Maria walks into my office looking distressed. “I had an appointment with the endocrinologist, and he barely allowed me to talk.” She was under a lot of stress trying to balance work, her husband and children, and family visiting from the Dominican Republic. She shared many details about how happy she was having her relatives visit and all the places they had seen. She also noted that her exercise and meal-prepping routine were disrupted, and she was having problems managing her blood glucose.
At doctor’s visits, do you find the need to set the stage and tell the backstory before you focus on signs and symptoms? Do you embed the symptoms in your story? If others have told you that you are long-winded, you may simply be a circular or high-context communicator. Circular or high-context communicators are storytellers. They address many points related to the topic and may embed the symptoms in the story. Linear or low-context communicators are the opposite. They
