Now that you’ve scheduled your appointment with BergerHenry, here are a few tips on the best ways to prepare for and get the most out of your visit with your ENT doctor:
Set a reasonable agenda ahead of time and lead with it
When you arrive for your medical appointment, let your ENT doctor know what you’d like to discuss.
Try to stay focused on the problem(s) at hand.
Organize your story like a reporter:
what? when? why? how?
What?
What is your chief complaint?
What are your related complaints, if any?
Start here.
When?
When exactly did your symptoms first start?
Did they resolve even a little? Did they recur or have they fluctuated at all?
Why?
You may not know why, but what ELSE was going on at the beginning when you first noticed symptoms?
Did you have an illness, suffer from stress, go somewhere, eat something?
Were you exposed to something?
How?
What qualities does your medical problem have?
Would you label them as intense, lingering, or a nuisance?
Does it associate with any other things (other symptoms that seem to come at the same time)?
What makes your medical problem better or worse (medications, other treatments, or things like sleep, exercise, weather, food)?
Organize your personal info
Know your meds
Put together a list of medication names, doses, and when/how often you take them.
List your past medical history
Bring a list of chronic diagnoses (like high blood pressure or depression) and past operations
Bring copies of test results
Labs, x-rays, previous procedure reports, reports from providers like physical therapists- often there is a portal you can print these from; don’t assume the provider you are seeing will have access.
If you are journaling your symptoms, print a summary (more below on this).
Keep track of your medical history with a digital journaling app
With a Digital Journaling App such as Journal My Health, you can track your medical history, list of medications, past tests, appointment outcomes, symptoms, diet, travel, etc.
Digital Journaling Apps are a bit more robust than the Notes App on your phone. You can add photos, videos, audio clips, and tags.
You can use the App to find correlations between your symptom(s) fluctuations and other things like exercise, weather, or interventions such as medicines or physical therapy. If not installed on your phone, you can print your history from your desktop or laptop and bring it to your appointment.