Questions To Ask a New Doctor

Questions about the doctor and his or her practice:
I'll suggest the questions here, but you'll want to phrase these questions in a way that's natural for you, of course:

• I want to be an active part of my health care team. How do you feel about the team approach with the patient and doctor work together as treatment partners?

• Not because I question your judgment, but because I want to understand and learn, I tend to ask quite few questions. Will this bother you?

• Will you be the doctor I see every time I have an appointment here? (for group practices)

• What's the procedure if I need assistance outside of office hours?
   

Questions about headache and Migraine treatment:

• What is the diagnosis for your head pain? (tension-type headache, Migraine disease, etc.)

• If you don't understand what happens in your body during these episodes, ask the doctor to explain it.

• Are there lifestyle changes you can make to help prevent these headaches and/or Migraines?

• What might be triggering these headaches and/or Migraines?

• If you are diagnosed with Migraine disease, are the episodes frequent enough to consider preventive medications?

• Regarding medications being prescribed:

  • What type of drug is this, and how does it work?

  • If prescribing more than one drug, what should be taken when, and in what order?

  • What are the possible side effects? Will they go away? At what point should you call you about any side effects?

  • What is this drug's potential to cause rebound headache? If you have already used it as many consecutive days as it can safely be used without risking rebound, what can you take instead?

• If nausea is a problem, and the doctor does not offer to prescribe an antinausea drug, it would be a good idea to ask for one. (Reglan, Phenergan, Compazine, etc.)

• If there has been a significant change in your headache patterns, and your doctor is not ordering an imaging study (CT scan or MRI), ask if your doctor thinks it would be advisable.

• If you awake feeling unrested, experience excessive daytime sleepiness, or already know you have sleep problems, be sure to discuss this with your doctor. Sleep patterns are essential to our health and preventing headaches and Migraines.

• Does the doctor suggest any vitamin or mineral supplements – magnesium, vitamin B2, Coenzyme Q10, or others? If so, what, and in what amount?

• Does the doctor suggest herbal remedies such as feverfew? Again, in what amounts?

There are many other questions you may want to ask that will pertain to your individual situation, but this is a beginning. You may want to copy and paste these into your word processing program. That way you can edit them, add extra spaces between them, and make notes while you're in the doctor's office.