Doctor Articles

How to Deal with Doctors before and during any consultations with them

Remember that doctors are very busy. Due to the high cost of their insurance they have to see more people daily in order to maintain any sort of business.

So here are some helpful hints to help them so they may help you better.

Cut your hold time when calling them. Avoid Mondays. Everyone who felt ill on the weekend is calling them. Call mid morning or midafternoon.
When dealing with a child who is sick, keep a log of the symptoms and how long and when painful and little things. Right it down. It seems most kids act perfectly normal at the doctors.
If you have a really stubborn problem as if your case can be presented at the monthly grand rounds at a nearby teaching hospital. You do not have to attend. They then can brainstorm your symptoms.
Learn "doctor speak" for pain. Use words like pulsating, shooting, throbbing, squeezing, burning, crushing, pressing, piercing, dull, or sharp. Doctors don't always ask specific questions about what you are feeling, but description, precise language can help them figure out what's going on.
Reduce lab errors (they make plenty). Be sure the technician asks your name and after testing, labels your blood sample in your presence. Insist on this. More than 160,000 mistakes happen every year in the US along because blood samples and biopsies are improperly identified. My best friend had test made to see if she had cancer. They said yes, told her to rap up her affairs, etc. She did. Closed her nutritionist office where she taught doctors nutrition. Became depressed, after about 3 months they called her in. They told her they had made a mistake and it was some one else's results they had. She was devastated again; It took her years to rebuild her life.
Before having a blood test drink 16 ounces of water an hour beforehand. And bundle up in a sweat shirt or sweater. Raising body temperature and staying hydrated enlarges vessels, making them easier to find a vein.
When asking the office to have your doctor call you back about something, give them a detailed report of what you want. If you say it is private they might not even give it to the doctor.
Hum away congestion. If you hum for 30 seconds and drink a glass of something.
Some Emergency Treatment place gives out magnetic folders for the refrigerator door. This notifies the EMTs to check the Fridge first. Or go to http://folife.org for more information. You should list the drugs you take and family health history. If you have to make a 3X5 card and attach to the refrigerator.
When the doctor is writing the script for your prescription ask him to put what it is for on the script. That way it will go on the bottle. Sometimes the pharmacists have been known to confuse Celexa (for depression) with Celebrex (arthritis). This also aids someone in time of emergency.

Again, I am saying take your health in your hands. Do not depend on others to do the proper thing at the proper time. I also recommend to never be admitted to the hospital without some one else checking in with you and monitoring your stay.

When in for my second spiral surgery, I didn't have this. During my surgery for some reason they overdosed me with Demerol.

The nurses thought I was senile and treated me as such. When my daughter called from out of state to check on me she was told I was still confused. She told them that if they did not do something she would fly down there and raise CAIN. She had my son, who lived in my city to go in.

He had planned on visiting me the next day. I have always said I wanted no visitors while in the hospital. I wanted to be able to rest. I will never do that again. He is over 6 feet and has a loud voice. When he asked demanded answers to his questions, everything changed. They said they didn't realize that I was a very bright alert woman who ran her own business on the internet. I was having the most awful delusions. Say people walking on the ceiling and then they became my high school class and they slid down to me on a string. Also saw that my room mate gave birth to 3 monkeys. Among other horrible things that lingered for months. This is 6 years or more later and I still cringe over commercials that have stick figures or metal statues. If a curtain blows with the wind I have a flash back.

Just the thought of sharing this with you brought almost all of it back. Some of it was very interesting. I gave speeches worldwide to huge audiences and had a boat on an island. Nothing is all bad.