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Being in a doctor’s office can sometimes feel like being the beginner’s student who somehow snaked her way into level four Mandarin — you don’t know what anyone is saying, but the professor (doctor) is looking at you like you should! Doctors can easily forget that we non-doctors don’t spend all day tossing around jargon like appendectomy and hematemesis in the lunch room as if we’re just discussing the weather. They mean well, but they’re sort of like teenagers who are so used to using terms like ROFL and TBH that they don’t realize not everybody understands their lingo. Doctors are also typically in a rush so you can feel like it’s rude to ask them to explain a term. But you should know what procedures and medications your doctor is recommending. And you should know what condition he said he found in your blood work. It may be more serious than he is letting on. Or it may not be as serious as it sounds at all. So here is a look at medical terms nobody understands but everybody should.
