9 ways to get what you need from a doctor

because we don't have time for anything else

Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash

I’ve been to see a lot of doctors in the last 12 years and spoken to many different people about how fraught it is. How many people leave those offices kicking themselves for the rest of the day, wishing they’d asked this question or that follow-up?

It reminds me a lot of the early, timid days of my journalism career, when I learned the hard way that I needed to wring all the understanding out of time-crunched people before they left my field of vision or hung up the phone. People have very effective ways of muddling up this process, and the hard work is in not letting them go when they are making it clear they are done with the conversation.

Because just like your GP, you can’t be sure you are ever going to be able to get them back to ask a follow up question later. There is no feeling quite like knowing you have a story to file – or some hormonal chaos to tame – and you don’t have the information you need to proceed.

There are tons of parallels here, …