Simple, radical health tip: Ask for the printout

Getting a paper copy of the results of your medical procedures and tests is quick, easy, and invaluable

This is a hard-earned tip I gift to you:

Whenever a doctor or nurse is sharing the results of a test or procedure: Ask for a printed copy.

This applies to:

• Bloodwork

• Scans, such as MRI, CT, PET, bone density

• Procedures, such as surgery, colonoscopy, endoscopy

• Test results, such as Pap smears, HIV, poop tests (not the official term)

Ask right there, while you are sitting in front of your doctor, and most of the time, your doctor will be able to print the report immediately, or ask someone else on the care team to do so, and you can tuck it in your bag. Done!

In my experience, asking for printouts has been easy and free, mere seconds.

If you wait, and need a record of the results months or years later, it is often more complicated, especially if a different healthcare organization needs the information, or if you have moved.

Sometimes there are forms to fill out. Sometimes there is a cost to copying your record. Sometimes forms have to be printed, filled out, signed, and faxed! Faxed! In 2022! And it’s never immediate. It can take hours to weeks.

Yes, part of this is protective HIPPA laws, which are great, but it is a bit mind-boggling how inconvenient getting our own records can be.

Sometimes test results are posted in healthcare system apps, which is handy, but sometimes it is not the complete report, just a simplified supposedly patient-friendly version.

Having the full results in your hands gives you power and options.

You can read the full report yourself. You can ask about why this one level in your bloodwork is marked as low, but has never been mentioned. You can note over time what a “good” SED rate is for you. You can learn whether or not your Vitamin D levels are usually low or not.

You can avoid unnecessary procedures. A different doctor the next week might want to draw your blood. You protest: But I just had my blood drawn last week! If you have the results right there, to hand over, they will be usually be content. Without the results, it’s like the blood test doesn’t exist. (It definitely existed to you and your arm.)

You can look back at it later. Who really remembers to ask everything while in a doctor’s appointment? Who really remembers the details and numbers years later? And sometimes, certain data doesn’t seem important in the moment. Later, when a different health issue develops, and you are wondering, what did that scan 10 years ago say? What was my bloodwork last year? Was there any sign of this in my X-ray from the place we lived three moves ago? Now you can look it up in your very own records!

You can move around the world more easily. When we moved from America to Germany, I brought an entire binder of test results and medical documentation. And when I met my German GI physician (who was terrific), I handed it over to be copied.

That brings me to a few more tips:

Never give your only copy of any results away. Ask the doctor’s office to make their own copy. It’s normal, and they will copy it without question. They might also scan it into their computer system. (Don’t leave without remembering to ask for it back!)

If there’s no date on the results (there should be, but sometimes the way things print, it’s only on one page, which might otherwise be inconsequential mumble jumble and get lost over the years), add the date on each page. You think you’ll remember always exactly when a momentous test happened, but you might not. Memories are unreliable things.

Save especially the results from major surgeries, even those decades ago. I have had surgery a few times, in 2005 and 2007, and I’ve pulled out copies of those complicated procedures every time we’ve moved and I’ve switched to a new doctor. I can’t articulate all the particulars of the surgeries in medical terms (plus, I was thankfully unconscious the whole time), but the details are all written down in medical-ese, a communication beam across in time and space from one healthcare team to the other. These records help your new doctor understand better what you’ve been through.

Ask for a copy of your records and save them. It’s such a simple thing, but it can be invaluable. I hope this helps you, too.

If you have any tips like these, or experiences (good or bad) with your medical record, I’d love to hear them.

To our journeys and healthy days ahead,

Brianne