Search for tag: "reassurance"

"Should I call the on-call pediatrician?" It's a question you've probably asked yourself when you have a question for your child's doctor and the clinic is closed. I'll help you figure out when it's appropriate to call and when a question can wait until the next office day.

As a pediatrician, we all take call, meaning that we rotate with our colleagues when we answer after-hours phone calls from concerned parents.

Usually, the questions parents have are very appropriate. Sometimes parents are just looking for reassurance that they're doing the right supportive care for their little one. Sometimes they're wanting reassurance that taking their child to urgent care or the emergency room is the right decision and that they're not overreacting. And sometimes they just want to know how much fever reducer to give.

One thing I don't think most parents realize is that the job of the on-call pediatrician is to help determine if their child needs to be seen urgently or not.

We cannot diagnose anything over the phone. Parents will often tell me that they know their child has an ear infection, or strep throat, or a urinary tract infection. I can't tell if your child has any of those over the phone, so they need to be seen.

We absolutely cannot call in medications like controlled substances. We cannot call in medications in general, because if your child needs an urgent medication, they should be seen.

If they need a refill of a long-time medication, that's better to be addressed by your child's pediatrician specifically during office hours. Questions that are not urgent should wait until the clinic is open.

I have one colleague who answers her calls, "Hello, this is the on-call doctor. What is your emergency?" One reason for this is we've gotten questions like, "I'm in the baby food aisle at the store. What food should I get my 6-month-old?" or, "My toddler won't take a nap. What can I do to force them to take one?" or, "How old does my daughter need to be to get her ears pierced?" These are all questions I've gotten.

One thing I've noticed in my years of taking call are that parents often think I'm sitting in the clinic just waiting for their calls. More than once, I've been asked if they can just come in and see me or if I can meet them at the emergency room.

When you call the on-call pediatrician, we are at home with our families. We are not in the office. I've answered phone calls from soccer games, while doing landscaping, when I'm doing hospital rounds in the newborn nursery, when out to eat, and of course, from my bed in the middle of the night.

As pediatricians, we want to be there for you when you have concerns. Kids don't come with instruction manuals, and often things happen when the office is closed. If you have an urgent concern, you are always welcome to call and we will give you the best advice we can. If your concern is not urgent, it will be better handled by your pediatrician during office hours.

Your pediatrician knows your child and your family. They can address non-urgent concerns better than one of us who has never met your child before.

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Having a cold is never fun. Neither is the flu. But what treatments are available for these two nasty bugs? Justin Knox is an urgent care physician assistant for University of Utah Health and he sees a lot of colds in his office.

The common cold is a viral infection that is transmitted from person to person. The virus is found in droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes and potentially as they touch things in their environment.

"It's all over," says Troy, "There's nothing you can do." In the ER Troy washes his hands all the time and even wears a face mask when interacting with some patients, but he still finds himself catching colds.

The cold is a viral infection. Viruses typically need to run their course before you feel better. There is little a physician can do to help treat the cold itself. The best a physician can do is help alleviate the symptoms.

The symptoms of a cold typically include:

• Runny or stuffy nose
• Cough
• Congestion
• Sore throat
• Sneezing
• Low fever
• Body aches and mild headaches

Most cold symptoms are caused by mucus. Cough, congestion, sore throat, etc. all stem from the changes in your snot while your body battles a cold. How to Survive Your Next Cold

"It's all about mucus control," says Justin. He suggests three strategies to help you feel your best during a cold:

• Manage the Mucus: try an over the counter decongestant or expectorants like Mucinex or Sudafed. These should help with most symptoms, including sinus pressure than can lead to headaches. If you live in a particularly dry climate, a humidifier can help keep the mucus from getting too thick.
• Calm the Cough: over the counter cough suppressants like Robitussin work great at getting your cough under control. A frequent cough can cause or further irritate sore throats or headaches.
• Alleviate the Aches: ibuprofen or Tylenol can help minimize the body aches and headaches that come with a viral infection.

While these treatments can go a long way in making your next cold more bearable, remember that a cold is still a virus. It can take your body up to a week to fight off the infection and start getting better.

There is no cure for the common cold. Antibiotics will not help treat a virus. And you're contagious as long as you have symptoms. Spare your coworkers, stay home from work. Is it a Cold or the Flu?

The common cold and influenza are both viral infections that can be very contagious. It can be difficult for doctors to tell the difference between the two. Usually, flu symptoms are similar but noticeably worse than a cold. Other times, the symptoms can be quite mild. It depends on the strain of influenza that is going around that flu season.

There is a test for influenza available. However, most doctors will not use it because the flu is a condition that can be diagnosed and treated easily without waiting for test results. The Center for Disease Control's recommendations are for doctors to treat a patient with flu-like symptoms as if they did have the flu, even without a positive test.

This means that a majority of people can get treatment for their flu through a virtual visit with a doctor or even a quick phone call if you feel you've been exposed to someone with the flu. Treatment and Prevention of the Flu

Having the flu is miserable. It's understandable that people may want some sort of cure to help them get back on their feet faster. Unfortunately, such medication doesn't really exist.

You may have heard of a drug like Tamiflu, and been led to believe it knocks out the flu fast. This antiviral medication was designed to help treat at-risk populations where an infection like the flu could be life-threatening. For young children, older adults, and immuno-compromised individuals, this drug could be a lifesaver. One of the major limitations of the treatment is that it needs to be administered within 48 hours of a person being exposed to the virus for it to be effective.

For otherwise healthy individuals that have the flu, Tamiflu will do little to treat the infection. Research has shown it may shorten the duration of symptoms by only 12 hours over a week or so the flu lasts. And those results are only seen if it was administered within the first two days of infection.

The best way to survive flu season is to prevent catching it in the first place. Influenza is a very contagious disease. In fact, flu victims can be infectious before serious symptoms even present themselves. Those individuals will continue to be contagious throughout the infection, with the most infectious time while experiencing a fever.

If you or someone you know might be coming down with the flu, stay home from work and spare the people around you from being sick.

Even more importantly, protect yourself. An annual flu shot can reduce your chances of catching influenza by 50%. Due to the constantly changing nature of the disease, there is still no 100% effective vaccine, but a fifty percent protection is better than nothing. Dr. Knox's Megaphone Moment:

"Get your flu shot. Wash your hands." Life Expectancies of Men Dropping Due to Deaths of Despair

According to a recent article featured on Yahoo News, life expectancies for U.S. men peaked in 2014 and have been declining since then. One major contributor: ‘deaths of despair."

These deaths of despair include drug overdose and suicide. The mortality rate for drug overdose in men within the U.S. has doubled between 2007-2017. That's twice as many men losing their lives to drugs in just a decade. In that same time period, the suicide rates for both men and women has increased by 24%.

When thinking about a population's health, it's easy to focus on eating right, exercising and avoiding disease or injury. That's not the whole picture. Mental health plays a big role in keeping people alive.

The typical signs of depression include:

• Poor sleep
• Poor diet
• Loss of interest in things they once enjoyed
• Irritability
• Feelings of guilt and helplessness
• Anger
• Thought of suicide

Remember that good health is a battle, especially when it comes to mental health. As a man, recognize that suicide and drug overdose are killing this generation. Take it seriously.

If you are having depressive feelings or extreme stress, or see these signs in others, reach out and seek help.

There is no wrong way to get help for mental health. Go to a physician, doctor, get in touch with therapist, talk to friends or family, just reach out. These interventions do make a difference. Keep working on it and keep trying and don't buy into the stigma that caring about your mental health is a weakness. Just Going to Leave This Here

On this episode's Just Going to Leave This Here, Scot is noticing that as he's eating more vegetables, he's been getting sick less. Could it be his microbiome? And the cold weather is making Troy's early morning run a little miserable. Talk to Us

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Dr. Gellner: When a child tells their parents they have chest pain, parents automatically think it's a heart problem or pneumonia. While those can be the cause, it's much more likely to be something more benign, like costochondritis or precordial catch syndrome.

Announcer: Keep your kids healthy and happy. You are now entering the "Healthy Kids Zone" with Dr. Cindy Gellner on The Scope.

Dr. Gellner: Chest pain is one of those things that strikes fear in the parents. They want x-rays and EKGs and echocardiograms to make sure their child's heart is okay. The good news is if your child is going to have a worrisome heart problem, there's a good chance the OB will pick it up before the baby is even born. The heart is one of those organs that OBs scan during prenatal ultrasounds.

Something missed on that, well, the next heart test is actually done on babies 24 hours after birth. In most nurseries, this is the screen for the critical congenital heart defects. We call it the CCHD screen because it's easier. This checks the oxygen level in one arm and one leg on a baby after 24 hours old when the circulation has transitioned from fetal circulation, where the blood mostly bypasses the lungs before a baby is born, to newborn circulation. The change starts as soon as the baby takes the first breath after birth.

If the baby fails this CCHD test, they are transferred to the newborn intensive care unit, where a cardiologist gets involved to do an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart. And they'll do an EKG to check the electrical rhythm in the baby's heart.

So if the problem isn't the heart and your child's lungs are good, then the pain is most likely coming from the ribs and muscles in your child's chest. There are two very common causes of chest pain in kids -- costochondritis and precordial catch syndrome.

Costochondritis is basically inflammation of the joints that connect the ribs to the breastbone or sternum. These joints move against each other every time your child breathes. Just like any other joints, if they are overworked, they can become irritated and they can hurt, and this causes pain along the front of the chest. We see this often when kids have been coughing a lot or breathing hard. Even laughing too much can cause it. Sometimes we have no idea what triggered the inflammation. But the good news is that costochondritis eventually goes away on its own.

The other common cause of chest pain in kids is something called precordial catch syndrome or PCS. It feels like someone is stabbing you right at the base of your heart, where you can feel your heart beat best on your chest. It's brief, sharp, and can sometimes take your breath away, but it's not dangerous. Doctors aren't really sure what causes it, and it does get worse if a person breathes in deeply, but it goes away quickly.

Pediatricians normally can tell you if your child has one of these just by asking questions about your child's symptoms and doing a physical exam. No special tests are needed unless there are other concerns that raise red flags for us. And then, we may do an x-ray or an EKG.

So how do you help your child if they have one of these going on? If your child has costochondritis, rest, ibuprofen, and avoiding heavy exercise or lifting for a few days does the trick. If your child has PCS, you don't need to do anything in particular to treat it because it doesn't really interfere with normal activity.

With both of these diagnoses, kids can continue to be kids. They can go to school. They can do all the fun things they want to. Quite often, just knowing what is going on and that they don't have anything dangerous is reassurance enough for the kids and their parents.

So if your child says they have chest pain, it's always a good idea to have your child's pediatrician get a good history and do a thorough exam to help you figure out what the real cause is.

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