When The Summer Heat Gets You Down: Reasons You Should Head To An Urgent Care Clinic

As spring morphs into summer, you are likely going to find yourself spending more and more time outside on a regular basis. As such, you may be putting yourself in situations in which you may be at risk of different heat-related and outdoor exposure related illness and injury that you normally would. Get to know some of the issues that you may experience this summer that would warrant a trip to an urgent care clinic so that you can be sure that you get the summer health care you need when you need it most.  

Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke

When you spend a great deal of time outside during the summer, you will be exposed to heat a lot more than you otherwise would normally be. The time you spend outside in the heat could cause you to suffer from heat exhaustion or worse yet, heat stroke.

If you are outside or have recently come in from spending time out in the heat and begin to feel dizzy, experience fatigue, begin to have abdominal or muscle cramps, and have a headache, you may be suffering from heat exhaustion. Get into a cool environment as soon as possible and attempt to rehydrate yourself. If you are not feeling better within an hour or less, you will want to head to the urgent care clinic to get checked out and ensure that you do not suffer from severe dehydration.

Heat stroke, on the other hand, is an even more serious reaction to prolonged sun and heat exposure. Rapid breathing, nausea, vomiting, elevated body temperature (104 degrees or above), and flushed skin are all signs of heat stroke. A person may also have an altered mental state like confusion, slurred speech, agitation that are a result of the raised body temperature and dehydration. Heat stroke requires immediate medical attention and, as such, you should head to urgent care right away for evaluation and treatment.

A Severe Sunburn

If you are planning to spend a long time outside during the summer, you should theoretically be prepared ahead of time and apply sunscreen before you head out. However, sometimes you are outside for longer than you planned or you simply forget to wear sunblock.

When this happens, you may suffer from a sunburn. While a "normal" sunburn is not necessarily a cause for a trip to the urgent care clinic, a severe sunburn can have serious complications. A sunburn, just like any other burn is categorized by degrees. Normal sunburns are what are also known as first-degree burns. This means that it does not penetrate past the first few layers of the skin and causes mild discomfort.

A more severe sunburn would be categorized as a second degree or even a third-degree burn. For a sunburn to require medical attention from urgent care is one that is accompanied with the symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke, or that causes blistering of the skin. An urgent care doctor can clean the burn to fight off infection and give you prescription medication that will help to heal the burn.

Now that you know a few of the summer-related conditions that require medical attention from an urgent care clinic, you can be sure that you are taking the best possible care of your health this summer.