I was thinking about times when patients use medical terminology that is a little different than what we would expect. Here are a few examples:
A patient had his "goldbladder" removed.
A patient with CAD s/p heart stent had "heart springs".
I had a patient who had a "cadillac" (cataract) removed from their eye.
One of my favorites: when a patient has "the gout".
Or there are the ever popular names for certain body parts, such as the lady who wanted to make sure her gown was tied so her "goody bits" wouldn't show. I know there are more I have heard but can't think of them know.
One of my family members terms for someone being anorexic is "ana-rec-tic". I always chuckle at this pronunciation b/c this family member is a mental health professional. LOL.
"CABG is the most common type of open-heart surgery in the United States. Doctors called cardiothoracic (KAR-de-o-tho-RAS-ik) surgeons do this surgery."
"Open heart surgery is any surgery where the chest is opened and surgery is done on the heart muscle, valves, arteries, or other parts of the heart (such as the aorta). The term "open" means that the chest is "cut" open."
You're welcome.
I think it must be regional then. I've seen cardiac surgeons fly into fits when some brand new resident refers to a CABG as "open heart" surgery.
The sugars for diabetes, The vapors for fainting, having a spell for fainting, anaphilapes (pronounced Anna-fill-app-ease) for anaphylaxis, asthma pump for albuterol inhaler. My favorites are when I ask if they're allergic to any medications and they reply "No, just penicillin and codeine." Then why did you say no??
How about the ones who tell you they are allergic to Benadryl (it made me really drowsy)??
And my personal fave, when asking a pre-procedure patient for a colonoscopy if she'd finished all her prep, hearing "oh, no, it gave me diarrhea, so I had to stop taking it!"
Ummmm.....what did she THINK a "bowel cleanse" was going to do to her to prep her for this?!
This is funny because just today in my psych class there were some people doing presentations on chapters out of the book. They butchered all of the medical terms. Some that I thought were common knowledge were in fact not by this group. It was driving me crazy and I so wanted to correct them but kept my mouth shut. But they seriously butchered the anatomy and physiology part of it. Like saying contraception when they meant to say conception. That's kind of an oxymoron I thought. It was bad.
Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.
How about the ones who tell you they are allergic to Benadryl (it made me really drowsy)??
And my personal fave, when asking a pre-procedure patient for a colonoscopy if she'd finished all her prep, hearing "oh, no, it gave me diarrhea, so I had to stop taking it!"
Ummmm.....what did she THINK a "bowel cleanse" was going to do to her to prep her for this?!
Sounds like someone forgot to educate her on the purpose of the prep
wheeliesurfer
147 Posts
One of my family members terms for someone being anorexic is "ana-rec-tic". I always chuckle at this pronunciation b/c this family member is a mental health professional. LOL.