Читать книгу Taming Chronic Pain - Amy Orr - Страница 14

Exercise: Making Notes for Your Doctor’s Appointment

Making notes for a medical appointment is an important skill. Before your next discussion with your doctor, try the following:

1.Write down, in any format you like, everything you wish to discuss.

2.Under each topic, list the symptoms you are concerned about.

3.Under each symptom, write as much detail as you can about it. Include medications, treatments, and any other factors (lifestyle and otherwise) that you think may be affecting it.

4.Under that, write down how this symptom affects your day and give it a seriousness rating from one to ten.

5.Finally, read back through your notes. Are they clear? If not, try organizing them. Have a planned order in mind to frame your upcoming discussion, and set out your notes in that order.

6.List your questions at the end.

7.Consider typing up brief, bullet-pointed notes to give to your doctor during your appointment—this may save time for you both and will give them something to reference.

Example

Symptom 1	Symptom 2	Symptom 3	Symptom 4
Any meds used	Any meds used	Any meds used	Any meds used
Any treatments	Any treatments	Any treatments	Any treatments
Factors affecting this	Factors affecting this	Factors affecting this	Factors affecting this
Seriousness 1–10	Seriousness 1–10	Seriousness 1–10	Seriousness 1–10
Description of its effect	Description of its effect	Description of its effect	Description of its effect

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3: