Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning.
The holidays tend to make people put off necessary procedures, but they really shouldn’t.
Sommer said, “Around this time every year, I kind of address the two topics of over indulgence, and then Christmas and New Year’s, everybody’s really busy, and sometimes, after working in the hospital in the ICU, in the ER, all those years, you get the people that come in around the holidays or on the nights of the holidays, because they had been not feeling well for weeks and days leading up to it, and didn’t want to burden anybody. I thought it would go away. And it turns out to be a medical emergency. So don’t ignore any type of medical issues that might be occurring, especially if you have something with the gallbladder. A lot of times now come the cookies and if you work in offices, people deliver gift baskets. So there’s a lot of things that can trigger an attack, but don’t ignore it, because then on the holiday will become a medical emergency.”
People really can get into a deep denial.
Sommer said, “People can convince themselves that what they’re feeling is not major, even when it comes to like chest pain or chest discomfort. We talked about the symptoms of GERD and how that can mimic chest pain. Well, people will put off actual, real cardiac chest pain, thinking it’s like indigestion or acid reflux, and really it’s signs that they’re having a heart attack. But again, because of the holidays, you don’t want to believe, you want to spend time with your family, you don’t want to be a burden. So they put it off.”
When is it time to seek medical attention?
Sommer said, “So a lot of times, people can get confused of when to go to the urgent care and when to go to the ER. When do you have to go to the ER? Obviously, if you’re choking, and you feel like there’s something stuck in your throat. Or even people get food lodged in their esophagus that they can’t pass through. That’s kind of an ER situation. Having difficulty breathing. Or if somebody has stopped breathing, that’s a 911 phone call. Suffering a head injury. A lot of times, people slip and fall and hit their head. Now down here, we don’t have ice and snow, but up north, people will tend to slip and hit their head. They’ll get up, they think they’re okay, and a little while later, they start to not feel okay. So if you suffer any type of head injury and you have dizziness or blurry vision, you need to go to the ER right away. Obviously, if you lose consciousness or you’re fainting afterwards, those are signs where you should definitely go to the ER, not the urgent care. Any type of spine or neck injury, especially if you lose feeling in any of your extremities. Years ago, when I worked at urgent care, we had somebody that got hit by a car on their bicycle and refused the ambulance to go to the ER, and walked into urgent care, and he actually fractured his back, so he became a medical emergency from the urgent care to the ER. He should have listened and went to the ER, instead of coming to the urgent care first. If you get an electric shock or struck by lightning, just be careful. Severe burns if something happens, those are things that you should go to the ER for. Chest pain or pressure, you need to go to the ER. When I worked in urgent care, we’ve had people actually having acute heart attacks, because they chose to come to urgent care instead of going to the ER, so you’re delaying time. Time is precious. Your heart is a muscle and time is a factor to restoring the circulation to the heart.”
Seizures are another ER trip.
Sommer said, “Especially if you’ve never had a seizure before, and you have one, a lot of times, people come out of it, and they’ll think, like, oh, that never happened before. I’m okay. No, you really should go to the ER, especially if you’ve never had one before. Then obviously, if you injure yourself and there are body parts hanging or bleeding, you need to go to the ER. I’m laughing, because people put this off. I’ve seen this.”
When should people go to Urgent Care?
Sommer said, “Urgent Care is really good for minor cuts or injuries that require simple stitches. They can they can do pretty deep cuts or lacerations, as long as it hasn’t hit an artery or a major vessel. They are great at being able to stitch that up, even sometimes people get a cut, like with glass, and the glass is in there and they need to remove the glass. They can do that too. Flu and bad colds, of course, flu season, urgent care is good for that. Sprains, muscle pulls, if you have just kind of fever, malaise and headache and for a couple of days you’re not feeling good, diarrhea and vomiting, abdominal pain within reason. If you have severe abdominal pain, any type of bloody diarrhea or a high fever, you should probably go to the ER. You can also go to the urgent care, but you worry about, like, if it’s on the lower right quadrant, if it’s appendicitis, and that’s going to become a surgical issue. So yes, urgent cares can treat abdominal pain. But just know, depending on the severity, you still may end up in the ER from the urgent care, depending on what the issue is. Sinus infection and ear infections and minor fractures, you fell, you think you broke your ankle, or you can’t walk, you could go to the urgent care.”
When can you call your physician?
Sommer said, “If it’s something that you’re not sure about and it doesn’t seem to be life threatening, you can always call your primary care physician. Or if you think it’s a surgical issue, of course, you can call us. But if it’s been going on for a couple of days and it’s not going away, and say the weekend’s coming up, or you call late in the afternoon and you can’t get a hold anybody. Don’t wait until you get a phone call back. Seek medical attention. Don’t put it off. Yes, it’s good to make your physician aware that something’s going on. But sometimes throughout the day, they get messages, there’s a delay, they won’t call you back up. You call first thing in the morning, and they won’t be able to get back to you to the end of the day, and your symptoms are bad, you need to seek immediate attention.”
What about a skin abscess?
Sommer said, “People can have a little bump or lump, and they’ll grow and grow, and they’ll wait and that’s something that can fester over a couple of days, like that can worsen over time. So people tend to let those go and then they become a big problem. So I know we’ve talked about skin abscesses before. As soon as they start, some people are just prone to them. The quicker you take care of them, the less of an issue they will be. But they can turn into a very large problem if you let them go without care.”
You can always call Key West Surgical Group if you have a concern.
Sommer said, “We have somebody on call seven days a week, available after 5pm and we have had have patients unfortunately come to our office with a severe problem and we’ve had to send them to the ER, sometimes by ambulance. So, just know that we’re always available. During the day, there’s always a nurse available.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/