A physical examination is a routine appointment designed to assess your overall health when you are well, focusing on prevention and establishing a personal health baseline. This type of visit is fundamentally different from a “sick visit,” which addresses an acute illness or new symptoms. Generally, the recommendation is to reschedule a physical if you are sick, but the final decision depends on the severity of the illness and the specific symptoms you are experiencing. To ensure you receive the most accurate and beneficial care, always consult with your healthcare provider’s office before deciding to keep or cancel your appointment.
Understanding the Purpose of the Annual Physical
The primary goal of an annual physical is to proactively maintain health and identify potential problems before they become serious concerns. A significant part of this process involves establishing a benchmark of your typical health status, including your weight, blood pressure, and other vital signs when you are healthy. Regular checkups allow your provider to track these measurements consistently over time, making it easier to spot subtle changes that might signal the start of a chronic condition. During this preventive visit, the focus is on a comprehensive review of your health history, lifestyle factors, and family medical background. This is the appropriate time to discuss health goals, update vaccinations, and receive age-appropriate screenings, such as cholesterol checks or cancer screenings. An acute illness introduces temporary variables that directly interfere with the integrity of this baseline assessment.
How Illness Skews Standard Physical Measurements
The presence of an acute illness can significantly compromise the accuracy of the baseline health data collected during a physical examination. Your body’s response to infection, inflammation, or dehydration causes temporary physiological shifts that can mimic or mask underlying chronic conditions. These temporary changes make it difficult for your provider to determine your true, healthy baseline measurements.
For example, a fever, which is a common response to infection, directly affects several vital signs. Fever can elevate your heart rate, a condition called tachycardia, as your body works harder to circulate blood and fight the illness. Similarly, an acute infection or associated stress may cause a temporary increase in blood pressure, potentially leading to a false reading of hypertension.
Infections also cause noticeable changes in lab work, should your physical include blood tests. The white blood cell count, which is a measure of the immune system’s activity, will be temporarily elevated to fight the pathogen. If a provider sees an elevated white blood cell count or skewed cholesterol and blood sugar levels due to recent illness, it complicates the interpretation of results meant to screen for long-term issues like chronic infection or metabolic disorders. Even simply being dehydrated, which can accompany many illnesses, can affect blood test results and falsely raise concerns about kidney function. Furthermore, a respiratory infection can lead to abnormal findings like wheezing or crackles during a lung examination, which temporarily obscures the provider’s ability to assess long-term lung health.
Key Symptoms That Require Immediate Rescheduling
Certain symptoms make it absolutely necessary to cancel and reschedule your routine physical examination. The primary reason is that many acute illnesses are contagious, posing a direct risk to the clinic staff and other vulnerable patients in the waiting area. Any new, acute symptoms that suggest a transmissible illness—such as a fever above 100.4°F, uncontrolled coughing, vomiting, or diarrhea—require you to stay home.
A second category of symptoms requires immediate rescheduling because they indicate a condition that necessitates acute, urgent care instead of a routine physical. Symptoms like severe, unmanageable pain, sudden difficulty breathing, or wheezing should prompt a call to an urgent care facility or emergency department. A physical is not a substitute for a sick visit or an emergency evaluation, and showing up with these symptoms can delay your proper treatment.
Communicating with Your Provider
Once you realize you are feeling unwell before a scheduled physical, the most appropriate action is to contact the provider’s office immediately. You should call the main office line as soon as possible, rather than simply deciding to cancel on your own or showing up sick. When you call, clearly detail your symptoms to the scheduler or triage nurse who answers the phone.
The clinical staff can then make an informed decision about whether you need to reschedule or if your symptoms are minor enough to proceed. For instance, minor chronic issues like well-controlled seasonal allergies or mild, non-contagious symptoms may be deemed acceptable by the provider. The staff may also be able to offer an alternative, such as converting the appointment to a telehealth visit for symptom assessment or simply deferring the examination to a later date.