It was the middle of the night when your adult son became so ill that you decided it was time to take him to the hospital emergency room. He flew into town two days ago and was not feeling his best. On the night of the trip to the ER your son was running a very high fever and complaining of extreme abdominal pain. Although the local urgent care clinics can offer a variety of services, something about your son’s confusion led you to believe that this was going to be a more serious visit.

your instincts that night were right. Two weeks later and your son is still in town, has had surgery to remove his appendix, and has been in and out of the hospital twice to deal with some confusing and complicated conditions. In fact, when he is at home you have been taking him to the hospital every day for IV antibiotic treatments for the next two weeks. At that point, he finally hopes to be able to fly home.

The details of this visit are confusing enough that you have started a journal to make sure that you are able to help answer anyone’s questions. In part, the journal reminds you that he was in the hospital for six days, then home for two days and back in again this past Monday until Friday. While you were at the IV infusion they took a blood test. The hospital called several hours later saying he had to get back to the hospital because his sodium levels were dangerously low. His number was 117 and normal is 135 to 145. Now He is taking sodium pills and is on a restricted fluid intake. You now know that there is a delicate balance between water and sodium in the body. He can only have three eight ounce size bottles of liquid a day for now. Watermelon counts as his liquid too. Some of the meds he was on possibly caused this and maybe he was drinking too much water. He just wants to be healthy again and has lost 10 pounds and looks so thin.

You are hoping that by the time they do the blood draw tomorrow you are hoping that his sodium levels are back to normal.

Urgent Care Clinics Are Not the Solution to All Situations

Nearly four out of five urgent care centers provide fracture care, but they are no the solution to a late night high fever and extreme abdominal pain situation. And while urgent care clinics are a fast and convenient way to make sure that you are getting the affordable care that you get, but it is always important to make sure that you know the difference between a minor and a major medical condition.

The fact that 85% of urgent care centers are open seven days a week means that there are available nearly as often as a hospital emergency room, but they are not always the best solution.