B2 Illnesses and injuries

B2 VOCABULARY: ILLNESSES AND INJURIES

Saturday Night, Minor Injuries

PICTURE

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"Blood is honest. It's the quiet symptoms that lie."

Conditions and symptoms · injuries and treatments · aches, sores and hurts · phrasal verbs

Reading

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

Doctor, or wait a week?

Rank these from "I'd go straight to a doctor" to "I'd ignore it for a week".

• A strange rash · a sprained ankle · three days of headaches · a cut that probably needs stitches.

• Compare rankings: who in your group is the stoic, and who is the hypochondriac?

• When did you last go to a doctor about something that turned out to be nothing?

PICTURE

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B1 · VOCABULARY

What is wrong with them? Match the condition to what the patient says.

1. "I ate some prawns last night and I've been throwing up ever since."

2. "I fell on the stairs and now it's swollen - I can't put weight on it."

3. "It's 39.2. I'm boiling and freezing at the same time."

4. "These new shoes have destroyed my heel."

5. "I ache all over, I'm sneezing, I've got a cough - it's not just a cold."

6. "I fell asleep on the beach. Don't touch my shoulders. Don't even look at them."

7. "Little red spots, all over my arms. They itch like mad."

8. "I ate one peanut and my face started to swell."

a) flu

b) food poisoning

c) a blister

d) an allergic reaction

e) a sprained ankle

f) a temperature

g) sunburn

h) a rash

B2 / B3 · VOCABULARY

Aches, sores and treatments

1. Compound aches. How many can you make? head______ · back______ · ______ache · ______ache · ______ache

2. Which parts of the body use ache, which use sore (a ______ throat), and which simply hurt?

3. Treatments. What do you do for: a small cut? · a deep cut? · a headache? · an infection? · a sprained ankle? · an allergic reaction?

4. Use: a plaster · stitches · painkillers · antibiotics · a bandage + ice · antihistamine tablets or cream.

C · BEFORE YOU READ

Eleven years of Saturday nights

Sanna works in a minor injuries unit. She can tell you the time without looking at a clock: six p.m. is DIY, nine is football, midnight onwards is "festive".

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. What are the three categories of patient Sanna describes?

2. Which does she say is the most dangerous?

3. First: which category do you suspect you belong to?

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C · READING

Saturday night, minor injuries unit

"The people who waste my time are the ones who don't come."

Sanna has worked eleven years of Saturday nights in a minor injuries unit, and she can tell you what time it is without looking at a clock. "Six p.m. is DIY: cuts that need stitches, thumbs that met hammers. Nine is football and five-a-side - sprained ankles, swollen knees, one man a week who swears the ankle isn't broken and is wrong. Midnight onwards is... festive."

In her taxonomy, patients come in three types. "First, the Apologisers. They arrive with a burnt hand wrapped in a tea towel, saying sorry for wasting our time. They never are. The woman last week who'd been feeling dizzy for two days and finally fainted at a bus stop - she apologised twice while she was still coming round. Her blood pressure was frighteningly low. Apologisers wait too long, and that's how a small thing becomes a big one."

"Second, the Googlers. They've matched their rash to seventeen photographs online and arrive with a diagnosis, usually terminal. I love the Googlers, honestly - at least they come in. You take a temperature, you look at a throat, you say the beautiful sentence 'this is a virus; it will get better on its own,' and you watch a person get their week back. No antibiotics, no drama, plenty of fluids."

C · READING (continued)

Saturday night, minor injuries unit

"Third - and these are the dangerous ones - the Fine-Thanks. Usually men, usually fifty-plus, always brought in by somebody else. The chest pain is 'indigestion'. The choking episode at dinner was 'nothing'. The allergic reaction is 'just a few spots', while the face is swelling as we speak. My record is a man who drove himself in with a dislocated shoulder, parked beautifully, and told reception he 'might be a little early for his appointment'. He did not have an appointment."

The job has rewired her sense of what matters. "People think emergencies look dramatic. Mostly they look quiet.

Somebody goes pale, sits down, says they feel a bit sick, a bit dizzy - that's the sentence I move fast for. The loud ones with the spectacular cuts? They're fine. Blood is honest. It's the quiet symptoms that lie."

Her advice fits on a postcard, she says. "Painkillers for pain, ice and a bandage for a sprain, plasters are not a personality - and if something feels wrong in your chest, you are not wasting anyone's time. The people who waste my time are the ones who don't come."

D · COMPREHENSION

Which patient type - Apologisers (A), Googlers (G) or Fine-Thanks (F)?

1. Arrive with their own (dramatic) diagnosis.

2. Delay seeking help out of politeness.

3. Minimise serious symptoms.

4. Are usually brought in by someone else.

5. Are, in Sanna's view, easy to reassure and send home happy.

6. Include the fainting woman with low blood pressure.

E · LANGUAGE FOCUS

Phrasal verbs and collocations

1. Find the phrasal verbs meaning: lose consciousness (______ ______) · regain consciousness (______ ______) · vomit (______ ______) · recover from (______ ______) · put yourself horizontal (______ ______).

2. Now complete the story with them: After two hours in the sun she ______ ______; when she ______ ______ she was on the grass. She felt sick and had to ______ ______. The doctor told her to ______ ______ in a cool room. It took her days to ______ ______ it.

3. Collocation check: take your temperature · feel dizzy or sick · a swollen knee · plenty of fluids · blood pressure is high or low.

4. And the classic trap: which verb goes with medicine - take or drink?

F1 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Complete with one word.

1. I can't stop ______ - must be the cat. Achoo.

2. He's not breathing normally - I think he's ______ on something. Hit his back!

3. She fainted in the heat but ______ round after a minute.

4. My ankle isn't broken, just ______, but look how ______ it is.

5. You'll need ______ for that cut - it's too deep for a plaster.

6. I've got a ______ throat and my ears ______. Winter is here.

7. The doctor prescribed ______ for the infection and ______ for the pain.

8. He's had ______ all night - he can't keep anything in his stomach, poor man. Bad mussels, we think.

F2 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Choose the correct option.

1. I feel sick / hurt - I think I'm going to throw up / pass out my lunch.

2. She was unconscious / dizzy for two minutes after the fall - completely out.

3. Take an antihistamine for the allergic reaction / blood pressure.

4. It took me three weeks to get over / come round that flu.

5. My back hurts / bleeds after the gardening. Everything aches / cuts.

6. Put some ice on it and bandage / plaster the ankle firmly.

7. He lay down / passed out on the sofa for an hour and felt better.

8. Her finger's bleeding / vomiting - get a plaster / painkiller.

G · FREER PRACTICE

The waiting room

Role-play. Student A is the triage nurse; Students B-D are patients - an Apologiser with something serious, a Googler with something trivial, a Fine-Thanks with something suspicious.

• The nurse interviews each patient for one minute: symptoms, how long, what they've taken.

• Then the nurse ranks them for the doctor and justifies the order using target vocabulary. The class overrules or approves.

• Homework (optional): write Sanna's notebook entry (80-120 words) for one memorable patient - symptoms, treatment, and one wry observation. Minimum ten target items.

PICTURE

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TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 1 food poisoning · 2 a sprained ankle · 3 a temperature · 4 a blister · 5 flu · 6 sunburn · 7 a rash · 8 an allergic reaction.

B2 headache, backache, earache, stomach ache, toothache. Sore for a throat (also sore eyes, sore feet); hurts / aches for back, legs and the rest.

B3 small cut - a plaster (and antiseptic cream) · deep cut - stitches · headache - painkillers · infection - antibiotics · sprained ankle - ice and a bandage · allergic reaction - antihistamine tablets or cream.

C GIST Apologisers (wait too long), Googlers (self-diagnose but do come in), Fine-Thanks (minimise everything). The Fine-Thanks are the dangerous ones.

D 1 G · 2 A · 3 F · 4 F · 5 G · 6 A.

E 1 pass out · come round · throw up · get over · lie down. 2 passed out / came round / throw up / lie down / get over. 3 You take medicine, never drink it.

F1 1 sneezing · 2 choking · 3 came · 4 sprained / swollen · 5 stitches · 6 sore / ache (hurt) · 7 antibiotics / painkillers · 8 diarrhoea (the gap wants the symptom; accept vomiting).

F2 1 sick / throw up · 2 unconscious · 3 allergic reaction · 4 get over · 5 hurts / aches · 6 bandage · 7 lay down · 8 bleeding / plaster.