Before Appointments
Make a list of questions and concerns
Overall, there are 3 types of doctor visits:
1. Sick patient
2. Follow-up visit
3. Routine check-up
1. When You Are Sick:
When preparing for this type of visit, you would like to know, “What illness do I have?”
When you are sick, the doctor will want to know about your illness.
The following are several questions you should be ready to answer:
- What are your symptoms?
- When did your symptoms start?Have you ever had these symptoms in the past?
- Did you recently start a new medicine, increase in stress, a new injury, or other new event?
- What were you doing when your symptoms started?
- Did these symptoms change over time?
- What made your symptoms better or worse?
- What made you come to the doctor suddenly?
If the doctor prescribes a new medication, be sure to ask:
- How long should I take the medicine?
- What are the side effects to these medications?
- Will the new medication for this illness interfere with any medicine I am already on?
2. Follow-Up Visit:
Follow-up visits should help you and your doctor evaluate your treatment progress. The purpose of the follow-up visit is for your doctor to know if you are progressing as expected.The following are several questions to consider on the follow-up visit:
- How am I doing?
- Should I be doing anything else?
- If/When will I be able to stop the treatment?
- When should I make my next appointment?
- Have I been feeling worse or better since my first visit?
On the other hand, if you have not improved, ask questions for a sick visit and some of the questions for a follow-up visit as listed below. If you have improved, the following type of questions may be used to monitor your progress:
- How did the symptom change since the last visit?
- Have you noticed any new symptoms since your last visit?
- Do you have any medication side effects?
- Were you able to take your medicine or treatment routinely? Did you miss any doses? If so, why did you miss your dose?
- Did you make any lifestyle changes?
- What makes your symptoms better or worse?
- When, after starting treatment, did you notice a difference?
3. Routine Visit:
A routine visit is a “baseline” or reference point for other visits. This is the visit to discuss preventive medicine, ending certain medications that you may be on, health maintenance issues (screening tests), and overall health.
The following are some of the type of questions to consider:
- How are you feeling on your current treatment?
- Are there any lifestyle changes that you should make?
- What preventive or screening tests should you undergo?
- Is there a way you could change your medications to decrease the number of pills you take each day?
- Are you happy with your current treatment your quality of life? Why or why not?
Resources:
1.Talk With Your Doctor: http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/diaginf4.htm
2.Talking to Your Doctor, Resources from NIH: http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/talktoyourdoctor.htm 3.http://www.planforyourhealth.com/living-healthy/at-the-doctor/article/show/prepare-for-your-visit-to-the-doctor-a-checklist/