How to walk into a visit and leave with one next step

A visit is a timed conversation. It should leave you with a shorter story and a next step you could explain to a tired friend. Functional visits have a reputation for running longer. Longer only helps if the extra minutes buy a real history, an exam, a few decisive tests, and a date to look again.

The short version

• Write one page before you go.
• Ask what today's visit is for.
• Ask what would change based on each test result.
• Leave with a date to look again.

Write one page before you go

• When did this start, and what else started that month?
• What have you already tried, at what dose, for how long?
• The week you actually lived: sleep window, meals, movement, alcohol and other substances, work hours.
• The question you want answered, in one sentence.

"I have tried everything" is fog. "Eight weeks without dairy, the bloat stayed, I sleep 11:30 to 6:00, I lift once if the week is kind" is a map. Clinicians can work with a map.

What to ask in the room

What is today for? A first history, a results conversation, or a procedure? If the answer is "we run a large panel and see," you are on a fishing trip. Fishing trips sometimes catch a fish. They also catch panic.

What would change if this test is high, low, or normal? If nothing would change, you may be buying curiosity. Curiosity is allowed. Name it.

When do we look again? A plan without a date is a pamphlet.

Use this site as shared vocabulary

You can point at a topic and skip the TED talk. "I think my gut needs a look first." "I am carrying load I have not refunded." "This PDF arrived without a question." That vocabulary exists to save the visit time. Leave the debate points at home.

If the clinician who knows your history disagrees with a page here, the clinician wins. This site cannot examine you. See the disclaimer.

What you will not find here

This site does not locate clinics, sell memberships, or book appointments. The visit stays a human conversation between you and someone who can examine you.

Leave with fewer mysteries and one step you can keep. If you leave with a binder and a feeling that you are behind, the visit missed its job, however nice the furniture looked.