I believe many people have had such experiences: as soon as they left the hospital, they realized that they forgot to mention a symptom or problem, or found that they did not fully understand what the doctor said.
There is a saying that in China, a doctor spends an average of only three minutes on a patient in an outpatient clinic. Therefore, even if all the questions should be asked, it seems that it is not so easy to remember all the questions you want to ask.
However, proper preparation before seeing a doctor will make the treatment process smoother and more efficient, and will also have a positive impact on the treatment.
Let’s take a look at how to achieve [proper preparation].
1. Think about the purpose of your visit
Is it a physical examination?
Is it a follow-up after the disease?
Feeling uncomfortable, so do you want to know if you are ill?
Is the disease unstable, need a new treatment or want to adjust the existing plan?
Want to know the prognosis, how will the disease develop in the future?
2. Prepare medical history and basic information
Prepare a detailed medical history of yourself and your immediate family members, such as: when hypertension was found in physical examination and what was the maximum hypertension.
Prepare a list of drugs you take, including the type, dosage and number of times you take them every day. Since there may be different manufacturers of the same drug, it is best to carry the outer package of the drugs you take.
If you need to prepare some test results in advance, make sure the results are available before seeing a doctor.
If you need a film with X-ray or other imaging examination, you need to know where to take it and take it well in advance (remember: don’t fold it at will, it will affect the effect).
Step 3 List your symptoms
Prepare a detailed record of your [discomfort]:
- When did what start to feel uncomfortable? What’s wrong? What Feeling: Is It Pain? Fever? Become dull and inflexible? Fidgety? Edema? Blood seepage? 0 ~ 10 represent different degrees of pain, 0 is painless and 10 is severe pain. To what extent do you think you are? Do you think what caused your symptoms, frequency and duration? What can relieve your symptoms?
All these require you to have a detailed record and provide it to the doctor when you see a doctor.
4. Arm yourself with knowledge
Before or after medical treatment, You can use Dr. Clove App. After opening the page, click the magnifying glass button shown in the red circle at the top. After waiting for the page to jump, fill in your own symptoms or the name of the disease diagnosed by the doctor, and learn common medical knowledge appropriately. In this way, you can better understand the doctor’s words, and you can also know the possible causes of the disease in advance. Doctors may do what examination, etc.
5. Write down what you want to ask
Include:
- What tests do I need to do? Do I have what? How to treat it?
6. Write down what you hear
With the doctor’s consent, use notepad, mobile phone or other mobile devices to write down the doctor’s answers and other prompts.
To do all this, I believe you will benefit a lot even if it is only a few minutes.
Responsible Editor: Jing Liu