If you're watching a TV drama about doctors, it doesn't matter whether you understand exactly what's being said. But when you're sitting in a doctor's office and he or she is talking about your child, your parent, or you, understanding the doctor is a must.
Kind and gentle medical terms
Modalities of therapy. Capillary hemangiomas. Spontaneous involution. Believe it or not, doctors bandy about complicated terms as though the terms actually mean something. And, believe it or not, they do — but only to other doctors. At some point in your life, you may have to deal with a medical specialist — and their language, as the preceding terminology shows, can be very intimidating. So what do you do when you have to talk to a doctor who uses complex medical terms? First, you ask them to put everything in plain English:
Modalities of therapy? It means "treatments."
Capillary hemangiomas? It refers to strawberry birthmarks.
Spontaneous involution? It means "disappearing on its own."
Table 1 can help you get a grasp of some basic, benign medical terms that you actually may not mind hearing your doctor say . . . until you get the bill, of course!
Table 1: Benign Medical Terms
Word | Part of Speech | Definition |
antibiotic (an-ty-by-ah-tik) | noun | bacteria-killing substance |
antidote (an-teh-doht) | noun | remedy that acts against a poison |
antiseptic (an-tih-sep-tik) | noun | substance that prevents infection or decay by killing germs |
asymptomatic (ay-simp-teh-ma-tik) | adj. | without symptoms |
benign (bih-nyn) | adj. | harmless; not malignant |
coagulate (koh-ag-yoo-layt) | verb | to thicken or clot, or to cause to do so (as in blood) |
convalescence (kon-veh-les-sens) | noun | gradual recovery; period of recovery |
diagnosis (dy-ag-noh-sis) | noun | decision or opinion based on an examination |
plasma (plaz-ma) | noun | fluid portion of the blood |
prognosis (prog-noh-sis) | noun | prediction of the probable course of a disease and the chances of recovery |
remission (ree-mih-shun) | noun | disappearance of disease symptoms |
suture (soo-chur) | verb/noun | joining two edges together by stitching, or similar means; a stitch |
therapy (ther-ah-pee) | noun | treatment of disease |
A CAT scan (computed axial tomography) is an x-ray image of an organ — often the brain. CAT scans help doctors view the body by providing a computer reconstruction of multiple images at different planes. An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a scan of the body that uses magnetic energy, rather than radiation, to view an organ or body part. An MRI is especially useful for visualizing soft tissue. Still another way of seeing what's going on inside a body is a sonogram, which creates a visual image from sound waves. Sonograms are often used to determine the gender of a baby before birth.
Medical terms to come to terms with
It's true that medical jargon all too often makes simple and relatively harmless things sound scary. After all, most lay people would quake at a diagnosis of acute paronychia only to feel immense relief to discover that it's an infected hang nail.
Still, many medical terms are a bit more worthy of their scary sounding names. Hearing one of the terms in Table 2 may make you sit up a little straighter. If your doctor applies one of the following words to you, you may want to do some additional research on your condition.
Table 2: Medical Terms that Cause Concern
Word | Part of Speech | Definition |
aneurysm (an-yoor-iz-em) | noun | sac formed by an enlarged weakened wall in arteries, veins, or the heart |
carcinogenic (kar-sin-oh-jen-ik) | adj. | cancer-producing |
comatose (koh-mah-tohs) | adj. | unconscious; in a coma |
concussion (kon-kuhs-shun) | noun | brain injury due to violent blow or impact |
hematoma (hee-meh-toh-ma) | noun | collection of blood, usually clotted, outside a blood vessel |
incision (in-siz-zhun) | noun | cut, as in surgery |
lacerated (las-er-ay-ted) | adj. | torn, as in a wound |
lesion (lee-zhun) | noun | injury |
melanoma (mel-eh-noh-ma) | noun | malignant skin tumor |
migraine (my-grayn) | noun | intense, recurring headache |
toxic (tox-ik) | adj. | poisonous |
ulcer (ul-sur) | noun | open sore, as in the stomach lining |