Hot Tips To Maximise Your Consult

Always bring a list of your medications and the doses that you are taking to every appointment.

My experience in medicine has taught me that many people are confused about what they are on, can’t recall the names of the medications of what they are on and often don’t know the doses of what they are taking. Some people are on so many medications they are overwhelmed, don’t know what they are on, for what, and just take what is in the blister pack that their pharmacist has prepared for them.

These things are understandable. I suspect that if I was non medical and did not have medical language as my first language I might also have difficulty recalling the names of what I was on – after all the names of drugs are not common parlance!!

But, as treating doctors we really need to know what our patients are taking, and how much they are taking and if they are taking what we think that they are taking 😎. Sometimes, we think that our patients are taking what we have prescribed only to later find out that they haven’t been taking what we prescribed, or have not been taking the amounts that we have prescribed. Sometimes we think a patient is on a drug that they actually stopped, without telling us that they stopped. This can make for challenging consultations at times!!😱 These are not the type of challenges that we need!

The best thing to do is to write down a list of all your medications and the doses that you are taking. This can be for 1. To remind you in consultation of what you are actually taking, or 2. To show the doctor so that they can see exactly what you are taking.

A list like this removes any potential memory issues from the consultation, which means that your doctor gets correct information about what you are taking. This means they are in a great position to give you accurate advice about what to do with your medications from here after having assessed you and spoken with you about your symptoms.

I can’t assume that people follow my instructions as too often I have found that even though I have written down specific instructions, that people can lose these instructions or don’t read them, or get confused and end up taking their own self decided dose of the medication. Sometimes people think that they have been taking what I prescribed, but haven’t. This is not a drama, it is just something that I and other doctors need to know so that we can interpret your symptoms, work out what is working and what isn’t and why, and make a decision what to do about your treatment to best support you.

Having a list of your medications and doses that you keep with you and update for every consult is a massive support for both you and your doctor to make sure that you can get the best possible treatment advice.

A list like this can be in a little book, a piece of paper you keep in your wallet or handbag, or update on your phone in the ‘note’ section. Some people like to keep a file of their results, symptoms and medications in a folder. Everyone is different: find a system that works for you and that you enjoy using – and keep it simple 😎

Have fun in your Rheumatology consults! And feel free to share here in comments the tips that you have for keeping a list of your medications so that other people can learn from you!