Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
By Greg Wanner
()
About this ebook
Highlights include:
- Almost 400 translations of misinterpreted medical terms
- Humorous definitions and clinical indicators
- Weird medical treatments
- Includes original research
- Perfectly sized for a lab-coat pocket
- Brings some humor to a boring shift or rotation
- More funny and less helpful than a medical dictionary
Perfect for both the healthcare student and veteran medical provider, Laymans Terms is your subscription (prescription) for a healthy dose of laughter.
Greg Wanner
Greg Wanner is a physician assistant and former emergency medical technician who has spent over ten years learning and observing the often misunderstood language of medicine. He practices in emergency medicine and teaches physician assistant students in the Philadelphia area. Greg and his wife currently live in southern New Jersey.
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Layman's Terms - Greg Wanner
Layman’s Terms:
The Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
Greg Wanner, MS, PA-C
iUniverse, Inc.
New York Bloomington
Layman’s Terms: The Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
Copyright © 2009 Greg Wanner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-7158-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-4401-7160-4 (ebk)
iUniverse rev. date: 9/8/2009
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Anatomy & Physiology
Signs & Symptoms
Diagnoses
Medications
Procedures
Terms That Defy Categorization
Laypersons’ Medical Slang
Clinicians’ Medical Slang
Written Words
To my wife and family:
Thank you for everything. I could not have done this without your support and patience…especially the patience…you really had a lot of that.
Preface
We medical-folk speak a strange language. We use words like ipsilateral, hepatosplenomegaly, hysterosalpingo-oophorectomy, and esophagogastroduodenoscopy without even taking a breath. Somehow, we actually understand what these words mean. When speaking to a patient, however, our advice to Schedule follow-up with the otorhinolaryngologist for further evaluation of your recurrent anterior epistaxis
usually results in a blank-faced, open-mouthed Huh?
With so many bizarre medical terms flying around, it’s no wonder that patients often misinterpret what we say…sometimes with humorous results!
The journey of Layman’s Terms began nearly six years ago when I, as a physician assistant (PA) student and part-time emergency medical technician (EMT), started keeping notes of amusing medical misinterpretations. As the list quickly grew I realized how often medical words were misunderstood. The patient with self-diagnosed ammonia in the lung
was entertaining but essentially harmless since it was easy to figure out that ammonia
referred to pneumonia.
However, upon hearing a patient mistakenly refer to Lasix as latex
when listing his allergies, I started to realize how problematic misinterpretation in medicine could be. I asked myself: What if this patient were given Lasix by a healthcare provider who noted only the ‘latex’ allergy?
Thus, I decided to write this book both to amuse and to shine a humorous spotlight on the often funny, but potentially problematic phenomenon of medical misinterpretation.
To summarize, this book was written for the following reasons:
• Entertainment.
• To help healthcare providers recognize the types of medical terms that might be misunderstood, and to encourage providers to clarify these words for their patients.
• Entertainment.
• To assist the healthcare-student in understanding the misinterpreted medical language.
• Entertainment.
• A few other reasons that I can’t remember right now…
While writing this book I researched the topic of misinterpreted medical terms, sometimes referred to as medical malapropisms.
In addition to conducting a survey (See Research
chapter) I also scoured the entire world (i.e. several minutes of internet searching) to look for any information on the topic of medical misinterpretation. While I found a few websites and journal articles dedicated to this topic, I confirmed that Layman’s Terms is by-far the