When patients go to the hospital, they will face a very important problem, that is, how to communicate with the doctor. If the communication is good, then the doctor can “empathize” and develop the best treatment plan for the patient; if the communication is not good, then it may cause obstacles in doctor-patient communication and even cause doctor-patient disputes. So, how should patients and their families communicate well with pain doctors when they visit the pain department?
A. Clear expression
Think clearly about the problem you want to solve and give the doctor a clear statement before the visit. Don’t try to solve a headache problem and end up talking about a bunch of leg pain first. Of course, many patients are elderly and inevitably experience pain in multiple places due to physical deterioration, so it is not possible to demand that elderly patients address one problem at a time. At this point, it is recommended that elderly patients make a list of the problems they would like to address, arranged in order of how badly they are now affecting their lives, preferably on paper. This way, the pain physician can quickly understand the needs of the older patient and develop an appropriate plan for the patient.
For example, an elderly patient who normally has bilateral knee pain, along with left shoulder pain and limited range of motion, and who presented a few days ago with shingles in the right chest, might be given this treatment plan when he arrives at the hospital: first quickly control the shingles pain to prevent post-herpetic neuralgia; after the former is controlled, begin a knee examination with treatment of knee joint with sodium glass acid injection or oral glucosamine, and at the same time instruct the patient to carry out rehabilitation exercises for the shoulder joint to end the time of shoulder periarthritis as soon as possible.
Inform your doctor about your existing chronic diseases and long-term medications.
Many elderly patients have a combination of multiple medical conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, and will take many medications. Some of these medications conflict with pain management medications, so it is actually responsible for the health of elderly patients to communicate this information to their doctors in a timely manner. Younger patients also need to be aware of this issue and should not try to “test” their doctors. They should always inform their doctors about any special diseases and not wait for them to ask. For example, some patients are glaucoma, so pain medication in many drugs can not be taken, otherwise it may cause the symptoms of glaucoma aggravated.
Third, the appropriate expectations
As the saying goes: sickness comes and goes like a mountain. Many patients who suffer from painful diseases can’t wait to relieve the pain immediately, such a mood is understandable, but in the outpatient clinic visit, must understand this point: the occurrence of disease is mostly a cumulative process, there is a quantitative to qualitative process, may be years of slowly accumulated disease suddenly erupted, how can be completely cured in a few minutes?
All treatment takes time, and doctors are actually more concerned about the changes in the disease than the patient. Therefore, patients who go to the pain department, especially the elderly patients, must keep a good attitude, rice is eaten one by one, and this pain also needs to be relieved step by step. If the patient sleeps longer or has an increased appetite than the last treatment, that’s a good start. Just like a piece of ice, it is not possible to put it in the fire and make it melt at once in a very short period of time, instead, it melts into water unconsciously in the warm sunshine.
Fourth, believe in doctors
It should be said that, as with all other professions, the majority of doctors as a group have professional ethics, and the wish of doctors is to see patients recover as soon as possible. Therefore, I hope that patients, especially elderly patients, must trust your doctor, rather than believe in the so-called ancestral secret recipes, court recipes, etc., especially now that certain media do not do their duty to review medical advertising, but also play a misleading role for many patients.
For example, many patients have come to ask if they can take a special medicine to cure postherpetic neuralgia. Here I tell you that if a certain method says that it can cure a certain disease, you must be wary of its credibility, because now even the cold, a minor disease, cannot be cured.
In addition, to tell you another way, if a treatment method says it can solve a tricky disease, then you should search the web pages of hospitals such as Peking University, Peking University and 301 to see if there is such a method. If not, then we must be alert, must avoid being deceived.
V. Detailed description of the condition
If you suffer from a disease of a painful nature, you should describe the following aspects in detail.
1. Pain location: for example, if you have a headache, you should describe whether it is on the left side or the right side, whether it is in the forehead, temporal area, or the back of the occipital area;
2, the onset of pain: for example, whether it is 1 month, 6 months, or decades; whether there are times when it gets better;
3, the triggering factors of pain: such as cold, fatigue, mood, etc.;
4.The nature of the pain: is it continuous or intermittent, is it burning, stabbing, drilling, electric shock-like, dull pain, swelling, or episodic pain;
5.The duration of each pain: a few seconds, a few hours, or a few days;
6. the experience of consultation: the diagnosis and treatment methods of previous doctors, and how effective they are.
7. what physical signs are present: such as pressure points, the nature and location of sensory changes, other important physical examination signs, such as whether the patient with low back pain has pressure pain and radiating pain in the lumbar spine, whether the limb elevation test is positive, etc.
8.What previous examinations have been done? What are the results? For example, has CT, MRI, etc. been done.
The more clues the patient provides, the higher the accuracy of the doctor’s diagnosis. Some patients ask, “I’ve had headaches for years, how should I treat them?” With questions like these, the doctor has no way to give a direct answer.