This is trauma season for us. According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, doctors see more fractured or broken bones during the summer than at any other time of the year. Add to that heat exhaustion, lacerations, head injuries, sunburn, bug bites and bee stings and you have the top reasons the emergency rooms across the United States heat up from May to August. If you are one of the 30 million Americans who will be strapping on inline skates, or one of the 67 million who will be pedaling across the bike trails, doctors warn you to be careful. Should you injure yourself, doctors have some basic guidelines you should follow.
Doctors advise watching the injury.
Ice it immediately, but if it seems discolored or deformed, seek medical attention. As the weather heats up, people do too. For a sunburn, immediately get out of the sun and put cold compresses on a burn. Take an aspirin or ibuprofen to reduce the swelling and pain. It is possible to suffer heat exhaustion in minutes, even in 80-degree weather.