Mrs. Semantics is a nice lady with carpal tunnel syndrome. She's trying to avoid surgery, so is wearing a pair of wrist braces.
Unfortunately, she doesn't call them braces, or splints, or supports.
She calls them cuffs.
Which leads to some entertaining quotes.
"You get odd looks wearing cuffs in public."
"I feel better when I wake up in cuffs."
"My husband put me in the cuffs last night."
When I spent a few years in and out of the hospital, I used to refer to it as "being incarcerated."
ReplyDelete"They're putting me back inside again." "I've been incarcerated for this stupid infection."
Also, I have a mobility scooter. It's made on a heavy duty aluminum frame. I call it the Dune Buggy.
Well, at least this patient is adhering to what you recommend to manage her problem - and not asking for more pain meds or demanding an immediate medical or surgical cure!
ReplyDeleteWonder what one of your psychiatrist colleagues might say regarding her word choice?
or maybe she is hinting at a market need that is waiting to be filled....maybe a lucrative sideline to help with college costs....
clairesmum
Or Mrs. S has a sense of humor and a sly way with word play.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 12 I had a paper route that included a local nursing home. One day, and I will never forget this, an elderly lady stopped me because she wanted to start receiving the paper. She informed me that, starting the next week, should would be an inmate of the nursing home...
ReplyDelete"I work at an investment bank. I'm in bondage."
ReplyDeleteOr, as it used to say on tee-shirts of aspiring pharmacy students ... dealing ... .
ReplyDeleteOur older daughter is a pharmacist. All through school she used to cheerfully tell people who asked about her major "I'm studying to be a drug dealer!"
ReplyDeleteThough after a few years of seeing people trying scams to get more of the "fun" drugs, she doesn't think it's quite so funny . . . and depressingly accurate.
I can see where she is coming from. I refer being forced to wear my leg braces as being bound to someone. They get it.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta have a sense of humor about it or you'll go nuts...