Flu Season is here

The flu is unpredictable. The timing, severity and length of the flu varies from person to person and year-to-year. This makes it difficult for patients and providers to know if they, have the flu or just a common cold. The other questions people have is how to treat their symptoms. Is it okay to stay home and rest or to seek treatment? Know there is treatment out there for the flu for certain people.

When should I see a primary care physician?

If someone with the flu has just a mild illness no medical treatment is needed. If you get sick with mild flu symptoms just stay home and avoid contact with other people. Other good suggestions include; handwashing, plenty of rest, and treat the symptoms with over-the-counter medications.

For those people who are in a high-risk group (immunocompromised, elderly, very young, etc.), or have severe symptoms should seek medical assistance. If you are seen within the first day or two of your symptoms, antiviral medication can help shorten the course and severity of the illness. After 48 hours the antiviral medication is not effective and supportive care is advised. The sooner the antiviral is started the greatest benefit it has.

Flu Symptoms Include:

Fever of 101 or higher
cough
sore throat
runny or stuffy nose
body aches
headache
chills
fatigue

When to return to school/work?

The flu will typically last 5-7 days. You should be able to return to school or work once you are fever free for 24 hours (without Tylenol or ibuprofen). Your symptoms should also improve in that time frame but sometimes they don’t resolve as quickly. A cough more than two weeks needs additional follow up, especially if it is productive.

Hormone Replacement Answers

By dave • November 2, 2022

Many women are afraid of hormone replacement therapy because of TWO studies that were done in the 1990’s. These studies showed they MAY be at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer among women who received hormone replacement therapy. Newer studies in 2017, done by the Women’s Health Initiative, showed over an 18-year span there was no increased risk for cardiovascular death or cancer risk associated with patients who received hormone replacement than those who did not. Unlike earlier studies this study was correctly balanced between the two groups of women. Hormone replacement therapy will benefit a laundry list of symptoms: Depression/Mood swings, Insomnia, Night Sweats/Hot flashes, Help with weight loss, brain fog, thinning hair/Dry skin, bone loss There are certain people that hormone replacement is not recommended: History of blood clots, uncontrolled high blood pressure, liver disease, a history of breast, uterine or ovarian cancers. All medications have side effects. The typical side effects of hormone replacement can be: headaches, nausea, vaginal bleeding or breast tenderness. If you are having symptoms that are associated with menopause the provider at Kountry Healthcare can help you explore options and see if you would benefit from hormone replacement therapy. We offer many different options for hormone replacement including bioidentical pellet placement. This procedure is done every 3-4 months. It is tailored to your specific labs and symptoms. If it is not the right choice we could help develop a different plan that could treat your symptoms. Call our office or visit our website to make your appointment today.

No Insurance (or high deductible plan), No Problem

By dave • October 18, 2022

The goal of Kountry Healthcare is to be able to provide medical care for people without insurance. Even with some insurances that have high deductibles it is not affordable for people to go to their doctor. Let’s face it sometimes those high deductible plans are almost like not having insurance at all. Most have some crazy high deductible. Insurance companies take a premium out of each paycheck, but some do not cover anything until the patient has reached an outrageous amount out of pocket. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the average cost of a visit to the doctor’s office in 2016 for someone without insurance was $265 ( https://meps.ahrq.gov/data_files/publications/st520/stat520.shtml). At Kountry Healthcare the first new patient appointment is $100 and for every follow up it is only $75. Kountry Healthcare wants to make healthcare affordable for everyone. Kountry Healthcare will work with you when prescribing prescriptions to ensure they are affordable. If you cannot afford the medications prescribed, there is no reason in seeing a provider, right? There are many discount cards out there; like GoodRx and SingleCare. In addition to these, there are many of the large pharmaceuticals that will help those who cannot afford them. We will do our best to ensure that the medications we prescribe will be affordable to you. If you need imaging or labs, we can help you find them at a reasonable cost as well. There are free standing radiology clinics that offer X-rays as low as $75, CT $500-750, MRI $600-1200 ( https://www.northwestradiology.com/). We will work with you to ensure that the tests you need are in your budget. At Kountry Healthcare you will know the exact cost of any lab or imaging before they are ordered. There should not be any “surprise bills” in healthcare. Healthcare is a basic need that all individuals should have affordable access to. Kountry Healthcare is here to help ensure that is possible. Insurance companies tend to drive what providers are “allowed to do” to help their patients. They will take your premiums but are very stingy when it comes time to pay out for any tests or treatments. Insurance companies will often make providers and patients jump through many different hoops before paying for treatments.