3.1.1: Sickness Idioms I

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 122269

Don Bissonnette
South Seattle Community College

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

Sickness Idioms I

1. To run a fever: To be sick with a body temperature above a normal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit

Running a fever is very hard on children, but it makes them stronger in the long run. I haven’t run a fever for a couple of years.

2. To take a blood sample: To withdraw some blood from a person in order to test (analyze) it

Two months ago, I had a physical examination, and as part of the examination my doctor ordered the nurse to take a blood sample. Often when a person is feeling tired or is sick, a doctor will order that he/she take a blood sample to have it analyzed to see if there is a problem.

3. To give a urine or stool sample (specimen): To give a sample of one's urine or stool (feces) to a doctor in order to have it tested

When a person is sick and the doctor doesn’t know what the problem is, he/she will order a urine sample to test the patient’s pee and a stool sample to test the patient’s poo. Peeing in a small jar and scraping poo out of a toilet are not enjoyable tasks for anyone to do, but they are sometimes necessary for a doctor to determine why a person doesn’t feel well.

4. To take a throat culture: To take bacteria from a person's throat by scraping the throat with a cotton swab to see what is causing a sore throat or other illness

A doctor uses a cotton swab to take a throat culture from a patient’s throat. When a doctor takes a throat culture, a patient often gags.

5. To have the runs: To have diarrhea, loose stool or bowels

Sometimes when people eat food that doesn’t agree with their stomach or food that has gone bad, they get the runs. If a person has the runs, he/she must stay close to the toilet.

6. To throw up: To vomit, to empty one’s stomach through one’s mouth

When my son ate too much candy after Halloween, he threw up. When my sister ate some jelly fish soup in a Chinese restaurant without knowing that it was jelly fish, she threw up right away after we told her.

7. To get run down: To work too hard and not take care of yourself; to have little energy because your body and brain are tired from not enough rest and too much work or worry

I went to the doctor because I was feeling run down. I was tired all the time and had no energy. Sometimes people get run down when they have too much work to do and are under stress from life’s pressures. My sister got run down when she took medicine for her cancer treatment.

8. To have a physical (exam): To have one's body checked by a doctor to be sure everything is OK; to have a general check-up.

I have a physical examination every summer to make sure I stay in good health. Children are often afraid to have a physical exam because they are afraid that the doctor will give them an injection.

9. To come down with something: To get sick; to have the first signs (symptoms) of getting sick

Students often come down with colds or the flu during fall and winter. I came down with infectious hepatitis when I was in India in 1977 when my skin was yellow and my urine red.

10. To say "ah": The sound a patient makes when a doctor wants to check his/her throat. The doctor says to the patient, "Say ah, please."

Before the doctor took a throat culture, he had me say ah to see if he could detect a problem with his eyes. A doctor holds a patient’s tongue down with a tongue depressor when he tells the patient to say ah.

11. To take someone's pulse: To check a person's heart rate by counting the heartbeats, usually on the inside of one's wrist

When the nurse took my pulse, it was 68 beats per minute. I often check my pulse when I exercise on my stationary bike.

12. To take someone's blood pressure: To measure the pressure of one's blood against the walls of a person’s arteries and veins.

I had never had high blood pressure before last year. It had always been normal, but last year my blood pressure was 148/80. Now I have to take blood pressure medicine.

Normal blood pressure is less than 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic), typically written as 120/80 mm Hg (read 120 over 80 millimeters of mercury.