Southern California doesn’t get the snow many people picture during the holiday season. Maybe you got some time off from work or school at the end of the year and used that to seek out whiter surroundings. Even if you didn’t travel to a snowy locale, you may have tried some traditional winter activities like ice skating.
There’s a lot of fun to be had on the snow and ice, but there’s a lot of danger there, too. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that each year, about 125,000 people seek emergency care for winter activity-related injuries. About half of those come from skiing and snowboarding.
If you got hurt while enjoying some winter fun, you want to figure out how serious the injury is and what you need to do to heal it. For that, come in to see our team at SmartClinic Urgent Care in West Covina or Santa Clarita, California. With on-site X-rays, we can get you a prompt diagnosis to help you start on the road to recovery.
Not all winter activity injuries warrant an X-ray. Maybe you slipped on the ice and twisted your ankle. You can wait for a couple of days to see if it improves before you seek medical care.
Watch for signs that you need more urgent intervention, though. Some indicators you should get an X-ray include:
You should get an X-ray right away if you can see some kind of deformity under your skin. If there’s a protrusion that wasn’t there before, and especially if it hurts to press on it, get medical care as soon as you can.
An X-ray is a painless way to figure out what’s going on inside your body. Usually, we have you change into a gown and remove anything metal you’re wearing, such as glasses or jewelry, that could interfere with the resulting imaging.
You then relax as we take the X-ray. You need to stay still to prevent the image from blurring, but X-rays for injuries usually take only a few minutes. You won’t feel anything while we capture the image.
With a digital image, we can view it on the screen and look it over with you. Your provider might be able to spot a fracture then and there. Sometimes, X-rays need more involved analysis, and for that, we have board-certified radiologists who can evaluate the imaging and figure out what’s going on with your injury.
Once we confirm your diagnosis, we work with you to develop a treatment plan to help it heal. If you want your primary care provider involved, we can send them the X-ray so everyone’s on the same page.
If you think you might need an X-ray following a bit too much winter fun, contact SmartClinic Urgent Care to schedule an appointment or simply walk into either of our locations.
