Answer:
It can be intimidating to sit with your primary care physician after he has listened to your input and examined you in your paper gown. [See last month’s column to learn more about presenting your symptoms.] Perhaps your heart is beating a bit fast as you wait for his pronouncement of what is causing your symptoms. What can it be? Is it serious?
At some point during the visit you will hear the working diagnosis, the healthcare professional’s (doctor, nurse, or physician assistant) best analysis of what may be the source of your concern. It may turn out to be the final diagnosis or it may lead to the answers you seek.
Which is why your job isn’t done, yet. As the most important member of Team Diagnosis YOU, you need to discuss what happens next. Your healthcare professional may suggest one or more of these next steps and you have the right and the responsibility to ask questions, take notes, and actively participate in each of them. They are:
1. Tests
2. Treatment Plans
3. Referral to a specialist
