Interests:Music is essence of my life, and singing is my passion..... others: fashion, books, cooking, shopping, work (i'm a bit of workaholic), travelling, enjoying life! Expertise:Performing (singing/dancing), Modelling, Procrastinating... Occupation:Doctor/Singer Industry:Medical
I came across an article about how doctors communicate with various acronyms and often invent our own, either to save our time while writing on the notes, or sometimes making references to some of our colleagues or patients. I can't help but laughed out loud at some of the terms. I'll share the articles with you before adding in some of ours inventions.
Doctor slang is a dying art
The inventive language created by doctors the world
over to insult their patients - or each other - is in danger of
becoming extinct.
So says a doctor who has spent four years charting more than 200 colourful examples.
Medicine is a profession already overflowing with
acronyms and technical terms, and doctors over the years have invented
plenty of their own.
However, Dr Adam Fox, who works at St Mary's Hospital in
London as a specialist registrar in its child allergy unit, says that
far fewer doctors now annotate notes with acronyms designed to spell
out the unsayable truth about their patients.
The increasing rate of litigation means that there is
a far higher chance that doctors will be asked in court to explain the
exact meaning of NFN (Normal for Norfolk), FLK (Funny looking kid) or
GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt).
Dr Fox recounts the tale of one doctor who had scribbled
TTFO - an expletive expression roughly translated as "Told To Go Away"
- on a patient's notes.
He told BBC News Online: "This guy was asked by the
judge what the acronym meant, and luckily for him he had the presence
of mind to say: 'To take fluids orally'."
Quaint up North
Regional dialects abound, even in the world of the medical acronym.
In the north of England, the TTR (Tea Time Review) of a patient is commonplace, but not in the south.
And the number of terms for patients believed to be somewhat intellectually challenged is enormous.
From LOBNH (Lights On But Nobody Home), CNS-QNS
(Central Nervous System - Quantity Not Sufficient), to the delightful
term "pumpkin positive", which refers to the implication that a
penlight shone into the patient's mouth would encounter a brain so
small that the whole head would light up.
Regular visitors to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night are also classified.
DBI refers to "Dirt Bag Index", and multiplies the
number of tattoos with the number of missing teeth to give an estimate
of the number of days since the patient last bathed.
A PFO refers to a drunken patient who sustained injury falling over, while a PGT "Got Thumped" instead.
This is an international language - Dr Fox's research
reveals that a PIMBA in Brazil can be translated as a "swollen-footed,
drunk, run-over beggar".
Doctor insult
And much of the slang is directed at colleagues rather than patients.
Thus rheumatology, considered by hard-pressed juniors
one of the less busy specialties, becomes "rheumaholiday", the "Freud
Squad" are psychiatrists, and "Gassers" and "Slashers" are
anaesthetists and general surgeons respectively.
Dr Fox is keen to point out that neither he, nor the
other authors of the paper, published in the journal Ethics and
Behavior, actually advocate using any of the terms.
He said: "It's a form of communication, and it needs to be recorded.
"It may not be around forever."
He said: "I do think that doctors are genuinely more respectful of their patients these days."
If that is the case, perhaps the delights of a "Whopper
with Cheese", "Handbag positive" or "Coffin dodger" could be lost
forever.
Some of the ones I've come across over the years have not been as colourful as these ones. 'PAFO' is quite commonly used in emergency department by the triage nurses - Pissed And Fell Over. And the allied health taught me a few: NQR - Not Quite Right, and NFF - Normal for Frankston. Though of course, these are meant for laughs, not meant for official documents. We also compare urine colour to red wine - if it's Rose, patient can probably go home, however if it's Shiraz - maybe we need to think about blood transfusion. Not to forget the most classic one from the 'House of God' - GOMERs - Get Out Of My Emergency Room: usually applies for the nursing home patients who kept getting sent in with trivial medical matter such as constipation. I'm sure there are many more, but I can't recall any on the spot (will probably come back and add more at some point)
P/S: Take this with a grain of salt, shall we?
Digressing a little, I've managed to performed 2 successful lumbar punctures so far and as though it sounded so scary while I was still a medical student, it's actually not that difficult. Luckily both my patients had minimal soft tissue (translation: fat) on the back so I could visualise the bony landmark quite easily. It's yet another milestone for me!
Once again, it's time of the year to apply for jobs (doctor-in-training in Australia have to do this every year)! I've spent the whole day organising my references and preferences list. I'm glad I have good referees this time, hopefully it will get me to where I want to go. Have to make use of the weekend to edit my CV and write up some cover letters! Yet another excuse to shop - for I'll be attending interviews pretty soon!
Should probably try to sleep now, evening shifts is really messing up my sleeping pattern. I'm kinda glad that I'm back to 8am start from next week onwards, at least sleeping early is better for the skin. Nighty night!
Yes. Random title. But Australia's Best Choir (or whatever it's called) brings back so much memories, back to church choir days, where we go around interstate to compete with others. Was fun! Maybe one day I will be able to join a choir somewhere.
Work doesn't seem to stop, I've worked my second weekend in the ED and thankfully, no more weekends for a while. It's weird that conditions seem to come in a bundle, I had 4 patients yesterday with suspected rib injuries, other day I would have a few patients all presented with chest pain, or a bunch of pneumonia (which is common given the crazy cold weather). Also a couple of cases that turned out completely unexpected. Had a lady who came in with diarrhoea, and turned up to be pancreatitis. Yes it is completely rewarding when we solve the puzzles and start patients on the right treatment.
I'm sorry that all I seem to talk about is work. Then again, all I do is work!!
And cook. When I feel like it.
This is a very simple but delicious recipe. Perfect if you don't feel like carbs for the night.
Salmon with caper sauce, Asparagus and truss tomatoes.
Great colours! There's also a piece of bacon underneath the salmon.
You'll need:
2 pieces of Salmon fillets with skin on Asparagus (about 12 of them, trimmed) 8 small truss tomatoes. 2 pieces of bacon Olive oil few sprigs of dill Salt and pepper to taste
For caper sauce Butter (20g) 1 teaspoon capers, rinsed and chopped. 1/4 cup of cream
1. Season the Salmon with salt, black pepper, dill, and olive oil. Rest for about 5 minutes and cook to liking, skin down first. (Usually I'd do with 3-4 minutes on the skin side and 1 minute on the other. I like my salmon still raw inside) 2. Meanwhile, place bacon, tomatoes and asparagus on an oven tray, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt and grilled for 10 mins until cooked. 3. Melt butter on pan, stir in the capers, and then the cream. Cook til sauce thickens. Serve with Salmon.
Easy, yet so effective! Visually pleasing too!
Oh and not to forget about the singing. Made another video couple of days ago. I'm going to make this a weekly thing.
Emergency Medicine and David Jaanz Showcase Concert
Can't believe it's a week since the concert! I haven't got time to blog because (surprise, surprise) I was working the entire weekend. Now weekend in emergency department is generally foul. A lot more patients because they haven't got their usual GP to go to (therefore coming into the emergency department with even a little cough), and less staff because of well, weekend. I spent majority of Saturday and Sunday running like a headless chook. Less supervision during weekends too, which makes working significantly more stressful. Lucky I only have to do a couple more weekends. We had a few aggressive patients dropping the F bombs and C bombs every 10 seconds (I was called the C word once by a very lovely lady who had to be chemically and physically restrained after attacking staffs and repeatedly spatted on our nurses), I went half deaf by Sunday evening. Hahahaha, good old Frankston!
I'm not even going to start on the amount of rectal examinations I had to do ever since I started working in the emergency, one male patient was telling everyone that walked past that a 'beautiful doctor took his "virginity"', can't believe he found that even remotely amusing! Needless to say, my colleagues couldn't stop laughing at me that night, real mature! (Mind you, this guy was about 85... hardly a spring chicken)
Anyway, let's make use of my 2 days off and recuperate, shall we? After many pneumonias, viral cough, and patients exhaling on my face I think my immune system is currently working frantic to get rid of the bugs.
Concert was awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and being on stage myself. The bottom line is, performing MAKES me happy. I could be in a foul mood or feeling down and as soon as I step on the stage and sing to an audience, I forget about everything. It's my antidepressants, or even my drug. I'm always in such a high after a performance! Oh, and finally getting a chance to wear THAT dress helped a tremendous amount too.
Yeah, the Ruth Tarvydas dress (and a perfect fit)! The hottie next to me is Keira, not only a great singer but also an awesome dancer!
I did my own hair and make up. Spent about half an hour curling my hair and then twisting strand by strand into a loose bun (had to redo it because the 1st attempt failed - too hard to do without a mirror).
With India, a beautiful singer at a tender age of 12!
Hotness Lora who wowed the audience with a fiesty 'I will survive'.
Last but definitely not least, the video of my performance. You can see the dress in its full glory. And I was also very happy with my performance despite being the very first act!
Kelly Siew - I surrender
I'm liking the improvement in the audio/image quality, many thanks to my trusty Canon!
As usual, I've accumulated a few recipes, will be sharing with everyone next!
On days off until Thursday and will be working this whole weekend, figure I might as well blog early for once!
This is our second time round, after 3 years at the famous Seafood buffet of Melba. And let's just say I will not want to touch any oyster or crab for another month or so. Trev was a happy man as he is a seafood lover!
The entrance -- oozing classic opulence but not OTT.
I don't normally believe in Mass-produced food, but this is of reasonable quality and the seafood they serve was quite fresh.
Oysters/Crabs/Mussels/(Insert pic of King Prawns)
Variety of cold appetizers including salmon/tuna, antipasto, salami, and sushi.
There was also hot food (wok noodles station), roast (including peking duck), and indian food (where they have a massive tandoori oven - impressive) section which I hardly touch. I mean, how can I fit anymore in after this?
First serving
Second serving - more seafood.
And I didn't bother taking photos of my third and fourth plates -- they look pretty much the same anyway. Roast pork with apple sauce was good, peking duck was way too oily, and the various indian curries were quite authentic. Didn't get to try the noodles though. It was pretty much an Atkins diet for me -- no carbs, protein only!
Chocolate fondue fountain + ice cream station
And crazy amount of desserts!
Small sample of the sweet delights.
Look at him still going with the prawns!
Trying to retain all those food in my stomach and not regurgitate anything up while still maintaining a smile. Heh.
I think Trev had 7 servings! He probably has a black hole in his stomach or something.
Oh, while we were waiting around at Aria lounge, Trev snapped this.
Didn't know that they were shooting Dalmation 102 there!
Hot pot with Trev's family went well, I'm going to set up my own hot pot and invite a few guests over before winter's over.
Thanks Loan for inviting us to your belated birthday celebration, thanks to that jagarbomb I was unable to sleep last night! Funny how red bull never works when I really needed them too (overnight shift anyone?)
After trying on a few things this is what I put together. I even managed to pull out a skirt I've owned for more than 5 years!
Brought Sarah along too. Forgot to use my camera the rest of the night therefore no more photos!
Concert night tomorrow! If you are interested, the venue is Ormond Hall (next to Wesley College and Belgian Beer Cafe on St Kilda Road), starting at 7.30pm. Tickets cost $32 at door. See you there?
Despite my hypervigilant effort to get well, there is still a residual inflammation in my larynx and therefore my voice is still not 100%! How annoying, concert in 3 days! I can only hope for the best now.
It was Trev's birthday on Wednesday, and we are celebrating it this weekend! Langham hotel seafood buffet tonight, and hot pot tomorrow night with his family! I think I'm going to stop eating for the rest of the week!
Anyhow, just a short one to say that I'm still alive, went back to work on Tuesday and did my first evening shift on Thursday night. Driving at home at 1am is dangerous, but fun in a way because the road was completely empty. Next time I'll be careful about picking up a patient at the final hour because the working up takes time and I can't go home until I sort all my patients out! Had a lady who overdosed with 2 boxes of Nurofen plus (48 tablets!), apparently she has taken all sorts of tablets and stabbed herself multiple times and she survived. How sad it is to hear people who repeatedly trying to die, has there no longer any hope of future? I hope she's okay now, she has started intensive therapy and I really hope this will change things for the better. It always helps to be optimistic, right?
Working in the Emergency Department is intense, but great learning experience. Instead of getting the hand me down patients in the ward (they have been seen by ED doctors, the Medical admitting officer, the senior registrars and have all sorts of investigation already done), we work the patients up from zero. Having friendly senior stuff helps too. So far I'm enjoying it!
An abrupt change of topic, Trev and I finally tried out San Churro on Brunswick Street. And the verdict? Nice, but not something we'd want to have too often, I still prefer the Spanish doughnuts at Victoria Market as it's more fluffy, San Churro's version is slightly tougher. And we found that dipping in espresso instead of chocolate is so much nicer!
I've been hearing about this place for about 2 years now and never had a chance to try, and now they have a branch in the city too!
Churros (Spanish doughnuts) with chocolate dip.
My pot of 'Hot n Cold' - Hot chocolate with a scoop of icecream. Very interesting, however I couldn't finish the drink - too rich!
I've recorded a video yesterday, with the new (not so new anymore) cam, I quite like the quality, the audio is much clearer and the image more flattering. Still want to invest in a camcorder though, maybe a couple of months time if I manage to save up!
The song is Rihanna's Take a bow. This was after a few takes with lyrical mistakes etc, so much harder to sing when you are sick!
Kelly Siew - Take a bow
Enjoy!
Weekend - cleaning time so I better get started! Have a good one, lovelies!
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