October is getting into the thick of cold season. You might be hearing more people with the sniffles or a cough or feeling those symptoms yourself. While getting sick is never ideal, the common cold is a relatively minor illness that usually goes away on its own.
“Usually” is the key word there. In some cases, the cold sticks around — and it can even develop into bronchitis, a more serious condition.
Fortunately, if it does, we’re here to help. Our team at SmartClinic Urgent Care specializes in diagnosing bronchitis and helping people get through it. If you think you might have more than a passing cold, don’t hesitate to see us at either of our offices, in West Covina and Santa Clarita, California.
If you’re trying to figure out whether you have a cold or bronchitis, think about where you feel your symptoms. As with real estate, determining cold vs. bronchitis is all about location.
Both conditions are infections that can cause a cough. But with the common cold, the infection is confined to your upper respiratory tract; it usually affects your nose and sinuses, causing those telltale symptoms like a sore throat and runny nose.
If you feel discomfort lower in your chest, the infection might have spread to your bronchial tubes, which feed air to your lungs. When the infection reaches that part of your body and causes inflammation in your airways, you’re diagnosed with bronchitis.
This lower respiratory condition often causes more severe symptoms than the common cold. With bronchitis, you might notice:
If those symptoms sound familiar, come in to see our team.
At SmartClinic Urgent Care, we start by figuring out what’s going on in your chest. We listen to your lungs, and we might test you for a viral infection.
Once we know that you have bronchitis, we work to figure out what caused it. In most cases, a virus is to blame. That means we can’t treat it with antibiotics. Instead, you usually need to wait for your body to heal the viral infection.
Getting ample rest and drinking plenty of fluids help there. So does steering clear of lung irritants (e.g., not smoking) and using a humidifier. We may recommend that you use cough suppressants, allergy medicine to open airways passages in your lungs, or anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce inflammation.
We can help you put a support plan in place to make it easier for your body to get over bronchitis. If you think you’re dealing with this kind of respiratory infection, call SmartClinic Urgent Care to schedule an appointment or simply walk into either of our locations.
