Hi. I'm Gill from
www.engvid.com, and oh dear, I've been working all day,
I've got a terrible headache. I think I need to see the doctor.
But later. I have to put you first, all of you watching. You're my priority.
So, let's have a look today. The subject of the lesson
is visiting the doctor when you have a headache or a pain
somewhere else, if you're feeling sick, all of those things. So, visiting the doctor. Going to the GP's
surgery. Now, in the UK a doctor who has a... Where you go to them in a building,
it's called their surgery. It doesn't mean they cut
you open and do surgery. It's not that kind of surgery. That's
done in a hospital in an operating theatre, but this is like... Often it's just
an ordinary house type of building, you go in, you see the doctor. It's called the doctor's
surgery. And GP is sometimes used. It stands for "General Practitioner". It just means
that doctor deals with all kinds of different problems. People come in off the street
when they have something wrong with them. So, visiting the doctor. First of all, you
have to make an appointment. It's not called a meeting. It's an appointment. You can either
phone, go in. Some doctors you can book online through their website, making an appointment.
Then you go in to see the doctor or possibly a nurse, some surgeries have nurses as well
as doctors. You go in to see the doctor or to see the nurse. Okay? You have to describe
your symptoms, like, what is wrong. My headache. Or: "Oh, feeling sick", that's a symptom,
what you're feeling that is wrong, why you are there. Describe the symptoms. And we will
look at some specific symptoms in the second half of the lesson. Right. You may, depending on what the problem is,
the doctor or the nurse may want to give you a physical examination. They want to sort
of feel things and have a look, and... So sometimes you may want someone, if you're a
lady, you may want a female doctor. If you're a man, you may want to see a male doctor. In
the UK it's very easy to ask for whichever you prefer. If it's a bit embarrassing, you may
want to see a doctor who is the same gender as you. So that's okay. Right. When you see the doctor and the doctor decides
what kind of medication you need or medicine, medication, the doctor gives you a piece of
paper which is called a prescription which is for medicine, either pills... Another word
for "pills" is "tablets", little things you take out of a bottle and swallow. It might be
cream. If you've burnt your skin, you might have some cream to put on to heal it. Or liquid
if you need something, like to drink some kind of tonic. There may be a liquid in
a bottle that you have to drink. Okay. You've got your prescription, piece of paper,
you have to go and get the medicine because the doctor at the surgery does not usually
give you the medication. You have to go, you have to take your prescription to a pharmacy.
The other name for "pharmacy" is "chemist" or "chemist shop" where they have a place
where they keep lots of pills, all sorts of drugs and things, legal drugs I hasten to
add. When you say "drugs", people sometimes think: "Oh, illegal." But no, these are drugs.
Medicine is drugs. Okay? So you go to get your prescription, you
get your medication. The instructions on the bottle or on the container
tells you the dosage, how much to take. Maybe two pills per day, four pills per day, one
pill after each meal, that kind of thing. That's the dosage or the dose. And how often,
the frequency; once a day, twice a day, so on. Hopefully with one set of medication you will
be better within a few days, but if there is still a problem after a few days and you've
taken all your pills or whatever, you may have to make a return visit to the doctor. So
another appointment. You may need a repeat prescription, which is more... More drugs
because the first drugs haven't worked. A repeat prescription for the same thing. If
the doctor decides to try different drugs, then it will be a different prescription,
not a repeat prescription. Okay, so that's just the general introduction to the whole
process, and we will now move on and have a look at the symptoms and how
to describe what is wrong. Okay. Okay, so here we have the various symptoms
that you may have to describe to the doctor or to the nurse. First of all, the word "ache"
is pronounced like a "k". It looks like "h", but it's pronounced: "ake" with a "k" sound.
You can have a backache. Oh, back is aching. Stomach ache. It means generally some kind
of pain. Stomach ache, ear ache, tooth ache. If you have tooth ache you should really
see the dentist rather than the doctor. You can say: "I have an ache in my
stomach", "I have an ache in my shoulder", anything like that. Okay? "Hurt" is a useful word. "My head is hurting",
"My arm is hurting." Any part of the body you can say is hurting. Or: "My
head hurts", "My arm hurts", "My knee hurts." Or:
"I have hurt my head." Maybe you hit it on something. "I have
hurt my elbow", "I've hurt my shoulder." Anything like that. Okay. With the word "pain": "I have a pain
in my head", "A pain in my shoulder", "A pain in my stomach". Anything like that.
"Pain in my foot", any part of the body. Okay, so if you have a high temperature, if
you've put a thermometer in your mouth and waited a few minutes, then you look and you
see it's too high and you're also feeling very hot, you say you have a fever. "I
have a fever." Or: "I'm feeling feverish." Feverish, okay. Or: "I have
a high temperature." Okay. Cough. [Coughs], that sort of thing. Cough. If
you just have a little cough, it's probably nothing, but if it continues for several days or
weeks, then it's important to see the doctor. So, you can say: "I have a cough" or "I have
a bad cough." Or: "I can't stop coughing." Especially if it's been going on for some
time. "I can't stop coughing." Okay? Then we have words like "ill", "well", "unwell".
"Unwell" means the same as ill or sick. "I'm feeling ill" or "I'm feeling unwell." Or to
use the negative of well: "I don't feel well." Or: "I haven't been feeling well",
is another way of saying that. Okay. So, moving on, a little bit like "hurt" is
"injured". That's if you've actually had an accident of some sort. "I have injured my
hand." Maybe it got bent. Perhaps you fell on the floor and your hand was bent. "I have
injured my hand", "I have injured my knee", anything like that. "Sore" is sometimes if you scratch yourself
or maybe it's your throat that can be sore. If you're going to get a cold or the flu,
you get a sore throat first because of the bacteria in your throat. Anyway, with
"sore", you can say: "I have a sore hand", "I have a sore throat", or my...
"My arm is sore." Things like that. "My
knee is sore." Okay. "Tired", we often get tired if we've been
working really hard, but if you're ill you can feel tired, more tired than normal.
"I'm feeling tired." Or even more strong: "I'm feeling exhausted." "Exhausted" is just,
ah, you can't do anything. You feel so tired. Okay. Three things that happen, sort of accidents
again, burn, you can burn yourself, you can scold yourself, you can cut
yourself or it happens by accident. To burn is a sort of a dry burn. If you have boiling water which
accidentally maybe splashes your hand, that is a scold when it's a wet heat. Okay? So
that's dry heat, burn. Wet heat is a scold. Cut, if you've accidentally... You've been
cutting vegetables and you happen to catch your finger, oo, that's a cut.
So: "I have burnt my hand", "I have scolded my arm",
"I have cut my finger", things like that. Okay? And then finally, if you're feeling dizzy
it means, ah, it's your head and you feel you could fall over. You're just... Your balance
is going. You could just fall over, you just feel dizzy. If you go round and round in circles
and then stop, you can feel dizzy. That can happen sometimes. But if you haven't been
going round and round in circles and making yourself dizzy but you're feeling dizzy and
you don't know why, then it's probably a good idea to see the doctor and
say: "I'm feeling dizzy", or: "I've been feeling dizzy, and it's
been going on for some time now. The last few days I've
been feeling dizzy." Okay, so these are a lot of the symptoms
you can have and how to describe them. So I hope you found that a
useful, practical lesson. If you'd like to answer a quiz on
this subject, go to www.engvid.com. And if you'd like to subscribe to my
YouTube channel, that would be great. Thank you. And looking forward
to seeing you again very soon. Okay. Bye for now.
