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Blue Mountain Hospital offers free sports injury clinic
By Blue Mountain Hospital
Blue Mountain Hospital District is
excited to announce a free sports injury
clinic for Grant County student athletes.
Whether you are injured on the field, in
practice or have a nagging long-term injury,
you can come in to Rehabilitation Services
at BMHD to be assessed by a sports phys-
ical therapist.
This clinic is designed to help student
athletes determine what to do next about
their injury while staying active as long as
possible. The physical therapist will make
a recommendation as to next steps, which
may include providing exercises, recom-
mending physical therapy or referring
the athletes to their physicians for further
evaluation.
BMHD’s primary goal with this offering
is to serve the community and support local
athletes in local school districts. Often stu-
dent athletes don’t seek the treatment that
would help them recover faster or decrease
the likelihood of developing a persistent
injury. There are many reasons for athletes
to delay treatment such as concerns about
missing games, medical treatment cost
concerns, scheduling conflicts or a lack of
FREE SPORTS
INJURY CLINIC
When: Mondays from 3-5 p.m.
Where: BMHD Rehabilitation Services
(170 Ford Rd, John Day)
Contact: 541-575-4157
Contributed photo
Blue Mountain Hospital District physical
therapist Elliot Sky helps a patient.
awareness of their injury. This free sports
clinic is another resource for students,
working in conjunction with BMHD phy-
sicians, to help student athletes return to the
field faster, safer and with better outcomes.
The free sports clinic will see all
non-emergency injuries such as:
• Ankle sprains
• Shoulder injuries
• Concussions
• Tennis elbow
• Shin splints
• Knee injures
• Muscle strains
Contact Rehabilitation Services at
BMHD with any questions.
Vaccine
Continued from Page 8
This can be positive as people are
allowed to alleviate each other’s
concerns during these times.
Once you have the first
COVID-19 vaccination, you
will need a second dose 28
days later. The CDC recom-
mends pretending that you have
not been vaccinated until two
weeks after your second dose
of COVID-19 vaccine. This
only means that, during the
four weeks between the doses,
you carry on with your normal
COVID-19 precautions, as all
the studies show that both doses
are needed for proper immune
response.
Since the beginning of the
COVID-19 vaccinations, a very
well done database has been kept
on people’s experience with the
vaccination and any side effects
that may have occurred. One
convenient method of tracking
people’s response to the vaccine
is CDC’s v-safe smart phone
app. The v-safe app interacts
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Rebekah Rand, director of
emergency
management
services at Blue Mountain
Hospital District, gets a vaccine
shot ready Jan. 15 at the Grant
County Fairgrounds pavilion.
with the person daily to get their
input as to any reactions follow-
ing the vaccine dose. Typical
side effects of the Moderna vac-
cine are fairly standard reactions
for vaccinations. At injection site
(arm), common effects are pain,
swelling and redness. Common
other effects throughout the body
can be fever, chills, tiredness and
headache.
Who is this for? Athletes ages 10-18
years old who are currently on a sports
team in Grant County.
What should I expect? A 15- to 20-min-
ute appointment where you leave with a
plan for what to do about your injury.
What do I need to do prior to coming
in?
1. Call ahead of time 541-575-4157
2. Come with your release form signed.
(These will be handed out to coaches
or can be obtained at BMHD’s Rehabil-
itation Services. They are good for the
entire school year.)
3. Bring athletic clothing and shoes.
Important to note are the con-
traindications of the vaccine. The
CDC says that you should not
have the vaccine if any of the fol-
lowing are true:
• If you have had a severe
allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) or
an immediate allergic reaction —
even if it was not severe — to any
ingredient in an mRNA COVID-
19 vaccine, you should not get an
mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
• If you have had a severe
allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) or
an immediate allergic reaction —
even if it was not severe — after
getting the first dose of the vac-
cine, you should not get another
dose of an mRNA COVID-19
vaccine.
• An immediate allergic reac-
tion means a reaction within
four hours of getting vacci-
nated, including symptoms such
as hives, swelling or wheezing
(respiratory distress).
• This includes allergic reac-
tions to polyethylene glycol
(PEG) and polysorbate. Polysor-
bate is not an ingredient in either
mRNA COVID-19 vaccine but
is closely related to PEG, which
is in the vaccines. People who
are allergic to PEG or polysor-
bate should not get an mRNA
COVID-19 vaccine.
If you have had an immediate
allergic reaction — even if the
reaction was not severe — to a
vaccine or injectable therapy for
another disease, ask your doc-
tor if you should get a COVID-
19 vaccine. Your doctor will help
you decide if it is safe for you to
get vaccinated.
This has been just a small
glimpse into the COVID-19
vaccine and some help in deter-
mining when it is right for you.
Len’s Pharmacy recommends
that everyone gets the vaccine
at the earliest opportunity, based
upon the vaccine priority. If all
the channels of the COVID-19
vaccine production, distribution
and administration occurs as cur-
rently planned, it could be late
summer before the United States
reaches an 80% vaccination rate
that would lead to “herd immu-
nity” for our population. Stay
safe!
Greg Armstrong is a pharma-
cist at Len’s Drug in John Day.