Influenza – Preparing for Your Appointment

Listed below are certain questions you may ask your nurse or doctor to help you better manage your flu symptoms.

How can I distinguish between the symptoms of a cold and the symptoms of the flu?
Will I develop a fever? If so, how long will the fever last? Can the fever be dangerous?
Will I develop a headache, runny nose, sore throat or other symptoms?
Will these symptoms last long? Will I feel body ache or tiredness?
How can I determine if I have an ear infection?
Will I develop pneumonia?
Do I have HIN1 (swine flu) virus or another type of flu?
Can I infect other individuals? What can I do to prevent infecting someone?
What steps should I take if there is a child in my home?
When do you think my condition will get better?
What foods and drinks should I eat and drink? How much should I eat and drink?
What medications do you recommend for my symptoms?
Can I use acetaminophen or Tylenol or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or aspirin?
Can I take cold medications?
Will you prescribe more potent medications for my symptoms?
Are herbs and vitamins good treatment to make my flu or cold symptoms go away? Are these medicines safe to use?
Can antibiotics help improve my symptoms?
Do you recommend other drugs to help resolve my symptoms faster?
What steps do I need to take to prevent flu or cold infections?
Do I need to receive a flu vaccine? If so when? Do I need to be vaccinated once or twice a year? What risks does a flu vaccine entail? What risks are there I don’t get one? Will regular flu shots shield me versus the swine flu?
Is it dangerous to get a flu vaccine when I am pregnant?
Will a flu vaccine immunize me from flu and colds for one whole year?
Do you think being exposed to other smokers and my smoking itself can enable me to easily pick up the flu?
Am I allowed to use herbs or vitamins to battle or prevent the flu?

When you come in for your doctor’s appointment, the physician will probably utilize a number of techniques to evaluate your symptoms. These techniques usually involve a physical exam and certain diagnostic tests.

Your doctor in turn can query you about certain things regarding your flu while evaluating your symptoms at the same time. Another essential tip is to bring along to the appointment a list of all you health conditions as well as all the medications you are taking including also the medicine’s dosages as well as the names of doctors and other health care providers you have seen. Some of the questions your doctor may ask may be like these:

When did you first start coughing?
Did your cough begin with a lung infection or an illness?
Do you cough only during and after an activity or all the time?
After eating, do you cough?
What particular period in the day do you have the worst coughing bouts?
Do you expel mucus when you cough? If yes, is the mucus thin and runny or is it viscous and thick? Do you cough up a lot of mucus? What color is the expelled mucus?
Do you feel any discomfort in your chest when you cough?
Do you wheeze when you cough?
Have you recently had fever?
Have you recently lost weight?
Have you had night sweats?
Do you have problems in breathing?
Have you had breathing problems (difficulty in breathing, feeling winded, difficulty in taking satisfying and deep breath or feeling short of breath) for a long time?
Do you frequently feel out of breath?
Does your shortness of breath limit the choices of activities you want to do?
Does your shortness of breath come with wheezing?
Do you have chest pain?
Do you experience any night sweats?
Do you feel tightening in your throat or tightening in your lungs?
How long have you been wheezing?
What seasons in the year do you wheeze the most?
What time of day do you often start wheezing?
Does your wheezing get worse at certain times?
Do you feel in the back of your throat any nasal discharge (post-nasal drip)?

Asian Health Center
27059 Chardon Rd
Cleveland, OH 44143-1113
Phone: (440) 833-0983
www.clevelandacupunctureclinic.com