The Gist

When you go to the doctor, do your best to be as accurate as possible with your descriptions.

Really?!

Generally speaking, doctors are taught to take the concept of what's going on with a patient and turn it into a one or two sentence summary. This is also part of why doctors often misgender or out trans patients. That summary goes something like, "25 year old female patient presents with acute abdominal pain in the XYZ quadrant. It gets better with this. It gets worse with that. She has never experienced pain like this before. This pain is similar to what she's experienced before when this happened."

Here's what they're looking for in their summary:

• Primary Symptom

• Location

• Quality (sharp/dull)

• Length of Time

• Consistent/Variable

• Better?/Worse?

• Happened Before?

What Now?

So when you're talking, what the doctor is trying to do is take everything that you're saying and figure out how to condense it down into something that's concise so that they can communicate effectively with other doctors and translate that into tests and things that should be run. If you can do this for yourself beforehand, then you're 75 steps ahead of everybody else.

Too Long; Didn't Read

Check out our TikTok on how to tell what's going on with you to your doctor:

About Wingspan Health

Wingspan Health is a healthcare management tool that organizes your medical information in one place. We connect all your online doctor accounts in one place and help you make use of it. Our tool is currently accessible through our website and is free for all users.

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