Medical Terminology as Spoken by the Layperson...

[njac]

Allergy: Epinephrine
Effect: Makes my heart race



Not kidding.

I have her in the unit right now.

We did get them to admit that maybe it's a sensitivity, rather than an allergy. She did get insanely tachy on phenylephrine, so, whatever.

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[rvfb]

I had a patient last week who told me she had "romantic fever" as a child.














(rheumatic fever)

 

[Kittenmommy]

I had a patient last week who told me she had "romantic fever" as a child.

My husband's (then six-year-old granddaughter) told us about something she'd seen on television about "broken heart surgery*". I wonder if that's necessary when the romantic fever doesn't work out well.





*Open heart surgery, obviously. But God, that was the cutest thing ever!

 

[The Undecider]

in triage- what is your emergency today?

"my sweet box hurts"

I always wanted to contribute that one

 

[toooldforthis]

CC: I have fried eggs in my extraction site, it won't come out. And it hurts.

OMFS Resident: Did you have Eggs today?

Pt: No.

OMFS Resident: Have you had eggs since your extraction yesterday?

Pt: No.

OMFS Resident: That's the blood clot, please stop trying to remove it, it will probably stop huritng when you do that....

If i had a nickel for everytime i heard a patient come back after surgery asking us to remove the "egg" from their 3rds extraction site......

 

[Powdermonkey]

I've been vomicking and I had some of the vinegrin left over from last time this happened but it just didn't help this time.

We've decided here that vomiting is when it comes out through the mouth and vomicking lets it come out of the nose as well.

 

[Apollyon]

I've been vomicking and I had some of the vinegrin left over from last time this happened but it just didn't help this time.

We've decided here that vomiting is when it comes out through the mouth and vomicking lets it come out of the nose as well.

This point is well attested in this thread. Very well.

 

[Powdermonkey]

This point is well attested in this thread. Very well.

Apologies. Haven't been keeping up with it lately and I've not read through all 12 pages. I'll take my beating in the corner...

 

[nooFy]

hopefully not too inappropriate. pt came in pharmacy named my-n*gah. pronounced EXACTLY like its spelled. yikes.

 

[nooFy]

other favorites include:
DaNati (from cincinNATI)
Prince Albert the Great (first name)
A-A (pronounced a-DASH-a)
abcde (pronounced ab-seh-dee)
mercedes (pronounced mer-cah-deez)
fabalus (pronounced fab-uh-lus)

 

[jbar]

There's also a La-a out there (La dash a)

 

[EM2BE]

Not sure if I posted it before:

"vaginacally"

As in the sentence was - "oh do you mean vaginacally?" (to the question about being sexually active)

 

[med2UCC]

We are having a c.diff outbreak here (to quote a colleague "it's raining diarhoea"). A patient recently requested (pretty much at the beginning of the encounter) that I wash my hands before touching her as she didn't want "that c.difficult". I heard of another who was referring to it as the "tres difficile". Cheers,
M

 

[gutonc]

We are having a c.diff outbreak here (to quote a colleague "it's raining diarhoea"). A patient recently requested (pretty much at the beginning of the encounter) that I wash my hands before touching her as she didn't want "that c.difficult". I heard of another who was referring to it as the "tres difficile". Cheers,
M

They are both right.

 

[Noegrus]

Must be necro-bumped. Too funny. Sorry.

 

[RustedFox]

"Gastrologist"....


This one drives me nuts. When people can't be bothered enough to remember how to say "Gastroenterologist", they just go with "Gastrologist". Astrologist ? Whatever.

 

[deleted109597]

Pancreitis. I had two in a row say that. I don't know if they're family or what. It just grates the ears because they're trying to act "informed" but instead they're acting dumb.

 

[glorfindel]

"Gastrologist"....


This one drives me nuts. When people can't be bothered enough to remember how to say "Gastroenterologist", they just go with "Gastrologist". Astrologist ? Whatever.

I would have thought they were talking about a mystical anesthesiologist.

 

[glorfindel]

It just grates the ears because they're trying to act "informed" but instead they're acting dumb.

I know I'm at risk for this phenomenon myself when I take my car to the mechanic. So I usually just say "I don't know ****, other than that my car sounds bad and isn't running right."

The best way to act informed is to fully acknowledge those times when you don't know ****.

 

[BobbyJ]

This is not about being thin-skinned. This is about racism/classism. Surely you are educated enough to know that.

mikecwru, you are an dingus, but that is probably just my ignorant uneducated dippiness speaking.

And whoever said, "We're just educated individuals..." Yeah, with a serious superiority complex.

Tell me, is the picture of the patient's tattoo still up in that other thread? Surely that is a violation of ethics, if not HIPAA.

Yes, I do have frustrating days at work. And yep, I sure do vent about it with colleages. IN PRIVATE.

Oh, good lord, man. Yes this quote is 13 years old, but still, hypersensitive, much? Doctors know that ink does not signify stupidity...ink, obviously poor dental care, "fashion markers" of belonging to certain subcultures, manner of speaking and behaving combined identify what these folks are calling "TtT ratio", not JUST ink. I'm extensively tatted, well educated (including a couple degrees and certifications in fields I'll never touch again, now that I escaped them), well traveled, and eloquent (if I do say so myself)...and prone to self-inflicted injuries due to poor decision-making when it comes to choosing hobbies. Not ONCE have I received less than cordial treatment during a hospital visit, no matter what kind of pain in the tuchus I'm being (of course, I'm only a pain when I'm in enough pain I can't be bothered with trying to be well-spoken or civil---circumstances most medical professionals are more than willing to excuse).

EM folks, docs, nurses, and PAs deal with us at our worst and most vulnerable, they see the dregs day in and day out, they see the horrors we're capable of deliberately inflicting on one another. Of course they're going to come up with some "in jokes" and "stereotype identifiers"...but they also know that not everyone that appears to fit the stereotype actually fits it. The stories here are the bad, the ugly, and the disturbing, for the most part. It's VENTING, done anonymously, and not specifically to colleagues. Why is this a desirable thing? You want a doc who's holding all that despair and cynicism inside holding your life in his/her hands? I don't. And venting here is MORE anonymous than venting "privately" to peers...as those peers know you, you're not a net handle safely behind a computer screen who will actually know who is venting, what details about which patient are being discussed (and that CAN be against HIPAA, even discussed in the ER break room--all that has to happen is for one person to recognize the case you're talking about who shouldn't be legitimately party to the information to tattle).