Hugo Trevino: Preparing for appointments

Hugo Trevino, who was diagnosed with SMA type 3 when he was 5 years old, discusses his note-taking process for preparing himself for appointments with his doctors or specialists.

So when preparing for appointments with any of my doctors or specialists, I try to keep notes on my phone just under the simple notes app.

And as I feel aches and pains throughout the time — right now I am seeing my specialist about every six months — I’ll let them know if I’m having pains or aches or if I’m noticing different deficiencies or tightness in muscles or any type of those little changes or extreme fatigue, things like that, or any strength that I’m gaining as well from the drug. I try to write a quick note. I put the date down on there so that I don’t forget it.

And then if it happens again, then I can be like, “Hey, it happened these three times, or the pain has started and it didn’t go away for a month,” or, “Hey, I had some pain that lasted for X amount of time.” And so I try to keep notes like that. So I don’t forget things that are important and I’m able to quickly refer back to them.