'injuries' posts

When life-changing events happen, it can leave you and your support network at a loss. Whether it is something as joyous as the birth of a child or as devastating as a death or diagnosis, daily routines often go out the window and in the midst of adjusting to a “new normal,” we also have to figure out how to manage the tasks of everyday life. Whether you find yourself at the center of this transition or on the outside looking in, it can be difficult to know how to ask for or offer help.

Learning How to Ask

Asking for help can make you feel vulnerable. Sometimes it is hard to admit that you can’t do everything on your own. Or perhaps you feel like asking for help will burden others. From the other side, asking to help may be daunting because you don’t want your loved ones to feel like you think they can’t do it themselves. The bottom line is that, if the question isn’t asked, no one benefits. So how do you ask for or to help?

For help:

• Make...

The holidays are a beautiful time but as the New Year begins, the aftermath may be less than pleasant. With all the parties, traveling, eating, drinking and general merriment from the past few months, many of us may be dealing with a post-holiday headache. But what if your pain is more than just a passing ache? For those with chronic pain, especially in the back and neck, the added stress of the holidays can make it worse. Our minds and bodies play off each other so when one is stressed, the other one usually is, too. For instance, have you have noticed how a little rest and relaxation can cut both the physical and mental pain of stress? Here a few tips to keep the post-holiday headache from getting the best of you:

When you don’t feel good or you get hurt, it often feels like an emergency. You want the pain and discomfort gone…now! But the emergency room may not be the right place for you. So where do you go?

Think of urgent care as the middle ground between the ER and your primary care doctor's office. In other words, urgent care clinics like the one that just opened at Swedish/Redmond are the perfect spot for those “feels like an emergency but isn’t” moments.

Consider urgent care for:

1. Illness: If you have ...

A lot of children are now enrolled in organized sports activities, and more and more children are starting at a younger age. Children are enticed by successful professional sports players and strive to be like them. Many parents enroll their children in organized sports activities with the hope that their child would get an athletic scholarship for college and go on to become a professional player. However, parents must realize that only a few children end up becoming successful professional players.

It is important for children to be physically active, and organized sports can be a part of this healthy lifestyle. Studies have shown that children and adolescents who are physically active do well academically in school, have greater self-esteem, sleep well and have less behavioral/emotional problems. Children and adolescents who are active every day tend to develop less health problems like hypertension, obesity and hyperlipidemia , and grow to become healthy adults.

Here are some important ideas to keep in mind when your child is enrolled in organized sports activity:

 When you are ill or injured, where should you go to receive the right level of medical care?

We all know toddlers have big heads. It’s no secret. I always used to get a good laugh from my kids as they were just learning to walk. As they leaned over, once the head started to fall, the body was sure to follow. Since I was a medical student and resident when my kids were that age, watching them weeble and wobble around the room provided hours of inexpensive entertainment in between studying for my board exams. But unfortunately, sometimes those falls result in more significant head injuries, with skull fractures, bleeding in the brain, and concussions.

The challenge for us as parents is determining when our children have sustained a “significant” head injury that we need to take them to see the doctor or when we can just observe them at home. For this reason parents often rush their kids to the ER after even a seemingly minor bump to the head.

Accidents happen. Life is unpredictable. Kids sometimes get sick. If you are a parent, chances are you may have already experienced a visit to an Emergency Department. And though a trip to the doctor is often unavoidable, there are many things parents can do to avoid unwanted injuries and illnesses.

1. It is all fun and games until someone dislocates an elbow.
   
   We have all been tempted to lift or swing our children by their hands or wrists. They love it and squeal for more. But, be cautious. You don’t want to be among the countless miserable, guilt-ridden parents who come into the ER with a crying toddler that won’t move their arm following such fun and games. Commonly known at “Nursemaid’s Elbow”, it is a dislocation that occurs at the elbow in toddlers and young children who are lifted by their hands, wrists, or distal forearms. It also commonly occurs when an adult is holding the hand of an active toddler and the adult jerks back on the arm of the child. Luckily, there is an easy fix and no permanent harm done. In fact, it can be fixed within a matter of moments using a simple relocation procedure. Within minutes, our little patients are scrambling around the room as if nothing ever happened.
2. Be careful going down the slide with your child.
   
   Summer is on the way and it is time to go to the playground with your little ones. We want to teach our kids all about the joys of velocity, so we carry them up the slide, plop them in between our legs, and away we go. But wait! This can be a dangerous choice because if a child’s leg gets twisted on the way down the slide it can result in a broken bone. Four to six weeks with your toddler in a leg cast is the perfect way to spoil your summer plans. All that is required for this injury to occur is for your child to catch their rubber-soled shoe on the slide, or for the fabric from their pants to get caught underneath an adult’s leg. Then one hundred-plus pounds of adult jettisons the child down the slide and produces just enough torque to snap a little bone. A better choice is to let your kids go down by themselves when they are ready. Or, if you feel the need to take them down the slide, make certain that their legs (and arms for that matter) are securely on top of your lap and not in direct contact with the slide.
3. Absolutely NO running with anything in the mouth.
   
   No food. No pencils. No toys. Nada. Enough said!