by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 25, 2009

Making the most of your appointment with your doctor,or how to help your doctor help you instead of the topic how to help your doctor diagnose a disease. Why? The latter It sound interfering and it also hints at the possibility that you know more than you do. Doctors are doctors and patients are patients. Patients can also be doctors and nurses and others somewhat knowledgeable about diseases and health care. Even here, it is best you remain the patient and not the diagnostician. The first reason you are not equipped with enough knowledge and the second reason is you probably will get it all wrong. Ringing true here is a message from Pope's poem on mankind, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, drink deep ..." [or leave off diagnosing your own diseases].

If you are in their field you will have to be especially careful not to offend them. They will be somewhat wary about treating you in the first place but what choice do they have? If on the other hand you are eager to know and you know what you are talking about, your conversations will be greatly appreciated. Two heads are always better than one. And nowhere is this truer than in science and medicine. These fields are beset with what if and studies and proofs. A busy doctor cannot keep up with all he needs to know and he must rely on knowledgeable sources for his information.

Now, having gotten the problem patients - those who know too much for their own good and those that think they do - out of the way what about the standard run of the mill patients who knows not but thinks he knows, those who get most of their information from the television advertisements, and other know it alls, how can you help the doctor help you?

1. Keep a journal of your illness. Date all entries and describe the kinds of pain and everything you will not want to forget about such and such an episode. You will want to remember the frequency of attacks, severity, when they happened, how long after taking the medication and so on. He can use this to see if you are on the right kind of medication and if you are on the right dosage. It will also help in determining if the working diagnosis is the right one or if it is masquerading as something else.

2. Be respectful and ask questions and let them know you are after a diagnosis. Do not, however, take up more of their time than is allotted to you. Their office has all kinds of people with all kinds of other diseases and medical problems and their time is valuable. They are concerned in

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>