The appointment may be over while the person is still deciding what the information means.

Information arrives in minutes and is absorbed over weeks. A doctor, lawyer or adviser finishes the conversation with the facts delivered and the file closed, while the person on the other side is only beginning to work out what any of it means for their life. Understanding is not the same as having been told, and the gap is largest exactly when the news is hardest. Nobody thinks clearly in the room where they first hear something.

If you are receiving news, write your questions down afterwards and ask for another conversation. If you are giving it, offer a way back rather than assuming silence means clarity.