Day 40: The Bread Knife Dose
On the morning ward round in the internal medicine department of a hospital in Gdańsk, Oliwia (A), a sixth-year medical student, tells Dr Iwona Szulc (B), the consultant who teaches her group, about a patient admitted overnight.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Pani doktor, sala szósta: pan Tadeusz Mazur, lat osiemdziesiąt jeden, przyjęty w nocy z krwawieniem z nosa. INR siedem i pół.
Doctor, room six: Mr Tadeusz Mazur, eighty-one, admitted overnight with a nosebleed. INR seven point five.
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B
Na warfarynie, jak rozumiem. Stawiam na klasykę: miał brać trzy czwarte tabletki, a bierze półtorej.
On warfarin, I take it. My money's on the classic: he's meant to take three quarters of a tablet and he's taking one and a half.
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A
Też tak myślałam, ale żona kroi mu tabletki nożem do chleba i pilnuje ich jak oka w głowie.
So did I, but his wife cuts his tablets with a bread knife and guards them with her life.
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B
Nożem do chleba? To u niej trzy czwarte to raz połówka, a raz cała tabletka.
With a bread knife? Then with her, three quarters is sometimes a half and sometimes a whole tablet.
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A
Tyle że INR był stabilny przez półtora roku, dopóki lekarz rodzinny nie przepisał mu Biseptolu na zapalenie pęcherza.
Only his INR was stable for a year and a half, until his GP prescribed him Biseptol for a bladder infection.
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B
Kotrimoksazol z warfaryną, podręcznikowa interakcja. Skąd pani to wie, skoro w dokumentacji nie ma ani słowa?
Co-trimoxazole with warfarin, a textbook interaction. How do you know that, when there isn't a word about it in his notes?
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A
W celu zebrania pełnego wywiadu lekowego poprosiłam żonę pacjenta o dostarczenie wszystkich przyjmowanych przez niego preparatów.
For the purpose of taking a full medication history, I asked the patient's wife to supply all the preparations he is taking.
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B
Pani Oliwio, to jest obchód, a nie obchody Święta Niepodległości. Proszę po ludzku.
Oliwia, this is a ward round, not an Independence Day ceremony. In plain language, please.
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A
Po ludzku: dziadek dostał antybiotyk, który podbił mu INR, a babcia przyniosła leki w reklamówce z Biedronki.
In plain language: Grandpa got an antibiotic that sent his INR up, and Grandma brought his medicines in a Biedronka carrier bag.
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B
„Dziadek” i „babcia” to przesada w drugą stronę. Ale wniosek trafny, w związku z czym wstrzymujemy warfarynę, podajemy witaminę K i zmieniamy antybiotyk.
'Grandpa' and 'Grandma' is going too far the other way. But the conclusion's right, so we're holding the warfarin, giving vitamin K and changing the antibiotic.
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A
Dobrze, pani doktor. A w zaleceniach dopiszę: „Tabletki dzielić dzielnikiem, a nie nożem do chleba”.
Yes, Doctor. And in the discharge instructions I'll add: 'Split tablets with a pill splitter, not a bread knife.'
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