Ask your doctor the important things first

With a typical physician contact averaging about 22 minutes, planning what to say and making a list of discussion points in advance of the visit may be as important as the appointment itself.

A visit to your health provider can be difficult territory to navigate.

First of all, when you show up in a doctor’s office it’s often because you’re feeling poorly (or stressed, anxious), and unless you’ve thought about the discussion in advance, key areas might not get covered.

Add to that, our health providers are often hurried or harried. They know they need to listen, but unless we make that easier to do, they’ll go with the information they have available to them.

One woman I know visits her physician with a list, takes it out immediately and begins with: "All right, I’m going to talk for three minutes. I’ll watch the clock. Please don’t interrupt me. I will want to hear your impressions when I’m done."

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The folks at Harvard suggest one of the 11 things to talk about with your doctor is "what you want to do, or used to do, but can’t any longer." Lab tests or a physical examination are not going to reveal compromises you’ve made.

I know a lovely 62-year-old woman whose sore knee prevents her from gardening, her long-cherished pastime. The result, over the last year, has been substantially less exercise and resulting weight gain, less (sunshine) vitamin D and a related bout with depression. If her doctor had known more, up front, about lifestyle changes resulting from that achy knee, together they might have been able to prevent some of her follow-along problems .

We have a legion of truly excellent health providers in this valley, but if we don’t tell our doctors about "what we are afraid of" or "where we have traveled lately" or even about "another family member’s recent diagnosis with a serious disease," suggests the Harvard list, they will not be as effective in dealing with our health and well-being.

The 11-item Harvard list contains reminders like "tell your doctor about all the over-the-counter pills and supplements you take" — all of them, "all the medications prescribed by other doctors" and "the medications you are supposed to take, but don’t." It encourages talking about your "personal stressors," "smoking and/or drinking habits," "incontinence" or "sexual dysfunction."

So now you have it, the entire Harvard Medical School list. Choose the ones that seem most important for you — the first one regarding lifestyle changes and preferences is the one that really speaks to me, so that’s at the top of my list. Personal stressors would be second. And then I would try to use one more approach the Harvard people recommend, quite appropriate to the political season we are in: "Stay on message."

Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at s.johnson@oregonstate.edu.