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    Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
    Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
    Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
    Ebook108 pages42 minutes

    Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation

    By Greg Wanner

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    About this ebook

    Forget everything youve learned about medical terminology! Laymans Terms: The Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation introduces a whole new medical language as patients, family members, and even healthcare workers give their version of the doctor talk. From ammonia (pneumonia) to chex populations (chest palpitations), Laymans Terms serves as your guide to hundreds of medical malapropisms, misspellings, and humorous quotations.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateSep 24, 2009
    ISBN9781440171604
    Layman's Terms: the Humorous Guide to Medical Misinterpretation
    Author

    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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      Book preview

      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

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