¶ Intro / Opening
Bienvenidos al Medical Spanish Podcast. Soy la doctora Molly Martin. Through this podcast, we provide interactive audio lessons for learning practical Spanish for healthcare and elsewhere. The level of this lesson is intermediate and timestamps are provided in your show notes. The lessons offered at docmolly.com are solely for learning Spanish. They are not intended to teach medicine or provide medical advice. ¡Hola a todos! Today, I have another lesson from the ROS module
in our History and Exam course. I am updating all these lessons with the help of Luis Ameida de Venezuela. If you'd like to sign up for our course covering a complete history and exam in Spanish, there's a link in your show notes. I hope you find these lessons helpful. In today's lesson, we are going to practice a gastrointestinal review of systems in Spanish. So you know what that means. We're going to have to talk about poop.
So if you're eating, consider yourself forewarned. Check out your show notes for a related lesson that I did with Hector y Beto de "No Hay Tos," called the Shit Show. ¿Listos? Empecemos.
¶ Symptoms
Síntomas Stomach pain El dolor de estómago Cramps, as in intestinal cramps. (And there's more than one option.) Los retorcijones Los retortijones Los cólicos And for what it's worth, Elisa, my Spanish teacher from Guatemala, preferred... Retorcijones Whereas Gloria, from Mexico, preferred... Retortijones And they both liked... Cólicos Cólicos is also commonly used to refer to menstrual cramps.
Vomiting Los vómitos Diarrhea La diarrea Constipation El estreñimiento Indigestion La indigestión Nausea Las náuseas Morning sickness (And there's more than one option.) Las náuseas de embarazo Las náuseas matutinas Heartburn (And there's more than one option.) Las agruras La acidez Gastric reflux El reflujo gástrico Ulcer La úlcera Peptic ulcer La úlcera péptica Gastric ulcer La úlcera gástrica Duodenal ulcer La úlcera duodenal Stool or bowel movement
Now, there are several ways to say this, so... Repite después de Luis. Las heces El excremento El popó La popó So POPÓ can be either masculine or feminine. Now, POPÓ is definitely the most casual, but I think it's also the one most easily understood. And you will hear medical professionals use POPÓ to refer to a bowel movement or stool. I also recall that when I was in Bolivia, the obstetrician would refer to the
baby's poop as CACA. This is less common, especially amongst medical professionals, and be aware the word can be vulgar, but in the right context, it simply means poop. And although HECES is one that is commonly used among medical professionals, your patients may not be as familiar with this term. For example, the other day, I was talking to one of my patients from Mexico, and they kept referring to their stool as HACES, and I had to ask them ¿HECES? And they're like,
Oh sí, HECES. So this is just an example of how they may not be as familiar with that word, but they'll usually understand it. Now, using POPÓ, How would you say, dark red-colored stool? El popó de color rojo oscuro La popó de color rojo oscuro And for the rest of the examples when describing the color, we'll use DE COLOR _____. Now using HECES, how would you say? Black stool Las heces de color negro Now, using EXCREMENTO, how would you say clay-colored stool?
El excremento de color arcilla And Gloria, my Spanish teacher from Mexico, recommended, instead of using ARCILLA to say clay to use gray-colored stool. So using LA POPÓ, how would you say gray-colored stool? La popó de color gris Hemorrhoids (And there's more than one option) Las hemorroides Las almorranas
Blood in the stool La sangre en las heces Jaundice La ictericia And since most patients won't understand this, we will practice using "yellow skin." La piel amarilla later on in the lesson. Dark urine La orina oscura And we're talking about jaundice or yellow skin and dark urine during a gastrointestinal review of systems, because when there is liver disease and the bilirubin goes up, it makes the
skin yellow and the urine dark. This can also occur in gallbladder disease when there's a stone in the bile duct. In this case, the lack of bile excreted into the intestine makes the stool clay-colored or grey.
¶ Belly and Guts
Now we're going to go over some colloquial terms that patients may use to refer to their stomach and intestines. If you would like to review external and internal anatomy in Spanish, Check out the links in your show notes. First, let's review a variety of ways to say BELLY, as patients will often refer to their abdomen as "belly." Repite después de Luis. La barriga La panza And when speaking to children, it's common to refer to their belly as...
La pancita And you may hear a patient refer to themselves as "potbellied." How would you say this in Spanish? Potbellied Barrigón Or for a woman, BARRIGONA. And to describe someone as potbellied in Mexico, it's most common to use... Panzón Panzona And you may hear a woman who is pregnant refer to themselves as PANZONA. Now, we just practice using the adjectives. BARRIGÓN, BARRIGONA, PANZÓN, PANZONA. But the masculine form. BARRIGÓN, AND PANZÓN, can also be used as a noun to refer to someone's
paunch or potbelly. Por ejemplo, Después de tomar tanta cerveza, tiene un panzón. Now, how would you refer to a woman's pregnant belly or womb? El vientre And finally, you may also hear the following to refer to one's belly. La tripa And both the singular and the plural form, Las tripas May be used to refer to one's intestines or guts.
¶ Nausea
Now, let's practice asking about symptoms of the upper GI tract. Tracto gastrointestinal superior All the vocabulary we just reviewed can be used in questions with the verb TENER. For example, Do you see stomach pain? ¿Tiene dolor de estómago? Are you vomiting? ¿Tiene vómitos? This question can also mean: Have you been vomiting? ¿Tiene vómitos? Using the verb TENER, how would you ask? Are you nauseous? ¿Tiene náuseas?
Do you feel nauseous? ¿Siente náuseas? You can also use the adjective MAREADO/A to describe the sensation of feeling sick to one's stomach or queasy. Addressing a woman, how would you ask? Are you sick to your stomach? ¿Está mareada? And note we also use this adjective MAREADO/A to say DIZZY. How would you ask a pregnant woman? Do you have morning sickness? ¿Tiene náuseas de embarazo? ¿Tiene náuseas matutinas?
¶ Heartburn and Swallowing
Now let's ask about heartburn and swallowing. Acidez estomacal y deglución How would you ask? Do you have heartburn? ¿Tiene agruras? ¿Tiene acidez? The Spanish word meaning TO BELCH is very similar to the medical word. Eructar
Do you belch a lot after eating? ¿Eructa mucho después de comer? At least among patients from Mexico, they may also use the verb: Repetir TO REPEAT, to express belching. Utilizando REPETIR, interpreta: Do you belch a lot after eating? Repite mucho después de comer. And a child may ask: ¿Se echa sapos? Literally, "Do you throw toads." And note how you use the pronominal form of the verb, ECHARSE. We'll see this again when we talk about farting.
Now, using the verb TRAGAR, interpreta: Do you have difficulty swallowing? ¿Tiene dificultad para tragar? Does it hurt to swallow? ¿Le duele al tragar? And when speaking of swallowing, you'll also hear your patients use the verb PASAR. Utilizando PASAR, interpreta: Do you have difficulty swallowing? ¿Tiene dificultad para pasar? And if you're already talking about gastrointestinal concerns,
they'll likely understand this. But you could also make it more specific and use the word for saliva, SALIVA. ¿Tiene dificultad para pasar saliva? Do you have difficulty swallowing liquids? ¿Tiene dificultad para pasar líquidos? ¿Do you have difficulty swallowing food? ¿Tiene dificultad para pasar comida? Does it hurt to swallow? ¿Le duele al pasar? Now, there are two ways you may hear your patient say that
something gets stuck when they swallow. Repite después de Luis: To get stuck Atorarse Quedarse atorado / atorada So depending on whether you're describing a masculine or feminine noun, you'll use either QUEDARSE ATORADO, or QUEDARSE ATORADA. Now, using QUEDARSE ATORADA interpreta: Do you feel food gets stuck in your throat or your esophagus? ¿Siente que la comida se le queda atorada en la garganta o en el esófago?
And here LE refers to the patient. This is an example of using the ACCIDENTAL SE to express an action you have no control over. ¿Siente que la comida se le queda atorada en la garganta o en el esófago? Using ATORARSE, interpreta: Do you feel food gets stuck in your throat or your esophagus? ¿Siente que la comida se le atora en la garganta o en el esófago? Using QUEDARSE ATORADA, interpreta: Point to where you feel the food gets stuck. Señale donde siente que se queda atorada la comida.
Using ATORARSE, interpreta: Point to where you feel the food gets stuck. Señale donde siente que se atora la comida.
"donde se LE queda atorada," and "donde se LE atora" That is correct as well! The LE here is optional. To choke Ahogarse AHOGARSE can also mean TO DROWN or TO SUFFOCATE. But here we'll use it to say TO CHOKE. Ahogarse
Do you feel you choke on food? ¿Siente que se ahoga con la comida? Do you feel you choke on liquids? ¿Siente que se ahoga con los líquidos? In addition to AHOGARSE, you will also hear patients use the verb we just practiced, ATORARSE, to say TO CHOKE. Using ATORARSE, interpreta: Do you feel you choke on food? ¿Siente que se atora con la comida? Do you feel you choke on liquids? ¿Siente que se atora con los líquidos? Now let's ask about symptoms of the lower GI tract.
Tracto gastrointestinal inferior First, we'll ask about bowel movements... In the next member lesson, we'll complete our ROS in Spanish. To learn more with us and support the podcast, click the link in your show notes to become a member and access all our lessons and courses at docmolly.com. Members get access to our Premium Medical Spanish Podcast feed and to our collection of over 400 medical Spanish lessons with full lesson
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