Sometimes it is very difficult to explain your condition to doctors and similarly it is difficult to understand when a doctor uses certain terms to describe your medical condition or something related to medicine.
Here we are going look at some medical terms that can be used to explain your medical condition or can be used when a similar situation arises. So the other person (i.e. doctor) can understand what you are talking about and you will understand what other person is trying to say.
These terms will help you to communicate better with a medical professional.
Diagnose & Diagnosis
Examining to identifying a disease or a body problem using laboratory reports or test results. Diagnosis is the identification of a disease or a body problem.
Specimen
Specimen is a sample of a tissue or a body fluid that is taken from your body generally for laboratory purposes. Specimen can be anything from your body. These are taken in tiny amounts and will be used to identify (diagnose) a disease or rule out a disease. You might have seen people giving or come across a situation giving blood or urine in small tubes to laboratories or hospital. Here, what contains in those tube is called a specimen or in other words a 'sample'.
Immunity
Immunity is the mechanism of your body to prevent diseases by resisting or killing germs or any other foreign object that is entering your body. Your country has troops to fight if your country faces any security threats, likewise your body has troops in combination of antibodies and white blood cells to fight if any germs enters into your body. So, immunity basically means the ability of your body to fight against a disease and prevent a disease.
Pre-natal & Post-natal
Pre-natal is the condition before giving birth and Post-natal is the condition after giving birth. If you are a mother, you would have noticed lines in your reports like pre-natal blood pressure and post-natal blood pressure.
Benign
Benign means a particular condition is not a threat to your health. You might hear terms like 'benign fever' or 'benign tumor.'
Acute & Chronic
Acute means a rapid and severe occurrence of a disease or a medical condition. Chronic means a long-lasting condition which is occurring after intervals and can result in long suffering. For example, a doctor's report would say 'acute pain' somewhere in your body, which means a rapid occurrence of pain. Also 'chronic cough' means a cough that is long-lasting, but can be controlled with medications.
When you are reading a medical report, you will come across terms like acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute heart failure and etc.
Incision
Incision is a simple cut on your skin with a surgical knife. If the doctor has to do any procedures beyond your skin, he has to make an opening for that. This opening is made using a surgical knife or blade. For example, Incision and Drainage (I&D) is procedure to drain out pus from an infected wound.
Hypertension and Hypotension
Hypertension is the abnormal increase in blood pressure (High Blood Pressure) and Hypotension is abnormal decrease in blood pressure (Low Blood Pressure). If your blood pressure is higher than the normal range, you have Hypertension and if your blood pressure is lower than the normal range, then you have hypotension.
Anesthesia
Anesthesia is temporary loss of bodily sensation with or without consciousness. During an operation, to avoid you to feel the extreme pain, doctors would sedate you. This is called giving anesthesia. Local Anesthesia means making a particular body part numb and General Anesthesia mean completely sedating you. The doctor specialized in giving anesthesia is called an Anesthesiologist. The drug used to give anesthesia is called 'anesthetics'.