All the way to the end of the Alphabet and MORE!

This is the last of the series of medical terms. There are hundreds more that what Ihave listed. I could do medical terms until the twelfth of never but the exericise is for all of us to think about our own ancestors and have some clue as to what happened to them. A few months ago, I was helping with the medical history of someone in the ER. Why is it that when you feel like your head it in a gunny sack full of manure the people swam about you asking the same questions over and over when they have a ten inch thick chart in front of them that tells all? Anyway, they asked what the mother deceased from. The person couldn't find the word in his word pool. I said, "She was old". At ninety, does one have to have a reason? Of course they do. Even the old death certificates, which, by the way, weren't a law until after 1900, had a reason.

I told my sweet Thomas I was going to make a list of my children's ancestors death certifciate reasons so when they were in the ER they could say, "He got run over by a street car at one week old." Let them find that in the chart.

I always wondered if the diagnosises in the nursing home residents charts were listed according to complaint by patient or the worse first, OR a pill for every ill. If one had cancer 30 years ago was it listed because there was a scar and it solved a mystery or did someone have a great memory and said, "Ja, I had cancer tirty years ago."

If you are in the medical field then terms, diagnosis, responses, pills, and so forth are all part of your normal day routine. You may say to someone who, let's say, is a college student with Internet saavy in lingo, "your grandmother has a UTI, that is what is making her confused". Would you not search your computer or text message lingo for it? We assume it is not something to LOL but what is it? Why does it make grandma crazy? And so we key in UTI on the subject line of the search engine and the first hit is UTI Urinary Tract Infection and read all about it. But you can bet your sweet bippie that nurse is not going to go to her medical book looking for LOL. But then we don't say LOL, we type it. But we do say, FYI and that is what this is all about.


Tetanus IS Infectious fever with high fever, headache and dizziness



Thrombosis IS Blood clot inside blood vessel



Thrush Tick fever IS Rocky mountain spotted fever



Toxemia of pregnancy IS Eclampsia



Trench mouth IS Painful ulcers found along gum line, Caused by poor nutrition and poor hygiene



Tuberculosis IS This is the modern name. See 'Long sickness', 'Lung sickness', and 'King's evil' above.



Tussis convulsiva IS Whooping cough



Typhus IS Infectious fever with high fever, headache, and dizziness



Variola IS Smallpox



Venesection IS Bleeding



Viper's dance IS St. Vitus Dance



Water on brain IS Enlarged head



White swelling IS Tuberculosis of the bone



Winter fever IS Pneumonia



Womb fever IS Infection of the uterus.



Worm fit IS Convulsions associated with teething, worms, high temperature or diarrhea



Yellowjacket IS Yellow fever.



And there you have it, the alphabet soup of sicknesses common at turn of the century!





I do want to site a few more:



BARREL FEVER is something one contracted from immoderate drinking



Remember what profession got BLACK LUNG? Yes, coal miners



According to colonial diseases, Bright's disease was an inflammation of the kidneys and in its acute form it is called nephritis. Does that mean one can have both? Or do we separate the stage by the name?



CATARRH is profuse running of eyes and nose from an inflammation.



Is CHILBLAIN painful? It is stated in is a swelling of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold.



GALLOPING CONSUMPTION IS Tuberculous of the lungs.



and just an update on Quinsy, it is a severe form of tonsillitis with the abscess NEAR the tonsils.



I am hopeful all of you found this list of interest. My question is how many near diagnosis have been named, let's say in the last 25 years? Any guesses? Any idea of where to look to find the answer? Or is it "Only your hair dresser knows for sure!"



Night, sleep tight and dag nabbit, don't dig in that scab!



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