Have you ever heard of the word Doceri? What it means is teacher and the English
translation of that is doctor. Doctor is a teacher. If you want to know how to
talk to your doctor about your health then this is the video for you.
Hello everyone, Dr. West with possibly a short video but in a really important topic
and that is how to talk to your doctor, because in my office I never get easy
cases, I usually get people that come in that are out of hope, they're out of time,
and they're out of options and one of the things that I always ask them and
whether it is some type of cancer support therapy or Lyme disease or
peripheral neuropathy or chronic fatigue or any of these serious conditions
that we treat, "What is a medical plan in front of you?" And so many times people
say, "Well I don't have any" and I say, "Well did the doctor give you some type
of recommendation or suggestion?" "Well he just gave me a prescription." "Well how
long are you supposed to be on the prescription?" The patient will shrug
their shoulders "I don't know" "Well what is the plan after that? What are the
expectations?" And so many times I get people shrugs. I just had a patient
ask me yesterday, "How am I supposed to talk to my doctor?" and I said, you know
what, this is what I would like from a doctor-patient relationship. First, when
the patient comes in, it is your responsibility to teach the patient.
That's where the word doctor comes from, to teach and so all of the learning and
education you want to put in front of the patient, all of their options for
their condition if they have carpal tunnel syndrome, what do you know about
the medical intervention, what do you know about surgery, what do you know
about natural interventions and vitamin supplement and changing erganomics,
and so one of the things that you want to teach people is, what's wrong, can the
doctor fix it, how long will it take, how much will it
cost, and how can you make it so that it doesn't come back. You know, I've outlined
that for a patient, we're working on a peripheral nerve problem, we started
getting really good progress and the patient came in and said, "Hey, my other
doctor said what you're doing is impossible." and I said, "That's true for
that doctor because I don't play by those rules and I don't treat,
I don't fix everybody that comes into the office but when you have the right
doctor with the right treatments, you could have miracles, so you want to make
sure that the patient understands all their options and so what I recommend
patients do when they go visit with their doctor is, number one, is to make
sure that the doctor understands their expectations and so when we do a workup
with the patient, I always ask them walk me through a normal day of your life,
what is your target bedtime, what is your target a rise time, what are you eating
for breakfast, what's the example of what you're eating, what are you eating for
lunch, what are you eating for dinner, what's your liquid intake, do you have
any cravings for salts and sugars because I want to know how much that
condition is impacting the patient and I also want to know it to what
contributions the patient is choosing in their lifestyle that's contributing to
that condition, then I'll go through a real quick review of systems, any praying
symptoms, problems with your feet, you know, your hands or your skin or your
circulations, how do your muscles feel, your joints, how those your urinary
pathways, what's happening with your bowels, do you have any hormone
imbalances, blood sugar, acid reflux, heartburn, indigestion, heart problems,
lung problems, thyroid concerns, or thyroid symptoms, teeth problems, sinus
problems, ear problems, vision double, vision pain in the eyes,
headaches and then how's your emotional health, and if you do that picture with
people consistently, it gives you a really nice framework and then the end
of those questions, I always ask the patient, "What are your expectations in
coming here? I want to live up to your expectations." And then I'll get a
response and sometimes the patient is, "I don't have any expectations" Other times
they'll say, "I want you to make me 18 years old" Other times they'll say, "I just
want you to take the edge off" And then you understand what people really want,
then you can understand how you can take care of them. I really like it when
patients give me their expectations because now I have a parameters or
framework to work within. So when you go visit with your doctor, you want to know
what are the doctors expectations, what are your expectations and what is their
prediction of, can I help you, can they not help you and that doesn't always
mean that you're going to cure someone because when people say I want to be 18
years old, oh man, I'm really good, I'm not that good maybe I'm the wrong doctor for
your expectations, but then there's some key important question
that I think patients can ask doctors. Number one, are these all of the alternatives
and options that you know about for my case? I love asking that to providers
when I go see a doctor or when I take my son or my family and to see a healthcare
provider is, what are all my alternatives and what are my options. I think that the
most important question that you ask from a patient to a doctor standpoint,
"If this is your brother, your son, your mother, your father, how would you treat
this patient? What treatments would you do and what would you like to know about?"
Because a lot of times the doctor will answer that question much differently,
then if you just say, "What would you do?" Those are my thoughts on how to
interact with your doctor. I forgot to mention that I love it when people come
in with a list of questions because then we can go down the list and you can
answer the questions and I'll tell people, once you leave the office it
seems like all of a sudden your inspiration, your thoughts open up, you
have all these questions, write them down so we can go over them on the next visit
because the more you know about your case and the more you know about all of
your options, the better chance that you have to control to remove the barriers
that are preventing you from getting better and ultimately to achieve and
maintain optimal health. Thank you so much for watching the video on how to
talk to your doctor. If you liked our video on how to talk to your doctor
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We'll see you on the next video.