Monthly Archives: June 2011

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Describing Your Symptoms

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Whenever you have a doctor’s appointment, it’s a good idea to plan what you would like to talk about including questions for your physician. Making notes beforehand helps to make sure you won’t forget anything.

Since time with the doctor is often limited, it also makes sense to understand the best way to describe your symptoms so you’re prepared for the questions the doctor will ask. Here’s a list of 10 things to include:

  1. When did the symptom first start to occur?
  2. What were you doing when it first started?
  3. Where do you feel it?
  4. How long does it last?
  5. If it’s a pain, how would you describe it? Sharp, dull, burning, stabbing?
  6. If it’s a pain, does it seem to spread or move (radiate) to other locations?
  7. Is the symptom accompanied by any other symptom?
  8. What seems to make it get better or worse?
  9. Is it occurring more frequently since it started?
  10. Is it growing in intensity since it started?

These 10 questions give you a sense of what the doctor will be looking for when you tell him about your symptom. Knowing how to describe it in these terms will help him identify the cause and prescribe an effective treatment.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Challenges Along The Way

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It’s important to set expectations early in your behavior change plan.  Whether you are trying to quit smoking, start an exercise program or lose weight, be prepared for some challenges along the way.  It is very common to make some progress and then go backwards from time to time.  It’s what you do when that happens that will determine whether you will ultimately reach your goal.

These challenges should be viewed as learning opportunities.  When they occur, accept them for what they are, situations that caused you to deviate from your plan temporarily. They don’t mean that all is lost.  You need to step back, look at the situation and understand why there was a lapse.  Once you understand that, you can devise a plan to use when those circumstances occur again.  For instance, three weeks into your healthier eating plan, you go to an all you can eat buffet and can’t resist the temptation.  You wind up gaining 2 pounds after that.  Instead of giving up your eating plan entirely, you should learn from this.  Next time, avoid those buffets or, if you must go, fill up on water, fruits and vegetables beforehand so you won’t be able to overeat.

So, remember that it is common that the path to success is not straight or smooth when changing your behaviors.  When you get stuck or move backward, learn from the challenge and, above all, don’t use it as an excuse to give up.  Keep moving forward!  Remember two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

First PCP Visit – Eight Things to Check Out While Waiting to See the Doctor

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On my last post I listed some questions to ask your new PCP. Today I’ll mention some of the things I would look for at the doctor’s office even before I meet with the physician.

The doctor relies upon his office staff, and the caliber of that staff dictates the service you will receive and some aspects of the quality of medical care as well. After all, it is the receptionist who will set up your appointment when you call in, and you will rely on her judgment. So rather than thumbing through magazines or checking your e-mails in the waiting room, I suggest you pay attention to a few things:

  1. Is the waiting area clean and orderly? While the magazines may not be the most recent issues, does it look as though someone takes pride in maintaining a professional appearance?
  2. How courteous is the staff on and off the phone with other patients?
  3. Do they gossip about patients?
  4. Do they seem to be interested in helping the patients?
  5. Are they purely business-like or do are they more personable?
  6. Do they talk about other patients who aren’t present so the patients waiting can overhear? If they use identifying information and discuss personal health information this is a breach of confidentiality.  They may be talking about you someday in front of one of your neighbors.
  7. Do they keep to the schedule or at least inform the waiting patients when the doctor is running late?
  8. When you are brought into the exam room, does the nurse take the time to listen to you and answer your questions?

Now that I have you thinking along these lines, I’d be interested in some other things you look for in a doctor’s office. Please send me your thoughts so I can add to this list. Next time I’ll talk about how to prepare for a visit to your doctor including how to describe your symptoms.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

First PCP Visit – Questions to Ask Your New Doctor

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Your first visit with your new PCP is your chance to see if this doctor and his practice are right for you. It’s always a good practice to make a list of your questions and concerns before any visit with a doctor, but there are a few more to have answered as well as some observations to make during this initial visit. In this post I’ll mention some of them, and on the next I’ll talk about some observations you should make. So before you go, make that list and be sure to take it with you:

Questions to Ask

· What’s the waiting time for a routine appointment? These are typically non-urgent follow-up visits for chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes.

· How does the doctor handle acute illnesses like sore throats, the flu or back pain? Can you have an appointment the same day you call or will you be sent to an emergency room or urgent care center? Remember most insurance requires you to pay a higher copay when you use an emergency room instead of going to a doctor’s office.

· Are his office hours flexible enough for your schedule?

· How does the doctor handle calls after hours? Does he have other doctors with whom he shares call?

· Which hospital does the doctor use? Is it convenient for you should you need hospitalization?

As you get these answered, you’ll have a chance to gauge how well your new doctor relates to you and you to him. In my next post I’ll mention the kinds of things you will want to look for at the doctor’s office.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

More About Milestones

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I had a few more thoughts on milestones that I wanted to share.  When setting targets for your weight loss milestones you don’t necessarily have to use weights.  Since a weight loss program combines making changes in your eating habits and your activity level, there are many none weight targets that you can use.  In fact many people find that concentrating on changing the behaviors that will lead to reaching their goal weight to be a better strategy than just focusing on their ultimate weight loss goal.  After all, attaining a 50 pound weight loss will take time, but a milestone tied to changing some aspect of your eating habits can be reached much sooner.  For instance, let’s say that snacks are your downfall, and you typically eat 6 unhealthy snacks every evening while sitting at the computer or watching TV.  A milestone for you could be to eliminate 1 evening snack per week for the next 5 weeks.  By the end of those 5 weeks you will have decreased your snacks to one each evening and hit that milestone.  At the same time you need to improve the healthfulness of the snacks and not increase the amount of each snack.

Once you reach your milestone, you reward yourself.  This brings up the other point I wanted to make about using milestones.  You can choose any reward except food.  So, buy a new pair of shoes or go out to a play or movie, but don’t go out to dinner or have an extra slice of pie for dessert.

Finally, it should be obvious that when you use the attainment of a changed behavior as a goal as in our example, you need to continue that behavior and build on it.  Most experts say that you need to work at maintaining that behavior change for at least six months before you can consider it part of your lifestyle.  With that in mind, you may want to set monthly milestones that you will maintain the new healthier behavior that you adopted in order to prevent backsliding.  And that brings us to the topic I’ll talk about next time – backsliding.

Meanwhile be sure to set attainable milestones for your behavior change program, whether for weight loss or smoking.  It’ll make it more fun as you chart your progress towards your goal.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob