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Topic Options #144507 - 06/25/05 12:19 PM Mis-diagnosis/New Werdz Rainmaker member Registered: 06/18/05 Posts: 107 Loc: SC, USA Lets try a new (I hope) theme: Post an example of how patient's mis-hear what is said when giving them a diagnosis. For example, I once incurred the wrath of a nice LOL (which in medicine means 'little old lady') when I told her that her back pain radiating into her leg was 'radicular' (meaning it radiates, following a nerve pattern). The CEO of the hospital asked me to apologize for calling her ridiculous! An even better example (and still radically radicular...) is one mis-hearing or mis-pronunciation that has lead to an accepted medical diagnosis: shingles (for varicella-zoster, a painful viral inflammation of a nerve branch or two, almost always on one side and encircling the body). This neat (etymologically) word has nothing to do with the Latin root for the shingles atop your roof, which is scindere - meaning to split (for the way the old shingles were made split from a log). Instead, the medical term comes from a mis-hearing or saying of 'cingulus' (or cingulum) - Latin for 'girdle'. To 'gird' means to encircle as with a band (as does the zoster), so this makes perfect sense. You tell the patient they have a cingulus, and they tell their neighbor "doc says I got the shingles"! Most docs are aware of many of these examples, and I willing to bet some patients are as well - lets hear them! Rm Top #144508 - 06/25/05 03:02 PM Re: Mis-diagnosis/New Werdz of troy Carpal Tunnel Registered: 10/17/00 Posts: 5400 Loc: rego park in an article on the mind/body effect (what we think, and how it effects how we feel) on cardiac patient, after under going a proceedure that required anethestia, heard his cardiologist--while he was 'still under' talk about galloping heart (an unhealthy rythm that is frequently progressive and fatal) but this man made an incredible recovery.. and told his cardiologist, "i knew before the procedure, my chances were slim, but when i heard you tell the other doctor, i had a galloping heart, i figured i had to be as strong and as healthy as horse, that the procedure worked. and i knew i would get better, feel better, in no time. I can't thank you enough doc." the cardiologist reminds himself all the time, when a patient has a good attitude, he (she) is likelier to have a good outcome. --what we think about our health(even if it is wrong) is often what we get. _________________________ my other obsession Top #144509 - 06/25/05 10:42 PM Re: Mis-diagnosis/New Werdz Sparteye Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1773 More than one parent has been relieved, upon having a difficult child evaluated, to be informed that the child is artistic. And then, the evaluator gets to explain what autism is... Top Previous Topic Index Next Topic Preview Hop to: General Topics ------   Information and announcements   Q&A about words   Wordplay and fun   Words and languages in schools   Miscellany   Weekly Themes   Looking for (writers, speakers, ...) (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) ------   Words from medicine   Beheading words   Meta-words   Words from classical mythology   Animal Safari   Words with unusual etymologies   Eponyms or words derived from people's names.   Loanwords from German   English as a global language Moderator:  Jackie  Print Topic Switch to Threaded Mode View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts Forum Stats 8419 Members 16 Forums 13684 Topics 209690 Posts Max Online: 3341 @ 12/09/11 02:15 PM Newest Members fgjhgjk, Nora Francis, sabosophie, Lore Lorena, lukaslini 8418 Registered Users Who's Online 0 registered (), 29 Guests and 2 Spiders online. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters (30 Days) LukeJavan8 86 jenny jenny 67 wofahulicodoc 46 endymion6 43 BranShea 35 Rhubarb Commando 23 Buffalo Shrdlu 19 Faldage 18 zmjezhd 16 Jackie 15 May Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

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