Recognizing your Symptoms; How to ask your Doctor.

Symptomatology is a rather vague science. symptom progression as well as categorization isn't exactly exact. What's more important, rather, is your ability to take note of the symptoms as well as the signs that you may be experiencing or seeing so that on your next visit to your primary physician you can be prepared in describing how and what you feel.

When you feel ill you would want to be able to describe several things ( which we will cover in detail later) as well as discriminate your primary condition from other co-conditions which may accompany it. Furthermore, the role of every physician is undermining the root cause so it's always important to have in mind the time and frequency as well as predisposing factors which lead to whatever illness you may be experiencing.

We will talk about the most common symptom by which patients seek consult; pain. In describing pain there are several things to keep in mind. The quantity as well as the quality of pain you are feeling need to be addressed. How painful is it? Is the pain localized ( in or on a given area alone) or is it diffused ( generalized)? The next thing you would need to consider is or are the predisposing factors. What cause(s) your pain? The third thing to address is does your pain radiate to an area other than the point of origin ( what we doctors call referred pain)? The fourth thing is describing your pain in terms of character and severity. For instance chest pain can be described as boring pain or heaving pain or even it as if someone placed a 100 pound bag of cement over your chest. Lastly, you would want to take note of timing. When during the day do you usually experience your pain? For instance, patients with degenerative diseases like arthritis feel their pain during the early morning hours or late at night ( when it's usually colder). All these description in conjunction gives your physician a detailed description on what your illness is and helps in management.

When you see your doctor keep one thing in mind; not all cardinal signs and symptoms of a given disease manifest entirely or not at the same time. Hallmark features of some diseases may be entirely absent. One explanation for this is differing factors such as age, gender, race, lifestyle, and if other co-morbid diseases are also present. What is clear though is that when you neglect your symptoms they can become full blown diseases. Take for example fever. Having a fever is your own body's defense mechanism against invading pathogen. By resetting your core temperature pathogens will not be able to survive. So keep that in mind next time you get overzealous with you fever medication ( anti-pyretics).

Lastly, learn to listen to what your body tells you. Shortness of breath can mean many things other than you aren't getting enough exercise. Pain associated with minimal effort or even a simple infection can mean other things as well. Again, it is important to undermine the cause or predisposing factors. Being a well informed patient aids in clinching the diagnosis but more so it helps you understand your disease and the treatment process. I hope this helped, folks. Until out next post. You guys take care.