How to Get the Most of Your Doctor’s Visit
For some people, going to the doctor is a stressful action to do. Just thinking about those sharp needles or the bitter drugs can make some of us shiver in fear.
Moreover, with the sky-rocketing prices of medicine and medical services these days (as a result of the economic crisis), people are getting more and more reluctant to go to the doctor, especially when they feel that the illness is not the one they think is fatal.
These conditions are not the ones that anyone can help. However, you can’t avoid doctors when you really need them. And as a doctor-in-training, I can offer some insider’s tips on how to get the most of your doctor visit. After all, you must want your precious money to get the best medical service it can buy, right?
1. Look for a Communicative Doctor
In medical school, we are taught that we should ask as many questions to the patients as we can. Sixty percent of the diagnose of the illness depends on the anamnesis. A good doctor is one who is communicative, willing to spend enough time to talk to the patient, opening a two-way conversation with his patients.
A waiting room filled with patients or doctors who work until midnight to accommodate all of their patients all not necessarily signs that these doctors are the best.
A real-life example is my own grandma, whose optitrician is so famous that he has a lot of patients waiting to be treated by him. In effect, he only spends five or so minutes with each of his patients. This might work for some people, but my grandma always doubts his diagnose. As she puts it : “How can a five minute talk and examination give him enough information about my illness to determine the diagnose?”
This rouses her distrust of the doctor, and in the end, her distrust prevent her from getting well. Not because the doctor’s drugs are not effective, but because of the psychological state my grandma is in.
The bottom line is, five minutes is not enough for a doctor to determine a diagnose, but don’t expect him to spend half an hour with you, either. You are not the only patient he has to treat that day.
2. Ask Questions
Contrary to the popular belief, doctors will not feel bothered if their patients ask them questions (about their illness). A good doctor will even go in length explaining all there is to know about your condition. Because patients who know exactly what their ailment is and why the doctor advises them to do certain things (like don’t smoke, don’t eat anything chilly, etc) are more likely to obey whatever the doctor had told them.
You should ask questions to your doctor. Then, again, remember that you are not the only patient the doctor has to see. So choose your questions carefully and ask only the important matters, for example : “What exactly is my sickness?, Why are you giving me that advice?, What good will that do for me?, Could you explain the nature of my illness?”.
It would be a good thing if you have tried to find out some information about your condition beforehand (from some medical books, for example), so you will know exactly what questions you must ask your doctor (see point no.4).
3. Offer Information
As mentioned above, anamnesis is sixty percent of the diagnose. So, if a doctor has gotten every information there is to know about your ailment, chances are, he will make a correct diagnose.
But sometimes doctors can forget to ask important questions, like your medical history, other symptoms you have, etc. Hey, doctor are humans, and humans do forget and error.
That is way you have to be active in the effort to determine the diagnose. After all, anamnesis, is a two-way conversation. So even if your doctor doesn’t ask, tell him everything that you feel he should know. Trust me, he would appreciate you for that.
4. Be Honest With Your Doctor
You have no idea how many patients would lie about their conditions, for so many reasons. Some of them are afraid that their real condition is known by another person, some want to make their illness to sound less fatal than it actually, or some even go on the contrary, trying to make their disease seem more dangerous than it is, to get more attention from the doctor.
This scheme will only work for your disadvantage. A real life example : once a patient in the hospital I have my training at, lied to her doctor about her medical history. She said she had never had diabetes, and that she was always in perfect health. The doctor then give her a prescription according to the condition he though she was in, only to find three weeks later that none of the drugs he has given seemed to have any effect.
So he ran a laboratorium test on her, and found out that her blood sugar was very high, a significant sign of diabetes. While the drugs he had been giving her wouldn’t have any effect on patient with diabetes, which explain why his treatment has been in vain. It turned out that she was hiding the fact from the doctor because she was ashamed of the disease she had.
The moral of the story? Don’t hide any information from your doctor. Be honest. If the patient in my story above was honest from the very beginning, she would have saved a lot of time, energy and money (she wouldn’t have to by drugs wont cure her, and wouldn’t have to pay for the expensive laboratorium test which resulted she had already known anyway).
5. Do You Own Research
With so many medical books available for non medical people, it would be easy to find one which would explain about signs and symptoms of diseases. And because these books are specifically written for those who are not in the field of medicine, the words used in these books are usually easy to understand, even for people who are completely blind about medical science.
My personal recommendation of such books are : “family medical guide” by the American Medical Association, random house publisher, and “encyclopedia of medicine” by the American Medical Association, random house publisher.
By matching your own symptoms with the list of diseases which have those symptoms, you would pretty much have an idea of what kind of sickness you’re suffering from. And than, with this information in your mind, you would know exactly what you would ask your doctor once you’re face to face with him.
Doctor’s would value patients who had tried to understand their disease, and if you come to the doctor armed with knowledge in your brain, he wouldn’t brush you off as another ordinary patient who knows nothing of the medical world. Instead, he would respect you, and as a result, his explanation would be deeper than one he would give to a clueless patient.
But please keep in mind that even if you find out what your illness is from the books, I don’t advise you to try to treat it yourself. Each individual is different, and no book can tell you for sure what kind of treatment you actually need.
That’s what the doctors are here for.
6. Ask For Generic Drugs
Contrary to a popular belief, generic drugs are as good as the ones with brand-names. They are cheap because the pharmaceutical company doesn’t have to pay the tax to the government for making generic drugs.
So when your doctor is making a prescription, ask him to prescribe you generic drugs. You would have to pay less and still get similar effect as you would if you take brand-named drugs.
I hope you would find these tips useful, and don’t forget to apply them the next time you pay your doctor a visit. Meanwhile, eat right, exercise enough and avoid any stressful thoughts or incidents… and you (and your body) would be in a good shape and perfectly healthy so that you can keep your doctor away.
Moreover, with the sky-rocketing prices of medicine and medical services these days (as a result of the economic crisis), people are getting more and more reluctant to go to the doctor, especially when they feel that the illness is not the one they think is fatal.
These conditions are not the ones that anyone can help. However, you can’t avoid doctors when you really need them. And as a doctor-in-training, I can offer some insider’s tips on how to get the most of your doctor visit. After all, you must want your precious money to get the best medical service it can buy, right?
1. Look for a Communicative Doctor
In medical school, we are taught that we should ask as many questions to the patients as we can. Sixty percent of the diagnose of the illness depends on the anamnesis. A good doctor is one who is communicative, willing to spend enough time to talk to the patient, opening a two-way conversation with his patients.
A waiting room filled with patients or doctors who work until midnight to accommodate all of their patients all not necessarily signs that these doctors are the best.
A real-life example is my own grandma, whose optitrician is so famous that he has a lot of patients waiting to be treated by him. In effect, he only spends five or so minutes with each of his patients. This might work for some people, but my grandma always doubts his diagnose. As she puts it : “How can a five minute talk and examination give him enough information about my illness to determine the diagnose?”
This rouses her distrust of the doctor, and in the end, her distrust prevent her from getting well. Not because the doctor’s drugs are not effective, but because of the psychological state my grandma is in.
The bottom line is, five minutes is not enough for a doctor to determine a diagnose, but don’t expect him to spend half an hour with you, either. You are not the only patient he has to treat that day.
2. Ask Questions
Contrary to the popular belief, doctors will not feel bothered if their patients ask them questions (about their illness). A good doctor will even go in length explaining all there is to know about your condition. Because patients who know exactly what their ailment is and why the doctor advises them to do certain things (like don’t smoke, don’t eat anything chilly, etc) are more likely to obey whatever the doctor had told them.
You should ask questions to your doctor. Then, again, remember that you are not the only patient the doctor has to see. So choose your questions carefully and ask only the important matters, for example : “What exactly is my sickness?, Why are you giving me that advice?, What good will that do for me?, Could you explain the nature of my illness?”.
It would be a good thing if you have tried to find out some information about your condition beforehand (from some medical books, for example), so you will know exactly what questions you must ask your doctor (see point no.4).
3. Offer Information
As mentioned above, anamnesis is sixty percent of the diagnose. So, if a doctor has gotten every information there is to know about your ailment, chances are, he will make a correct diagnose.
But sometimes doctors can forget to ask important questions, like your medical history, other symptoms you have, etc. Hey, doctor are humans, and humans do forget and error.
That is way you have to be active in the effort to determine the diagnose. After all, anamnesis, is a two-way conversation. So even if your doctor doesn’t ask, tell him everything that you feel he should know. Trust me, he would appreciate you for that.
4. Be Honest With Your Doctor
You have no idea how many patients would lie about their conditions, for so many reasons. Some of them are afraid that their real condition is known by another person, some want to make their illness to sound less fatal than it actually, or some even go on the contrary, trying to make their disease seem more dangerous than it is, to get more attention from the doctor.
This scheme will only work for your disadvantage. A real life example : once a patient in the hospital I have my training at, lied to her doctor about her medical history. She said she had never had diabetes, and that she was always in perfect health. The doctor then give her a prescription according to the condition he though she was in, only to find three weeks later that none of the drugs he has given seemed to have any effect.
So he ran a laboratorium test on her, and found out that her blood sugar was very high, a significant sign of diabetes. While the drugs he had been giving her wouldn’t have any effect on patient with diabetes, which explain why his treatment has been in vain. It turned out that she was hiding the fact from the doctor because she was ashamed of the disease she had.
The moral of the story? Don’t hide any information from your doctor. Be honest. If the patient in my story above was honest from the very beginning, she would have saved a lot of time, energy and money (she wouldn’t have to by drugs wont cure her, and wouldn’t have to pay for the expensive laboratorium test which resulted she had already known anyway).
5. Do You Own Research
With so many medical books available for non medical people, it would be easy to find one which would explain about signs and symptoms of diseases. And because these books are specifically written for those who are not in the field of medicine, the words used in these books are usually easy to understand, even for people who are completely blind about medical science.
My personal recommendation of such books are : “family medical guide” by the American Medical Association, random house publisher, and “encyclopedia of medicine” by the American Medical Association, random house publisher.
By matching your own symptoms with the list of diseases which have those symptoms, you would pretty much have an idea of what kind of sickness you’re suffering from. And than, with this information in your mind, you would know exactly what you would ask your doctor once you’re face to face with him.
Doctor’s would value patients who had tried to understand their disease, and if you come to the doctor armed with knowledge in your brain, he wouldn’t brush you off as another ordinary patient who knows nothing of the medical world. Instead, he would respect you, and as a result, his explanation would be deeper than one he would give to a clueless patient.
But please keep in mind that even if you find out what your illness is from the books, I don’t advise you to try to treat it yourself. Each individual is different, and no book can tell you for sure what kind of treatment you actually need.
That’s what the doctors are here for.
6. Ask For Generic Drugs
Contrary to a popular belief, generic drugs are as good as the ones with brand-names. They are cheap because the pharmaceutical company doesn’t have to pay the tax to the government for making generic drugs.
So when your doctor is making a prescription, ask him to prescribe you generic drugs. You would have to pay less and still get similar effect as you would if you take brand-named drugs.
I hope you would find these tips useful, and don’t forget to apply them the next time you pay your doctor a visit. Meanwhile, eat right, exercise enough and avoid any stressful thoughts or incidents… and you (and your body) would be in a good shape and perfectly healthy so that you can keep your doctor away.
