with your doctor about whether you’re experiencing shortness of breath due to an underlying condition.

5) Are you getting worse instead of better?
While most colds and flus will disappear within a week without treatment, if yours persists, you should probably visit urgent care. If your symptoms are worsening despite your best efforts at self-care (taking over-the-counter medications, drinking plenty of fluids), it’s time to get some professional advice.

6) Do you need an antibiotic?
When do you need antibiotics? The short answer is: most of us don’t. Antibiotics are a type of medication that fights bacteria in your body, but not viruses. Antibiotics can help fight bacterial infections (like strep throat), but they won’t help with a virus (like cold or flu). They also have side effects and can cause complications if taken incorrectly. So, it is best to avoid them as much as possible.

7) Do you know what’s wrong with you?
Most of us just don’t know what’s wrong with us. We have no idea whether we should take ibuprofen or call a doctor. The truth is that even when you’re feeling terrible, there are still times when it may not make sense to go see a doctor. So in general, here are some things you should consider: Do I have a fever? How long have I had symptoms? Am I having trouble breathing?

The Three Eyeball Emergencies That Mean You Need to Seek Urgent Care

You’re always on the lookout for an eye emergency if you’re an eye doctor, but there are actually three very specific eyeball emergencies that are so dangerous they could cause blindness if they’re not treated quickly. These conditions include conjunctivitis (pink eye), orbital cellulitis (an infection of the muscles and tissues surrounding the eye) and hyphema (blood in the front part of your eye, often due to trauma). This article details how to identify these conditions and what you should do if you suspect you or someone else has one.

Red Eyes
Eye redness or discharge can be a sign of an eye infection, which requires urgent treatment. If you see these symptoms, see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible for diagnosis and treatment. The quicker you get treated for a potentially blinding eye infection, like conjunctivitis, or an infectious disease affecting your eyes (like herpes simplex keratitis), which can cause scarring and permanent vision damage, the better chance you have of stopping it from progressing. According to Drs.

Discharge From Eyes
This can be a sign of either eye infection or conjunctivitis, commonly called pink eye. If you’re experiencing discharge from eyes along with redness, a foreign body sensation and pain, then you need to head to an urgent care center. It’s possible that you have a scratch on your cornea and may need antibiotic drops; in some cases, eyedrops are enough treatment. Itchiness: Noticing an itchy feeling on your eyes can mean several things.

Irritated Eyes
While conjunctivitis (commonly known as pink eye) is sometimes treated at home, red or irritated eyes that are accompanied by blurry vision, pain, or tearing may be a sign of something much more serious. If you think your red eyes are anything other than irritation from allergies or computer use, it’s best to get checked out.

How to tell if your ear pain is serious enough to go to urgent care

There are certain types of ear pain that require urgent medical attention, but many cases aren’t as severe, and can be treated at home with natural remedies like ibuprofen and warm compresses to alleviate the pain. So how can you tell the difference? This guide will help you determine when you need urgent care for your ear pain so that you can get the appropriate treatment without wasting anyone’s time or getting sicker in the meantime.

The Symptoms of Serious Ear Infections
Ear infections are often caused by colds and flu, but can also be caused by other illnesses or injuries. The most common symptom of an ear infection is a red and painful ear canal, with discharge coming from your inner ear. You might also feel dizzy, nauseated or have headaches. Ear infections are quite painful, so it’s important that you understand whether or not you should seek medical attention for them.

The Symptoms of Irritated Ears
Ear infections and irritated ears are common sources of discomfort, particularly among children. While they may be accompanied by a fever or some other sign that infection is present, it’s often easy for people to think their symptoms indicate something less severe than a full-blown infection—after all, it’s not unheard of for people’s ears to hurt for days or weeks at a time.

The Symptoms of Swimmer’s Ear
Swimmer’s ear can be caused by bacteria or fungi. In most cases, it’s caused by a bacterial infection and occurs when water gets trapped in your ear canal. This creates an ideal environment for bacteria and fungi to multiply, leading to swelling and pain in your ears. If you experience any of these symptoms below while swimming, you may have swimmer’s ear

The Symptoms of Tinnitus
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, affects about 10% of people at some point in their lives. The problem can be intermittent or constant and may worsen with age. The most common causes of tinnitus are damage to hair cells, which line a part of your inner ear known as cochlea. These cells help you hear and balance by sending information on sound and pressure changes through nerves to your brain.

Sore Throat? 5 Urgent Care Tips to Find Relief Fast

Although most sore throats are minor, it’s important to take them seriously and see a doctor right away if you have any of these symptoms: pain when swallowing, painful swelling in your neck, high fever, severe headache or dizziness, and rapid breathing or heart rate. These could all be signs of strep throat or other dangerous infections that need immediate treatment with antibiotics to avoid serious complications like rheumatic fever. If you’re feeling under the weather with these symptoms, call your local urgent care today to make an appointment!

1) Take Your Time
Don’t feel rushed by a strict appointment schedule. If you feel like something is wrong, listen to your body and let your doctor know how you’re feeling. It could be an early sign of something more serious. Your primary care physician (PCP) or urgent care center can give you an appropriate diagnosis and recommend next steps. When it comes down to it, taking your time saves lives!

2) Get the Full Story
If you’re experiencing sore throat pain, it’s important to understand exactly what you’re up against. In most cases, a sore throat is a sign of a viral infection like cold or flu that’s making its way through your body.

3) Symptoms Don’t Mean Cure
Don’t be fooled into thinking that cold symptoms need a cure; many sore throats will simply resolve on their own. Treating sore throats is typically unnecessary, so save yourself some time and money by avoiding trips to urgent care. However, if your sore throat doesn’t improve in a few days, schedule an appointment with your primary doctor. If you do see a doctor right away, ask whether home remedies or over-the-counter medications are appropriate for your situation.

4) Consider Home Remedies First
Sore throats are usually caused by a viral infection and can often be relieved at home with over-the-counter medications. Make sure you consult your physician if symptoms persist for more than two days, or if you experience any of these symptoms along with your sore throat: fever, headache, earache, rash or difficulty swallowing. In many cases, doctor’s advice is unnecessary and may even delay finding relief.

5) Make a Treatment Plan
When you first walk into a clinic, it’s helpful to understand your treatment plan before speaking with a doctor. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before seeing an urgent care: What are my symptoms (are they severe)? Does it hurt when I swallow? Where does it hurt exactly? Have I been able to clear my throat or cough up mucus? Do I have any of these other symptoms: chills, fever, headache, joint pain/swelling or rash?

How to Know When Your Cough and Congestion Symptom Mean You Need to Go to Urgent Care

You’re sick and exhausted from coughing, but you want to avoid the emergency room at all costs. The last thing you want to do is spend your day off in a waiting room with people suffering from the flu. Luckily, there are other options, like urgent care facilities that can help you get better faster than your doctor’s office can (and without the long wait). Follow this guide to learn how to know when your cough and congestion symptoms mean you need to go to urgent care.

What are the signs of serious illness?
Serious illness tends to happen suddenly. A sudden loss of appetite, intense pain, dizziness or a high fever are all signs that you need urgent medical care. If you have any of these symptoms in combination with your cough and congestion symptoms, you’re probably dealing with an infection or other serious illness that requires immediate medical attention.

Can I try home remedies first?
If you’re experiencing a cough, fever or other symptoms for less than three days (especially if it’s your first time getting sick that season) you may be able to treat yourself at home. Try these five home remedies before considering a trip to urgent care or your doctor.

What if my symptoms get worse?
It can be difficult to know when something more serious is going on with your health, so if you’re worried about your cough or congestion, make sure to see a doctor. Even though you feel like your symptoms aren’t getting worse, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is fine—especially if you have other symptoms of a viral illness, such as sore throat or fever.

What will happen at urgent care?
If your cough has persisted for more than two weeks or if you experience a cough that is accompanied by any of these symptoms, you should go to urgent care: fever, headache, chills, fatigue, confusion or shortness of breath. If your family physician determines that your symptoms are caused by an infection or condition that requires treatment with antibiotics (even if it doesn’t require hospitalization), you will likely be referred to an urgent-care center. Otherwise, most cases can be treated in an outpatient setting.

Where do I go for this type of help?
Before you go, be sure you know where you want to go. For immediate medical care, start with your primary care doctor. If he or she can’t help you (or doesn’t have an urgent care center on-site), ask for a referral.

Five reasons to visit an urgent care for your flu-like symptoms

Your flu-like symptoms aren’t severe enough to warrant an emergency room visit, but they are causing you to feel miserable, so you go in to see your doctor. Unfortunately, your physician isn’t available, so you’re told that the next available appointment with her will be two days later. Instead of waiting that long, you decide to visit the local urgent care center instead and are pleasantly surprised by how much more efficient the service was there.

Speed
Urgent care centers are staffed by doctors and nurses who can treat you quickly. Many patients show up at a doctor’s office or emergency room complaining of flu-like symptoms and end up waiting hours (or days) to be seen. At urgent cares, you generally receive treatment within minutes or hours. You’ll likely get in and out faster than you would at a walk-in clinic or even an ER. If that isn’t convenience, we don’t know what is!

Convenience
An emergency room, or ER, is in fact not a walk-in center. You’ll typically need a referral from your primary physician, and you may have to wait several hours before you can be seen. Urgent cares are not only open on Saturdays and Sundays—they’re also generally less busy than ERs.

Privacy
When you visit a doctor’s office, receptionists often have access to your medical records and are able to view anything that is written in those files. With many patients suffering from embarrassing or personal ailments, confidentiality may be a concern. When you walk into an urgent care center instead of a physician’s office, you can keep things confidential since most centers do not have access to any of their patients’ personal information.

Efficiency
For minor ailments, most of which are viral in nature and won’t respond to antibiotics, an urgent care may be a quicker choice than making an appointment with a primary-care physician. Urgent cares are equipped with telehealth technology that allows them to quickly screen patients and provide diagnoses or treatments via video conference. The process is simple and efficient, allowing you to walk out of an office in just a matter of minutes rather than hours.

Expertise
When you’re sick and in need of medical attention, you might be tempted to run straight to an emergency room. However, depending on your symptoms, you may actually be better off visiting an urgent care facility. Urgent cares are typically staffed by a team of certified nurse practitioners and doctors who have experience diagnosing and treating a wide range of common illnesses. Moreover, they have extended hours which allows them to see more patients than most ERs would be able to handle during peak hours.

5 Surprising Reasons You Might Have a Rash (Without a Fever)

The average American will experience at least one skin rash in their lifetime, but there are plenty of reasons you might have one that have nothing to do with your immune system or illness, according to medical experts in the fields of dermatology and primary care. In some cases, rashes that don’t appear to be related to fever may actually signal other medical conditions, which is why it’s important to visit urgent care if your rash lasts for more than 3 days and/or does not appear to be healing itself on its own after 3 weeks. Here are 5 surprising reasons you might have a rash without a fever.

1. Urticaria: Large, hive-like rashes
The most common cause of urticaria is called hives. These rashes typically show up as red or pink, raised welts that are surrounded by areas of pale skin. They’re itchy and typically appear suddenly on your body. Itchiness is one of their most prominent symptoms, but they can also cause other effects, like swelling and pain.

2. Papular urticaria: Small bumps all over the body
This rash is usually itchy, but usually not enough to cause discomfort. It’s also transient and often clears up on its own within a few weeks. This form of urticaria can be triggered by stress, hot weather or alcohol consumption. Often there’s no known cause. If you think you might have papular urticaria, seeing your doctor should clear things up quickly — and point you toward more effective treatment options if necessary.

3. Angioedema: Swelling under the skin
Sometimes, you can get an itchy red rash for no apparent reason. That’s probably not angioedema. Angioedema happens when there’s swelling under your skin that makes part of your body swell up—it looks like a giant bubble just under your skin. The most common place to have angioedema is around your lips, but it can happen almost anywhere on your body.

4. Insect Bites
Bug bites occur when insect saliva comes in contact with your skin. Most of these bites produce itchy rashes that clear up on their own, but in some cases, they can be painful or serious. If you experience any signs of infection like redness, warmth or swelling around an insect bite, it’s best to consult a physician right away.

5. Allergic Reactions
Rashes can indicate an allergic reaction, but rashes alone are not enough to diagnose allergies. The only way to know if you have an allergy is to be tested for specific allergens. The most common allergens—pollen and dust mites—are usually responsible for seasonal rashes. Less common allergens include animal dander, food, plants and chemicals like perfumes and lotions.