doctor-visit-prep

Doctor Visit Prep Skill

The average appointment gives you a handful of minutes and interrupts your opening sentence fast — and most of that budget gets spent reconstructing a timeline you could have brought written down. This skill builds the one-page visit sheet clinicians actually want: symptoms in onset-duration-severity-pattern form, the medication list that's actually current, and the questions ranked so the important ones happen even if time doesn't. It prepares the communication; the medicine stays with the doctor.

What This Skill Produces

• The symptom brief — each concern in clinical shape: what, since when, how bad (0–10), what makes it better/worse, what's changed
• The current-state sheet — medications with doses (including supplements), allergies, relevant history, other clinicians involved
• The ranked question list — top 3 first, because visits end mid-list
• Advocacy scripts — the phrases for feeling dismissed, asking about alternatives, and getting findings documented

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The reason for the visit — new problem, follow-up, annual, or the-thing-they're-worried-about (often different from the stated reason; ask gently)
• The symptom story, unstructured — let them ramble; the skill does the structuring into timeline form
• Medications and supplements as actually taken — not as prescribed; the gap is clinically relevant and the sheet records reality with the discrepancy noted for discussion
• What they're afraid of — the unasked question ("could this be cancer?") is the visit's real agenda; putting it on paper is how it gets answered instead of orbited

Framework: The 12-Minute Rules

1. Timeline beats adjectives: "sharp right-side pain, started ~3 weeks ago, 6/10 at worst, worse after meals, new this year" is usable; "it hurts a lot lately" restarts the interview. Every symptom gets onset / severity / pattern / modifiers / trajectory.
2. Lead with the agenda: "I have three things: X, Y, and the one I'm most worried about is Z" — said in the first thirty seconds — is the single highest-leverage sentence in healthcare. The sheet opens with it, verbatim.
3. The worry goes on paper: unspoken fears drive unfocused visits. Naming the feared diagnosis lets the clinician address it directly — including the reassurance, which only lands when the fear was actually said.
4. The reality medication list: what's actually taken, including the skipped doses and the turmeric — with the as-prescribed gap flagged for honest discussion, not hidden. Interactions live in the gap between the two lists.
5. Advocacy is specific, not adversarial: "What else could this be?", "What would we expect to change if it's X?", "If this isn't better in [time], what's the next step?", and — when dismissed — "I'd like the chart to reflect that I raised this and we decided [outcome]." Documentation requests change conversations while staying collegial.

Output Format

Visit Sheet: [appointment, date] — bring printed or on phone

The Opening (say this first)

"I have [N] things today: [list]. The one I'm most worried about is [Z]."

Symptoms

| Concern | Since | Severity (0–10) | Pattern / triggers | Changed how |

|---|---|---|---|---|

Current State

Medications as actually taken: […, with as-prescribed gaps flagged] · Supplements: … · Allergies: … · Other clinicians/recent tests: …

Questions (in priority order)

1. [the must-answer] 2. … 3. … [rest below the line — asked if time allows]

If Needed — Advocacy Lines

Dismissed: "[the chart-documentation line]" · Alternatives: "What else could this be?" · Follow-up: "If this isn't better by [when], what's next?"

> This sheet organizes communication with your clinician — it contains no medical advice, and the doctor's guidance supersedes anything in its structure.

Quality Checks

• [ ] Every symptom has onset, severity, pattern, and trajectory — zero bare adjectives
• [ ] The opening agenda sentence exists and includes the real worry
• [ ] The medication list records reality, with prescription gaps flagged not hidden
• [ ] Questions are ranked, top-3 above the line
• [ ] The sheet fits one page — a sheet the visit can't absorb defeats itself

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not diagnose, suggest diagnoses, or rank likelihoods — structure the story; the medicine is the doctor's
• [ ] Do not bury the scary question in item 7 — the worry leads or the visit orbits it
• [ ] Do not sanitize the medication reality — the skipped doses are clinical data
• [ ] Do not script confrontation — advocacy lines are collegial, specific, and documentable
• [ ] Do not build a three-page dossier — one page is the format clinicians can actually use mid-visit