Unusual Names for Medical Diagnoses

[flashpoint]

I am doing a speech on making the most of a visit to a doctor. I want to emphasize the importance of knowing the proper name for diagnoses. I need some help coming up with unusual, weird, cultural, or just plain improper names for diagnoses...things like "piles" instead of hemorrhoids, "high blood" instead of high blood pressure, or "the sugar" instead of diabetes. I've searched the Internet and am just not finding what I am looking for.

Can anyone help me out? I am not asking people to do my homework for me...LOL...I have been a nurse for a long time...just furthering my education. ?

Thanks!

[DoeRN]

I saw this one the news. The man saw some crime happen and he said, "All of a sudden I became short of breast when I saw it"I had to giggle at that one.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Agita-- any kind of stomach upset

"You are giving me agita"

[lorirn58]

Physic = an old term for laxative :)

[Coralrocks52]

"I got a catch in my getty-up!" When they mean they are having pain. or "I need a fizzik" when they want something for constipation.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

Agita-- any kind of stomach upset

"You are giving me agita"

I thought this was an Italian thing - we use it in my family quite often (especially after Sunday Dinner).

[fussbudget]

Let's see -- "the sugar" = diabetes; "high blood" = hypertension; "high herney" = hiatal hernia; "tubalization" = tubal ligation; "mighty fart" = myocardial infarction. Then there are the names for body parts and normal body functions (including euphemisms). When I was a teenager and babysitting I once nearly caused a minor disaster fora pre-schooler who kept saying he needed to "go grunts" -- I finally realized he needed to go to the bathroom, but have never understood why his mother didn't tell me what terminology their family used prior to leaving me to take care of the child. I finally learned to tell members of my family to have their doctors and nurses write down the names of their diagnoses/conditions/medications/treatments so they could spell them for me when asking me questions about them. Playing 20 questions to figure out what actual diagnostic name sounds like whatever the patient heard is frustrating and, I'm sure, sometimes dangerous.

I second the suggestion of a previous poster or two regarding cultural differences; also there are some regional variations in terminology. In my husband's family I "learned" all kinds of medical "facts" that were never in any text book or journal article I read. For instance, having an "asthma dog" to take your asthma attacks away from you can save your life. Or, if a person with the right gift takes you into the woods to the exact right kind of plant and stands with the plant between you and the person with the gift, then recites the correct Bible verses, they can cure you of all kinds of ailments. I think a lot of these beliefs are declining with improved mass media information being available -- but they are being replaced by urban myths of perhaps a more pernicious nature. Regardless, assessing for what people "know" prior to planning any education if important -- because if what you're going to teach runs counter to what they "know" they may not believe you -- to their detriment. If you understand their beliefs before you teach you can better structure your teaching to either correct misinformation or to "work around" their beliefs to help them find the way to better health.

It's good to educate folks, just let them educate the educator, too. Know what I mean? They'll find you endearing.

I came down. I started my menses. I didn't come down last month or this month. No menstrual period.

[kellyskitties]

the rheumatism - rheumatoid arthritis

reflex - acid reflux

I've heard prostrate so many times I'm pretty sure I say it wrong half the time.

Or I take "dilaudinum" - so is that dilaudid or laudinum? or demerdol... although those are not diagnosis they are kinda hard to interpret sometimes!

[aTOMicTom]

I thought this was an Italian thing - we use it in my family quite often (especially after Sunday Dinner).

My Italian famiily takes it to mean "agitation" or anxiety, but especially when interfering with digestion.

Pronounced "AHH jitda"

[anothergrumpyoldRN]

consumption?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Consumption (disease), an archaic name for pulmonary tuberculosis

[thenursemandy]

dropsy = edema

consumption = pulmonary tuberculosis

Good ones! I haven't heard those in a while.

[apoppyfield, BSN, RN]

If you can get your hands on an old physiology book from the early 1900s, you could find more than enough material.