If a patient is having a hard time understanding their doctor, it can be one of two things: Either it's a physical barrier, such as they can't understand their doctor's accent, or their doctor speaks too quickly. In that case, the patient or individual just needs to simply ask their doctor to slow down or perhaps enunciate better. This should not offend the doctor because they want to be able to have open communication so that everybody is on the same page. Another situation where there might be some communication difficulties is that if the doctor is using too much jargon or medical terminology. We, as doctors, sometimes forget that not everybody speaks our lingo, so we will spurt out a lot of words or terminology that the patient may not understand. It's always totally appropriate to ask your doctor to slow down or say, "Hey, I don't know what that word means. Can you explain it in layman's terms?" And just being honest with your doctor and not, not feeling embarrassed to ask them for clarification, um, is important so that everybody can be on the same page so that there aren't any errors.
