Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're likely to start by first seeing your family doctor or your child's pediatrician. However, in some cases when you call to set up an appointment, your doctor may recommend urgent medical care. If your child or an adult who you care for is showing signs of severe dehydration, such as lethargy or reduced responsiveness, seek immediate care at a hospital.
Because appointments can be brief, and because there's often a lot of ground to cover, it's a good idea to be well prepared for your appointment. Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment, and what to expect from your doctor.
What you can do
- Be aware of any pre-appointment restrictions. At the time you make the appointment, be sure to ask if there's anything you need to do in advance.
- Write down any symptoms you're experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment. If you have been vomiting or have had diarrhea, your doctor will want to know when these symptoms began and how frequently they've been occurring.
- Write down key personal information, including any recent trips you've taken or life changes you've made. Also include a description of your typical daily diet and any foods you've recently eaten that you suspect may have caused your illness. In addition, your doctor will want to know if you've recently been exposed to anyone with diarrhea.
- Make a list of your key medical information, including other conditions you're being treated for and the names of the medications that you're taking. Include on your list every prescription and over-the-counter drug you use, as well as any vitamins and supplements.
- Take a family member or friend along, if possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to soak up all the information provided to you during an appointment. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.
- Write down questions to ask your doctor.
Your time with your doctor is limited, so preparing a list of questions will help you make the most of your time together. List your questions from most important to least important in case time runs out.
For dehydration, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
- What is likely causing my symptoms or condition?
- Are there any other possible causes for my symptoms or condition?
- Do you think my condition is temporary or chronic?
- What kinds of tests do I need?
- What treatment(s) do you recommend?
- How soon after I begin treatment can I expect improvement?
- Are there any restrictions that I need to follow?
- Is there anything I can do to prevent a recurrence of this problem?
- I have these other health conditions. Do I need to change the treatments I've been using?
- Should I see a specialist? What will that cost, and will my insurance cover seeing a specialist?
- Is there a generic alternative to the medicine you're prescribing me?
- Are there any brochures or other printed material that I can take home with me? What Web sites do you recommend visiting?
In addition to the questions that you've prepared to ask your doctor, don't hesitate to ask questions during your appointment at any time that you don't understand something.
What to expect from your doctor
Your doctor is likely to ask you a number of questions. Being ready to answer them may reserve time to go over any points you want to talk about in-depth. Your doctor may ask:
- When did you first begin experiencing symptoms?
- Have your symptoms been continuous or occasional?
- How frequently have you been experiencing loose bowel movements or vomiting?
- How recently have you urinated?
- Are you able to keep down any food or drink?
- Do you also have other symptoms, such as abdominal cramping, fever, headache or muscle aches? How severe are these symptoms?
- Has there been blood in your stools?
- Have you recently eaten any food that you suspect was spoiled?
- Has someone you know gotten sick after eating the same food as you?
- Have you recently been exposed to someone who you know was experiencing diarrhea?
- What medications are you currently taking?
- Have you recently traveled to another country?
What you can do in the meantime
If your child is sick, continue offering him or her small amounts of an oral rehydration solution containing electrolytes while you wait for your appointment. Ask your doctor to recommend the dose and frequency. Don't try to replenish fluids in a child with only water, which doesn't treat dehydration in children, and may make symptoms worse. If you or another adult is sick, try to replenish fluids with water and an oral rehydrating solution.
- Dehydration. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: The Merck Manual for Patients and Caregivers.
- http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec12/ch158/ch158b.html. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Wanke CA. Acute diarrhea in adults.
- http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=inf_immu/8950. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Dehydration and fluid maintenance. National Guidelines Clearinghouse.
- http://www.guideline.gov/summary/summary.aspx?doc_id=3305. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Vomiting and diarrhea in children. American Academy of Family Physicians.
- http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/common/stomach/196.html. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Fleisher GR. Acute diarrhea in children.
- http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~eeVWYOJxLfOU3e. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Diarrhea. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/diarrhea. Accessed Oct. 25, 2008.
- Preventing dehydration from diarrhea. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2001;285(3):362.
- Wellbery C. Diagnosing dehydration in children. American Family Physician. 2005;71(5).
