Melanie Cole (Host): Have you ever gone to your doctor's office and thought, "I have this list of questions I need answered today," but ended up going home feeling you didn't even begin to ask your first question? I know that that has happened to me more times than I can count.

Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Dr. Stacy Waldron. She's a licensed psychologist at Bryan Counseling Center, and she's here to help us to be our own best health advocate at our doctor's appointments.

Dr. Waldron, thank you so much for joining us today. As I said in the intro, it's happened to me. It's happened to so many people, and I'm a list maker, and sometimes I forget it or I get there and you get a little bit nervous or any of these things can happen. Tell us a little bit about why we're discussing this here today.

Dr Stacy Waldron: The reality is we're going to a doctor being part of a team, that the doctor's there to help us, but we have to provide information to the doctor so that the doctor can examine, diagnose, and treat the problem that we're going to have taken care of. So if the doctor doesn't have information from us, it's very difficult. Yet so many times, patients will go in with what I call the white coat syndrome, even though doctors don't always wear white coats any longer, and they feel uncomfortable to voice their concerns, so then the doctor can't do their job.

Melanie Cole (Host): Well, I know that that does happen. And doing what I do for a living, I know that people get nervous about these appointments and kind of everything goes to the wind. So first, why don't you tell us about a typical visit with a provider.

Dr Stacy Waldron: Well, quite often you're going in and you're meeting the receptionist. You're asked a standard covert inquiry these days before you can even give your insurance information. You give your basic demographics.

You're going to the scale. And sometimes I don't know about you, but that can make me feel nervous just having to look at that. I close my eyes, I have to be honest. You have to get your vitals done, your blood pressure, your temperature, your respirations, your pulse. Review all of your medicines,and all of that happens before the patient's asked, "Why are you here?"

Melanie Cole (Host): Why are we here is sometimes the question people don't really know how to answer. If it's just our annual, I mean, I always say, "I'm just here for my annual," but then it gets a little bit deeper. "Are you having depression issues?" We do that depression screening. There's blood work. "What are you going to check today?"

Dr Stacy Waldron: Well, I'm doing this today for patients. So, I give them some pointers. I start with telling them before they go, write it down. Bring a list of questions to the doctor's office, so that they have a tool to get all of those questions answered. If you're going for your annual visit, for example, maybe take a few days before the visit to think about, "Okay. Am I having a snoring problem? And maybe I'm going to need a sleep study" or "Am I having some chest pains that I want to get checked out?" or "Am I concerned about my weight? Do I want to get that checked out?" Things like that, and have a list of those things, so that you can go over them with your doctor because you might forget after having gone over all of those other things

Melanie Cole (Host): That's a great idea. And I am a huge list-maker and I bring my little piece of paper. Whether you do it on your phone, listeners, or whether you do it on a little piece of paper or a pad, just make sure to hear what Dr. Waldron just said about making that list of your questions, because it's probably one of the most important points we're going to make here today.

Now, some of the things we want to discuss, you mentioned weight and things. What if we're too embarrassed? I mean, women and men of a certain age, maybe we have a little incontinence issue that we'd like to explain, and sometimes we're a little too embarrassed to say that to the nurse that comes in before we see the doctor. So, do we tell the nurse that comes in all of our issues? Or do we just say, "Oh, well, I'd like to see the doctor and discuss it" or "I'm having a few problems"? Is the nurse writing it down for the provider, so that they come in and sort of have it in advance? Or do we wait?

Dr Stacy Waldron: So, the nurse is writing it down for the doctor, so the doctor can go over it. But if there are some things that you feel are a more personal nature or something that you just want to talk to the doctor about, you can go over some of the issues and say, "And then there are a couple of other things I'd like to discuss with the doctor." It's okay. This is your appointment with your doctor. You can make those decisions. The doctor will then know that there are a couple of other things that are not on that list that you're going to bring up and can then ask. "I know you have a couple of other things that you told the nurse you wanted to bring up specifically with me," so then you can address those, making sure the nurse knows ahead of time that you're going to address a couple of things that you did not cover with the nurse.

Melanie Cole (Host): I agree with you. It is your appointment. Now, you mentioned earlier, Dr. Waldron, the medication list. That is another tough one you want to bring in, but that you do go over with the nurse. And it's usually in the chart and now, we have e-charts that's easier to keep. But if there are things like vitamins or supplements, things like that. How do you best advise we bring that? But the medication list, that's really important, isn't it?

Dr Stacy Waldron: It's extremely important. And I find often that patients forget about those natural supplements because they are, after all, natural. And I'll tell patients that you need to tell your doctor about all of those things. I'll hear from them, "Well, but it's natural. It really doesn't matter." So, I've said to my patients quite often, "Well, strychnine is natural too, and it will kill you." So, you don't know what's going to interact with the things that your doctor's prescribing. You must tell them everything you're taking, all of the vitamins, everything over-the-counter so that your doctor can do well in treating you and make sure that nothing interacts. It's very important to have all of those things listed. It's also important to do that with surgeries that you've had that maybe you can't remember because it's 20 years ago when you had your tonsils out or you had a surgery on your toe or something like that. But all of those things are very important.

Melanie Cole (Host): I agree with you. They certainly are. And I'm glad you brought up past surgeries and things, because they do want to know those. Now, let's get to the questions part. What questions do you feel that it's so important that we should be asking our doctors? Because we have our lists and we make our lists of questions we want to ask, but there are certain questions that prompt your physician to think about other things to look a little bit deeper into something.What questions should we be asking our doctors, so that we can be our own best health advocate?

Dr Stacy Waldron: Well, definitely symptoms that you're feeling, maybe memory problems, if you're having any muscle weakness, if you're having anything that they call radicular symptoms like burning or tingling pain going down your arms or legs, any pains in your back or any pains in your neck, or something like that. Addressing that with your doctor, even if you think, "Oh, it's not such a big deal." Let your doctor help you decide whether it's a big deal or not, because you may be missing something that they know much better, whether or not it's a problem or not.

Melanie Cole (Host): That's really important. And when we're thinking about our screenings and the questions that we really want to ask our doctor, there's a lot of tests. There's blood pressure, there's all the blood work. And many listeners don't know and many patients don't know what all that blood work is. So, do we ask our doctorswhat they're ordering as far as blood work?

Dr Stacy Waldron: I think we should ask. When they're ordering the blood work, we ask them what it is and why they're ordering it, so that we have an understanding. The doctors are always happy to explain why they're ordering any test that they're ordering. So, they'll explain to you, "I'm ordering this panel to look at your cholesterol," or "I'm ordering this one to look at your blood sugar," or "I'm ordering this to look at your possibility of infection and this type of thing. So, these are the standard things we'll order. And you have a family history of X, so I'm going to add this one on this time." And if you're concerned about, "Well, you know, 'I don't think I'm running risk of that this year," I'd prefer not to have that one ordered. Then, you can discuss that with your doctor and the two of you can make a decision together, an informed decision on your part.

Melanie Cole (Host): Well, that's really what it's all about, and that's really what this podcast is all about, Dr. Waldron, is that shared decision-making, being your own best advocate. And before we wrap up, stress management, we're all feeling this worldwide. It's really a global stress. Everybody's feeling it. And we want to discuss that with our doctors, but we also don't want to alarm them or something along those lines. But maybe we do want to look at medication, maybe we do need some stress management advice. How do we talk to our doctors about that, about the mental aspect? Because they're not our mental health providers; however, they are well versed in many of the things, certainly nowadays. So, can you tell us and give us your best advice about discussing some of our fears with our doctors, so we can be own best health advocate and be a whole person and not just the physical stuff?

Dr Stacy Waldron:So when you're talking to your primary care doctor, for example, let's say at that annual physical and you're feeling some anxiety or depression, I would encourage then asking about that referral to someone you can talk to before you go directly for a medication, because you have a lot more skills than you think you do to actually bring some of that anxiety down. And you may find that those pills don't do it all by themselves. However, describing the depression or anxiety like you described at the very beginning of this podcast in that screening tool that is used may help that doctor say, "You know, let's use this and let's also get you to a place where you can gain some of those skills." The combination of both of those can really help an individual take control of their life.

Melanie Cole (Host): Great advice, and what an informative episode this was. Thank you so much, Dr. Waldron, for joining us today. And you can take a free, confidential behavioral health screening at bryanhealth.org. Print out those results and take them with you to your appointment. And don't forget to make those lists. I'd like to thank our Bryan Foundation partner, MMC Contractors. That concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. To listen to more podcasts from our experts, visit bryanhealth.org/podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.