Sunday, July 17, 2011

Reviewing: "Top Five Questions To Ask Your Doctor" by Jim Sutton, RPA-C and Sagar Nigwekar, MD

Written by two doctors, Top Five Questions To Ask Your Doctor: Important questions your doctor wants you to ask about your medical condition is designed to give you the most important questions to ask your doctor regarding a variety of diseases and conditions. Instead of going blank when you hear the term “cancer” or something else, or suddenly thinking of things to ask later in the dead of night, this book is designed to help you stay informed about your condition.



As we all know, a doctor's time is increasingly limited. Those precious minutes with him or her have to be maximized. In the section titled “Tips for Talking to Your Doctor” it stresses the idea that the patient should “set the agenda” and “use your time wisely.” That is followed by suggestions for questions that you should always ask every visit. Examples range from the general “how will I know my treatment is working?” to the more specific “will this medication interact with any other medication I am taking?” There are also several basic questions listed for staying in the hospital and before a surgery or procedure. Those few pages pass quickly and then it is on to the alphabetically listed diseases and conditions.

From what my father-in-law had years ago named “Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm “ on page 10 to Warts (common warts) on page 154 and nearly everything in between the authors cover a number of medical issues that are common as well as rare. In each case, the authors list the top five questions for each topic and additional questions. A topic can be covered in as little as two pages to nearly a dozen. 150 different problems are listed and can range from the very common “Ear Infections” (page 71) and “Tooth Pain” (page 144) to the less common and more complex “Bell’s Palsy” (page 36), “Meningitis” (page 107) and “Vasculitis” (page 198) among others. Each disease or condition also has a multi sentence paragraph introduction explaining what it is before leading into the questions. While some questions are generic in nature and cover a variety of diseases/conditions, others are very specific to the disease or condition.

A five page index brings this very helpful book to a close. Written in regular language devoid of medical jargon by doctors, this book is one of those books that everyone should own. Easy to use and easy to understand, it allows the patient to focus on other things---like getting well.


Top Five Questions To Ask Your Doctor: Important questions your doctor wants you to ask about your medical condition
Jim Sutton, RPA-C
Sagar Nigwekar, MD
Outskirts Press, Inc.
2010
ISBN# 978-1-4327-5826-4
Paperback
160
$12.95


Material supplied by the authors in exchange for my objective review. It is also available on the Kindle for $3.99




Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

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