Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings

Seeing a doctor with a new, undiagnosed problem can be daunting. Patients often have difficulty trying to explain their symptoms to the doctor in an effective way, and the therapist needs to collect all the necessary information from the patient without missing out on anything important. And all of this has to happen during a medical examination, which on average will last less than 10 minutes. You can get the most out of your visit by giving the doctor all the information he needs in a simple, concise manner, just like they were taught in medical school.

Steps

1. 1 Bring an up-to-date general medical questionnaire with you for your examination. You can do this by summarizing all the disease data on one page. Include dates as well as reasons for hospitalizations and surgeries. Ultimately, you may not need to refer to her, but if you suddenly have questions about your past, having one will maximize the time you spend discussing your the current health problem (s). Please bring along the packages of the drugs you are currently using, containing the name and dosage information, including herbal supplements, if applicable.
2. 2 Describe the main reason for visiting in one or two sentences. Most doctors will begin their exam with something like, "What brings you here?" A pre-prepared answer to this question will assist in the appeal. Some common symptoms include: pain, weakness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, chills, confusion, difficulty breathing, or headache.
3. 3 Think about when the symptoms appear and how long they last. Including their start, stop and frequency. (“I have terrible pain between menstrual periods, and it lasts about three days.”) Be prepared to give dates and times if possible. ("The first time I remember this sensation was on the 15th. It usually gets worse late in the evening, but sometimes I feel it in the morning too.")
4. 4 Explain what increases or decreases the pain. Pay attention to any movement that aggravates the pain ("My finger does not hurt, if I do not bend it to the palm, then I feel a sharp pain.") Or reduces it ("I feel like the pain recedes when I lie on my side." ). Explain clearly if any food, drink, posture, activity, or medication worsens or relieves your symptoms. ("The chills went away when I took Tylenol, but reappeared after 2 hours.")
5. 5 Use adjectives to describe your symptoms more fully. Not all pain is the same. It can be sharp, aching, directly on the surface of the body, deep inside, and so on. Example: “When I feel dizzy, it’s not just the feeling that I’m about to faint; it looks more like the world is constantly rotating to the left! ". Without too much poetry, try to explain what makes this feeling different from other types of pain that you already felt earlier.
6. 6 Indicate the location of your symptoms. Including details if the pain moves from the spot. ("At first the pain was right around the navel, but now it seems to have moved here to the right thigh.")
7. 7 Rate the severity of your symptoms. Using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 would mean you feel almost nothing, and 10 would be the worst you can imagine. Be honest, don't underestimate or exaggerate. Ten-out-of-ten pain (in the eyes of medical professionals) would render the person unable to speak or perform other activities, such as eating or reading. ("I was sitting, having lunch, and suddenly I felt such a headache, worse than I have ever experienced in my life, out of nowhere. It was so strong that I almost passed out. Definitely 9 or 10.")
8. 8 Describe the environment and your condition at the time the symptoms started. Where were you? What did you do? What was unusual about the setting and activities, were they different from your usual ones? What did you do just before the symptoms started and earlier that day?
9. 9 List other things that happen at the same time as symptoms start. (“During the three weeks I had these attacks, my spouse also noticed that I looked very pale, my stools were dark, and I had lost 4.5 kg even though I was eating exactly as before.”)
10. 10 Next, expect your doctor to examine you according to the symptoms you described and order several tests or trial treatments.

Tips

• Don't be afraid to tell your doctor about the symptom, however embarrassing it may seem. The sooner you tell, the faster you will be cured.
• Consider bringing a friend or family member along with you if you are unsure if you can properly explain a physical problem, if you are forgetful or easily get lost.
• Take with you the clues you wrote about what you wanted to ask about. Many people, when confronted with a doctor, forget everything! A pen is also useful to write down what the doctor says. Many patients often recall things that they wanted to ask the doctor about after the visit is over, and then hesitate to call back and ask again about it.
• Not wait until the end of the inspection to say: "... and by the way, I have another problem." This is terribly inconvenient for the doctor, because what you think may seem like a small thing can completely change his treatment plan. Tell him about all the symptoms in advance and before he begins to diagnose you.
• Make a list of questions you have for your doctor. In most cases, due to time constraints, you will forget to ask what you expected, so it is important to have a list.
• Honesty is the key. Doctors have a non-disclosure obligation. If your further health is in danger, you can also tell everything to the smallest detail.
• Match the look.If you are complaining about the worst pain in your life, you cannot sit down drinking coffee, flipping through a magazine and answering phone calls. If you complain of pain in your toe, do not let the doctor walk into the office and see you lying on the couch in a medical gown.
• Think about the symptoms and their nature before you go to the doctor to save both yourself and his time, and also to express them diagnostically more clearly for him.
• Know your health condition... It is very annoying for both the patient and the doctor to meet face to face. and then start piecing together the story.
• The need for active implementation of these steps may disappear if it seems that the doctor is already asking questions in a logical sequence and gets to the point. A well-trained professional should actually be able to figure out what is going on without even thinking about using the steps.

Warnings

• Start a conversation with your doctor with your symptoms, not with what you think you have a diagnosis (unless you are absolutely certain). An answer like “I think I have multiple sclerosis” may seem like a time-saver for you, but in practice will tend to exacerbate your relationship with most doctors and negate the conversation. Instead, start the conversation with a phrase like, "My arms and legs are really getting weak lately, and now I can hardly walk."
• If you feel as though you are not getting satisfactory answers while talking to your doctor, it is more effective to continue expressing concern and anxiety, and much less useful to be upset or angry. You don't want to be flagged as a “problem patient” or a potentially trial pending (something that could carry over to your future doctor visits, or even leak out to the doctor's colleagues). In such cases, it may be better to try another time or seek a second opinion.
• This chart is most useful when you are dealing with someone who has never seen you before, and especially when you are experiencing a disease for the first time. It won't do much if you are discussing a chronic condition with your own family doctor.