Talking to your doctor

Heart failure is a long-term condition so this relationship is important to help you manage the condition and help keep symptoms at bay¹.

Your doctor is there to support you; however, it has to be up to you to take control of your health. Only you are the true expert on how you are feeling, the impact that symptoms have on your life and if they are changing in any way. The doctor needs your help in order to help you!

We understand that talking to a doctor, sharing symptoms and concerns, can be in itself incredibly challenging. But this two-way communication is vital in achieving the best levels of management possible. We’ve put together a ‘Talking to your doctor guide’ that we hope will help you have these conversations. The guide will help you recognise symptoms and any changes in them, suggest a number of questions that you may wish to ask as well as providing general advice for before, during and after appointments and a glossary of heart failure terms you may come across.

Next up: Diagnosis and treatment of heart failure >