That’s actually a problem. When I myself see a doc, I make a point of being as colloquial about it as possible. Part of our training is about taking what people say and converting it into technical symptoms; when people start to “communicate effectively” it heavily biases us towards certain diagnoses. The more intelligent/educated the patient the more likely we are to take one of their word choices at face value.

Personally, all I ever want from a patient is a clear timeline of events, their best attempt to articulate what they felt, a list of scripts, and old medical records (especially imaging.) The patient that can give me that has made the task of helping them 1000x easier.

That’s really helpful to know.