Tips for Visiting the Doctor

So I was browsing through the current issue of Parenting magazine (early years), and came across an article called How to Talk to a Doc. This article offers tips, given by doctors, about how to prepare for your next Dr. visit. The article is geared toward parents and offers advice about well visits, but what I found was that the tips actually apply to anyone preparing to visit a doctor.

Presumably when you are an adult you are visiting for some sort of health problem. It isn't like when you take a baby to the doctor every month in the first year, and then every year after that for check ups. But regardless of the reason, visiting a doctor is a lesson in time management. Generally you get about 15 minutes with a doctor. Sometimes less. Their schedules are usually back to back, and your schedule is probably pretty tight too. It is important to not waste each others time. So we need to be prepared, and sometimes we need lessons on how to do that.

I know that any time I visit a doctor, whether it is for my daughters' check ups or my husbands medical problems, I have to write down questions before I go. Here are some more tips offered in the magazine about how to arrive prepared.

Number 1: "Find a go-to health care provider." So the magazine says you should create a "medical home" for your child. A place where they have records about everything to do with their health care since you started going to them. I have been taking my kids to the same practice for over 10 years now. While I don't really know them all by name and do not really have a close relationship with them, they always have my kids charts, and when we go for a visit, the chart is right there for them to look through and check on things. When my daughter was about 8 she started suffering from ear infections quite often, and the doctor warned me that because she had taken antibiotics quite a few times for them she might build a resistance to them if we kept giving them for every instance. If I had taken her to a clinic or ER, they might not have known she had been on meds so many times. They would not have had her history, and I might have forgotten to mention it in my worried state.

My youngest after getting blood taken at the doctor.

Number 2: "Know your child's medical history." The magazine suggests keeping a folder or even a smartphone app with all your child's immunizations, etc. This would be a great way for me to keep track of the number of times my daughter has been on antibiotics for something, and so if we ever do need to visit an ER you have all that information stored and don't need to remember it all. With three kids, and multiple Doctor visits it can become very confusing for me to try to remember everything. I would suggest going one step further and maybe even keeping a journal, writing down each visit and what the Dr. said each time. I am going to start doing that, it will be nice to look back even for nostalgia's sake and see how they have changed over the years.

This tip could also of course apply to adults. I know I keep a folder with all of my husbands medical information, and I keep a list of all his meds. I never know when we will need it, so I am also going to start using a smartphone app. The one that I am trying is called "My Medical". This is through iPhone and is only $1.99. The thing I like about it most is that I can keep track of the medical info for everyone in my family. This app takes down all the information, from height, weight, blood type, to allergies and medications you are currently on, and even medications you have taken in the past. I will keep you up to date on how well it does.

Screenshots from my iPhone of the My Medical app.

Number 3: "Arrive prepared." Basically, don't forget the folder with your child's (or spouse's) medical information. Be sure to bring the questions you have been thinking of with you also.

Number 4: "Take notes." Yeah, I always forget what the doctor said. I take notes all the time at the doctor, especially regarding medications. Sometimes I even have the doctor write it down, if they will, because they know the names and dosages more readily. I always write down what the doctor said about medications because the pharmacy can make mistakes. This is where the journal would come in handy. The iPhone app has a notes section for each patient you are keeping track of.

Number 5: "Don't be afraid to second-guess." This is seriously not a problem for me because I already don't completely trust doctors. Especially in Er's. But some people really find it hard to go against what a doctor tells them, even if their gut feeling is really telling them it is wrong. Trust your gut. And if you are still concerned, get a second opinion, or even a third opinion. Remember that you are your own best advocate, and when it comes to your children or your spouse, you are their best advocate also. A nurse friend of mine told me recently about my husband "you are his best nurse." That is so true, who better to provide the most personal care possible than your own mother or spouse.

Anyway I thought these tips were important, and that tutors could easily make a health literacy lesson out of these. Let me know what you think!