- Stay one step ahead of your doctor’s office: Get the name of the person you're speaking with and request that any forms that may need to be filled out be faxed to you in advance so that you won't have to deal with that in the outer office. Also, fax your doctor’s office all of your insurance information and credit card info should any advance payment be necessary. Again, the less of this crap you have to deal with at the time of your appointment, the better. Make sure to ask if any blood, urine, or fecal tests will be taken that may require you to fast for several hours prior to your appointment. Do not expect the person from the doctor’s office to be the picture of efficiency. In fact, expect just the opposite and cover as many bases as possible.
- Choose your timing: If there is any way you can avoid going on a Friday or right before a holiday I advise you to do so; it just protracts the agony of waiting for test results and/or a prognosis.
- Pre-book procedures and tests before you see your doctor. The last thing you want to hear is something looks suspicious but you'll have to wait two weeks to get an opening for that MRI or CT scan, not to mention an operating room. These things can always be cancelled but if they're booked up, you're plain out of luck.
- Chaperone your test results. Imaging-test results come on disc or film, or are digitized, and I recommend you pick them up from one place and hand-deliver them to the other. The less middlemen involved, the less opportunity for screw-ups. Keep copies of all lab work results and doctor evaluations as well.
- Prepare your questions. Write down everything that you or your loved ones want the doctor to answer; don’t try to remember everything because you won't. Start your medical “grocery list” immediately and add to it as you think of new questions; that way, as you’re leaving the office you aren’t saying, “Crap, I knew I wanted to ask him/her that!”
- Bring someone strong, confident, and in control. Your head will reel with all the information, mixed with emotions, that this sick person is you they are talking about. The person you bring will be your eyes, your ears, your significant other. Don't choose a person for whom you will need to be strong or someone you'll need to calm down. This experience must be about you and only you. Bring your advocate right into the examining room and never let them leave your side. Give them the responsibility of taking down notes, asking how to spell words and medical terms with which you are unfamiliar. Having a solid, caring presence on your behalf to share the load lightens the burden of having to navigate ominous unchartered waters by yourself. Heed my warning and don't try to go it alone even if you feel you can. Every soldier needs a buddy.
Fran Drescher is a cancer survivor, activist and a New York Times-bestselling author of the book, Cancer Schmancer. She is the founder of Cancer Schmancer.
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