Beginners 18: At the doctors

So, in today’s topic, we’re going to talk about something which, hopefully, you won’t need actually to use, but, you may do. And it’s better to, to know it and not need it, than to need it and not know it.

So, we’re talking about going to the doctor or the medic or the pharmacy, I guess, and if you spend any time in Latin American countries, than this may be something which you need to do. If the food disagrees with you, for example, which is something that happened to me recently in Mexico, but I won’t go into details in that.

It’s a very important topic, yeah. So, it’s never too early to learn this. So, we’ll kind of go through it in order, we’ll do a mix of English and Spanish, as usual, but we’ll go through it in order in terms of actually looking for a health centre or a hospital or a doctor, then how do you actually book an appointment, and then, once you’re with the doctor, or the pharmacist, or the nurse, or whomever, then what’s the kind of, the typical things they’d ask you, and what’s the typical things you’d say. Now, it’s worth pointing out that we’re not doctors, this is not professional medical advice, but it’s more – if, so if you’re a doctor, you’ll probably need some more details, we’ve actually, I found a really good website and I’ll put a link to that, of some medical Spanish, there’s lots of materials available, so this is more for, you know, if you need to go to the doctor, if you need to go to a pharmacy.

For patients, exactly. So, also, do be sure to go back to episode four, because we actually talk about being ill in that one, do you remember that?

A while ago, now. So we said things like…

Tengo fiebre – “I have a fever”, tengo dolor de cabeza – “I have a headache”, or how do you say, “It hurts”?

So, the simplest thing to do is actually point to a part of your body and say – me duele aquí – “Here. It hurts here”. If you need to be a little bit more specific, we’ll talk about some different types of pain a little bit later. So, you might also say “I feel a certain way”, again, all of this we did cover in that previous podcast, so you could say…

“I feel…”

Mareo – “dizzy”

“Terrible.”

“Fatal” or – also “terrible”, basically.

“Worse”.

“Better”. Okay, so, say what hurts with me duele and then say “I feel” – me siento plus the adjective, and that’s to say how you feel. So, all of that is useful to a certain extent, but sometimes you need to be a little bit more specific in talking about the actual type of pain itself, this is not something I ever thought I’d be doing in a podcast, but it’s interesting. In English, we’ve actually got lots of different types of pain, so, you can have aches, you can have stings, – a stinging pain, an aching pain, you could have an itch, all of these kinds of things. Now, in Spanish you don’t really have that so much, do you?

So, generally you’d say: Tengo un dolor – “I have a pain”, and then you’d use, even adjective, or, you could say – a comparison, so: Tengo un dolor ardiente – “I have a burning pain”, that’s an adjective, or for example: Tengo un dolor como un nudo – “…like a knot”, it’s like a, kind of, maybe a muscular pain, or a knot in the back. So give us some more examples, Lis.

Como agujas. So, agujas are “needles”, so imagine a, like “a needling pain”.

So una puñalada is “a stab”, so this would be “a stabbing pain”.

Un pellizco is “a pinch”, so like “a pinching pain”.

So, this is an adjective, constante – “I have a constant pain” or “ongoing pain”.

Que quema, so quemar is “to burn”, “I have a burning pain”.

Tengo un dolor leve. So, I guess this is the, the best one. “I have a light pain”. Leve is “light”. Could you say un dolor ligero?

Okay, also. Okay, and then this for me is quite an interesting one, being a language geek, in English we say, “I have pins and needles”, which is kind of a little expression when you feel the sensation of pins and needles, so like a prickling pain in your skin. In Spanish, what is the equivalent?

Hormigueo. So, hormigueo is actually related to the word…

Hormiga which means “ant”, so hormigueo, if you imagine ants crawling over your skin – that’s the sensation, so it’s similar to pins and needles, so imagine a tingling sensation…

Hundreds of ants, ugh. So how would you say that – tengo hormigueo…

Tengo hormigueo en la cara – “I have pins and needles on my face”. Nice. You had another type of pain. I can’t believe I’m saying that.

Me pica. So, that means – “It’s itchy”.

Si algo me pica – it’s like “an itching pain”.

M-hm. So “I have an allergy” – tengo una alergia, y me pica la piel – “and my skin…” – la piel – “is itchy” – me pica. Okay, so let’s say you’ve found a health centre or a hospital, and you go in, now the first thing you normally have to do is actually ask for an appointment or ask to see someone straight away, depending on the emergency. So, how could you say, “I’d like to see a doctor”?

Okay, so you’d say that to a receptionist: Quiero pedir – “I want to have, I want to ask for”, una cita médica – “I want to have a consultation with a doctor”. How…

Okay – necesito una cita médica. So, it’s…

Yeah. So, you say – “I need, I need a doctor, a consultation”: Necesito una cita con el médico. So, let’s say you’re then in with, so you’re, you’re either talking to the pharmacist, or the medic, or the nurse, whoever it is, now they’ll often ask you about your pre-existing conditions. So, what are some common things you might say here?

Yeah, I would say: Soy alérgico a… – “I’m allergic to…“ – and then whatever it is.

Soy diabético, in my case. Diabética – “I’m diabetic.”

So, “I have no allergies to anything.”

Estoy tomando – “I’m taking…”. Okay, and then, obviously depending on the situation again, there are some common medical procedures which they might do, and they would do these under all sorts of different circumstances. So, what is a blood test?

So sangre is “blood”- una prueba de sangre is “a blood test”. So, what might the doctor or nurse say?

Okay, so “We’re going to do a blood test”. Now, they might also take your blood pressure. What’s “blood pressure” in Spanish?

La presión sanguínea. So, sangre – sanguínea, those are related words, all around blood, so we’ve had pain and now we have blood, this is a good podcast. So, a doctor might say: Te vamos a tomar la presión sanguínea – “we’re going to take your blood pressure”. Those are, those are two of the most common things they might do, and then hopefully, there’ll be a nice easy treatment, so one of the most common things in that case is they’ll prescribe you something. So, what’s the verb “to prescribe” in Spanish?

Prescribir. So, literally the same: pre-scri-bir. “Prescribe”. But there’s another one, isn’t there?

Recetar. Which is more common, you think?

Prescribir. So, they might say: Te voy a recetar or Te voy a prescribir… whatever. So that’s “a prescription”, and then something else which you’ll often hear is “You just need to rest”. So, there’s three ways of saying “to rest”. Three ways in which a doctor might describe it.

So, what are they?

Relajarse. Okay, so, you’ve found out some ways to talk about pain, some ways to talk about blood…

So, describe your symptoms in the case of needing to go a pharmacy, or doctor, or some other medical situation. Let’s hope you don’t need it. Muchísimas gracias, Lis.