For those of us who struggle with a chronic condition such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and/or Fibromyalgia, doctor’s visits aren’t few and far between. When you go to see your doctor, do you feel that you are getting the best service and/or treatment? Do you wish that you could communicate better with your doctor?

Here are some tips that may just help you improve your relationship with your doctor so that you can be a more proactive patient and a true partner in your health care management.

Become aware of your rights and responsibilities as a patient. In the United States, patients have the right to:

• receive accurate and easy to understand information regarding health plan, health care providers and facilities that are available to us. We also have the right to ask for an interpreter to explain this in our own language, if we are not comfortable enough with English.
• choose competent health care providers who will give us sufficient care.
• receive respectful, nondiscriminatory and considerate care.
• participate in our treatment decisions. In order to do so, we should be made aware of the options available to us. We can also appoint a parent, guardian or spouse to act as our intermediary if we are not of legal age or incapacitated in some way.

Keep abreast of current information and trends in medicine, especially those that relate to our conditions. There is so much information available, especially on the internet. We should never try to diagnose ourselves, however. It’s usually much better to gather information and bring up your concerns with your doctor so that he or she can help you find the best course of treatment, if necessary.

Make a list and bring it to the appointment. Everybody is busy these days; doctors are no exception to that rule. I remember reading somewhere that patients only have about 3 minutes per appointment to talk to their doctors. There’s no time to waste, so preparation can be a good thing. Write down questions and symptoms or situations that concern you. If you can’t talk to your doctor, show him the list. You don’t need to carry around a notebook like I do. If you are good at remembering things, you may not even need to write down the list. The important thing is to be prepared while ensuring that your concerns are addressed.

Maintain a personal health record.Many adults don’t know when their last physical was or what tests they received when they last had any lab work done. Some of us know more about the statistics of our favorite sports team than our own health. A personal health record may be just what the doctor ordered (please excuse the pun). You can build this record online or on paper. It’s up to you. To get started, you need a copy of your current medical records, which you have a right to ask for. You should get copies of records from your dentist, your eye doctor and any specialist you’ve seen as well as your primary care doctor.

Some items you will want to include in your PHR are:

• laboratory test results
• Immunizations – type and dates given/received
• Allergies
• Insurance Information
• Organ Donor Authorization
• List and dates of significant illnesses, surgeries and hospital stays.

Bring a trusted friend or family member to your appointment if necessary. Doing this may help you feel more comfortable. Remember: two sets of ears are often better than one.

Take notes or ask questions while your doctor is talking. Don’t be afraid to do these things. For example, if you have research that says that another treatment is better, ask your doctor to clarify his or her position. You may be able to tell your doctor something he or she didn’t know. Good doctors welcome this kind of feedback from their patients.

Following these tips won't cure you of your chronic condition, but it sure will make living with it a bit easier to live with.

Does this topic resonate with you? If so, I'd love to suggest the following books to you. They've got some more tips for you: