Consulting With Doctors

Ask Doctors for Advice

When an individual has suffered a head injury, the relationship they have with their doctor will affect the quality of care they receive. Medical professionals, especially doctors categorize patients in two ways, the good patient and the bad patient. The person that is likeable, will be in the good patient category, and will have more effort put in their care and treatment by hospital staff and often make more progress. Patients are never told which category they fall in, but it is just common sense to ensure you get along with your doctor. The problem with this is, not many people know how to do this.

Head injuries are not easily diagnosed, and if your doctor does not believe you have had a brain injury, then you will not receive the treatment you require. The question is, why doesn’t the doctor believe you have had a head injury? Doctors look at medical issues, by using standard medical tests to diagnose patients, and the ones used for head injuries often are negative.

Approximately 85 percent of head injury patients that have a CT Scan or MRI, have results that are negative. But these are expensive machines used to take pictures of the brain. However, these results mean that the brain is normal. So it can rule out if you suffered damage or not.

Even individuals suffering significant brain injuries may still not have a positive finding. So these tests could merely mean damage has not yet been found. All of the tests that are used for this type of injury may not find anything. So yes, they may return negative results. And this is true even when they have a significant head injury.

Blood Work.

The blood work done may come back good; the patient may be able to talk without difficulty, stand and walk. At the same time they may suffer memory problems, headaches and fatigue. Doctors are trained to rely on medical testing to provide them with a direction to take in the treatment of a patient and what to do next. When all of the medical tests are negative, what is the next thing that should be done?

Neuropsychological Testing

One of the things that doctors also rely on is neuropsychological testing. The use of neuropsychological testing is one of the best ways to diagnose a head injury, with between a 90 and 95 percent accuracy of diagnosing. This is currently the most accurate technique available to doctors.

The problem with this, not everyone has access to a neuropsychologist, either there is not one available or the person’s insurance coverage will not pay for this extremely expensive medical service. When there is good documentation lacking and negative test results, it is easy to understand why a doctor may not believe you sustained a head injury.

Make a List

This leads to the question, how to get the doctor to believe you have had a head injury? When consulting the physician have a complete list of the problems you have, which may sound obvious to some people, but not for others. Many people do not visit the doctor often and do not realize having this list can be helpful and for the person with a head injury this can be a difficult task. The reason it might be difficult, is most head injury patients suffer memory disorders. This can mean they forget, and this can lead to visiting the doctor and saying, I have this problem, this problem and a bad memory.

Then a week later they visit the physician again and say, I am also not sleeping good. The next visit in another week, they mention that they have headaches. What the doctor may begin to think is that this patient is a complainer, not that they have had a head injury. The reality of the situation is, due to the injury, the person just plain forgets to tell the doctor all of the symptoms at the same time in one visit.

When they get home, then they realize what they forgot to say to the physician, and usually only after a family member asks, “did you tell your doctor you are not sleeping good and you have headaches”? The person did not remember to tell the doctor these symptoms and in some cases may not see the doctor again for a month or more, so they go without any help or treatment.

Document Your Complaints.

One of the things that head injury specialists recommend is writing down your complaints, get them all on paper and then spend more time thinking about, if there have any that are not listed. Put the list in plain view, even on the refrigerator, where it can be added as you are reminded of an issue or a problem occurs. When visiting the doctor, take this list of your complaints. The doctor also keeps a written record of your complaints each time you visit. Then when the insurance company is going to pay they usually review the patient’s notes to determine the payment for the services.

The doctor cannot cure all of the problems in a single visit, or by prescribing a pill for the headaches, memory loss and other issues. Identifying all of the problems is a start, and it is the beginning direction of long term treatment. Patients that speak openly and honestly about their problems with the doctor are good patients. Communication is key. The patient, will also need to realize that the doctor does not have a miracle cure for them, and this does not make them a bad doctor.

Prescribing Medicine.

When the doctor prescribes medication, it is essential to take it the way your doctor told you. Patients often feel if they take a medication for a headache prescribed by the doctor, that if they get an upset stomach, they should stop taking the medication. Then they do not tell the doctor what the effect of the pill was, or that they decided to stop taking them, until they see the doctor the next time. The best thing to do if taking a prescribed medication and experience a side-effect is to call the physician’s office and tell them.

How to Take Meds.

Rather than not being able to take the medication, it might be as simple as needing to take it with a full stomach. When the doctor is aware of the side effect, if it is a wrong medication, then they may be able to call in another medication to the pharmacy. If they are not made aware of a side effect, they cannot change the treatment, and by not telling them immediately, you could become a bad patient.

The reason you could become a bad patient is that you did not discuss this issue with them, where they may have been able to change medications that could have helped you. It also tells them that you cannot be depended on to take medications exactly as they have instructed you. The result is that the patient will suffer the consequences of being a bad patient and not receive the care they need, because there is no trust built between the patient and doctor.

Make Sure You Take Your Medication

One of the things that can be done to ensure you take your medications, when you should is to buy a pill divider, which are inexpensive. They have compartments, where pills can be separated for the day and for the times of the day they should be taken. Then it is made easy to take your medications as you have been directed and at the same time every day.

This is also smart to do, because medications work better when taken at the same time daily and the body adjusts to them better. Another thing this will do is to ensure the medication is not being taken to often or too little, and there is no forgetting whether your medication has been taken or not.

If you forget whether you have taken your daily dosage, you can look in the pill holder and see if it is there or gone. Never self adjust the dosage of your medication. The amount of medication the doctor prescribes is meant to last a specific amount of time; usually it will be prescribed on a monthly basis.

If you call your doctor or go visit him in three weeks, because your medication is gone, they will know that you did not take it, as it was prescribed. The use of a medication holder and taking medication properly will show your physician you are serious about your medical care and will do as directed by the medical professional.

How to Save Money when visiting the Doctor Visit?

Doctors see many patients. But mostly, this in order to cover costs of running a practice. So the person visiting the physician needs to realize this fact. Also, these extremely high costs dictate that doctors must see many patients quickly.

Making a list of your complaints, will help to make the doctor visit brief. But at the same time, it will address any medical problems. When making a return visit, you will be able to explain how you are doing and feeling. Then you can compare it since your last vistit. All the issues are then addressed. Also, it should only take between 3 and 5 minutes to give the doctor your report.

Common Language Explained.

When the doctor is aware of your issues, a common language can be formed. They can use numbers for the amount of pain with a problem of headaches, ranging from 1 to 10. So 1 means no headache and 10 is an extremely painful headache. This can also be a way of rating the medication prescribed for your headaches.

It can document how it was prior to taking a prescription medication. So if you tale Darvocet, which is addictive, a doctor wants to see how it works.  For rexample, maybe the pain was a 7. But now since taking this medication, the headaches are a 5.

Or the headache was a 7. But even after taking the medication, it remained a 7. So this can tell the physician how well the medication is working for your specific problem. Reporting progress to the doctor helps them and it is a sign of a good patient. Also, it can make the doctor feel good. This because they know their treatment is doing some good.