Cold turkey

When a person who has a habit or addiction, which he abruptly gives up rather than easing out gradually with the help of replacement medication, it is called cold turkey (this action of abruptly giving up is cold turkey).


I remember my uncle telling me how he quit smoking.  He was a chain smoker and one fine day he just quit (now i know that was cold turkey :-)).  On the first day his craving was very strong, but he had taken a vow that every time he had the urge to smoke, he would eat a vada.  He ended up eating 60 vadas on the first day, eventually his cravings went away and he has never smoked to this day.

Fiance vs Fiancee

According to American Heritage dictionary, Fiance is a man engaged to be married, where as Fiancee is a  woman engaged to be married.  See the difference, male only gets single "e" where as female gets "ee".....gender bias, isn't it? ....;-)

Hedonia

Hello everybody, it has been really some time that i blogged here.  I have been somewhat busy because of this and that is the only reason MT diary has not been updated for sometime now, but I will try my best to keep this blog active, in the meantime, keep visiting friends, ;-).


Today while doing a psychiatry file, I kept hearing hedonia and was going bonkers until my friend google came up with the term anhedonia, which in psychiatry/psychology means not finding pleasure in things which were earlier enjoyable.  So don't let hedonia fool you...:-).

Splenic sequestration

A couple of days back, I was doing a GI file wherein the doctor was able to palpate the spleen of the patient and I heard him saying "splenic sequestration" a couple of times in the note.  Please visit here for details about this condition.

MT week in US

May 20-26 is celebrated as MT week in US and Jay Vance, a veteran MT, CMT, and MT consultant, has come up with these songs composed and sung by himself.....they are wonderful, just click here.

Types of fractures

I had jotted this way back in 2006 and had forgotten about it, just now came across it and thought of posting here...:-).

TYPE OF FRACTURES

Open:  Visible by eyes.                         Simple:  Only 1 break.

Closed:  Not visible by eyes.                 Compound:  More than 1 break.

KIDS

Greenstick

Growth plate

ADULTS

Pathogenic

Stress

Compression:  In old, weak and fragile people.

Osteoporotic fracture:

Joint

Spiral:  Does not break, only cracks.

Comminuted

Occult

Avulsion:  Occurs in joints, at bones covered by tendons.

How to calculate age

It is difficult to always depend upon our ears to hear out the age as dictated by the doctors.  The 50s and 60s always sound same except for those doctors who are very very clear.  To avoid this confusion, it is better to always cross check with the date of birth.  This is how I do it....suppose the patient's date of birth is July 4, 1980.  Current date or date of dictation is May 10, 2011.  To calculate the age of this patient, just subtract 1980 from 2010.  If the patient is born on a day before date of dictation or current date, for eg say March 4, 1980, then subtract 1980 from 2011.  So a patient who was born on July 4, 1980 would be (2010-1980) 30 years old today, whereas patient who was born on March 4, 1980, would be (2011-1980) 31 years old.