Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,243, Getting an Anesthetic.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,243.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is about going to a hospital and getting a special kind of drug so that you don't feel any pain.
I want that.
Let's get started.
I'm here to prep you for your procedure.
Did the doctor already talk to you about the general anesthetic you'll be getting?
I don't need a general anesthetic.
I want to be conscious during the procedure.
You'll be inhaling a general anesthetic and getting an intravenous muscle relaxant.
That's standard for this procedure.
I'm not a wimp.
Tell the doctor all I need is a local anesthetic to numb the area.
You'll need something stronger.
You don't want to feel any sensation or pain during the procedure.
I'm not afraid of a little pain.
Bring it on.
Anyway, the general anesthetic will wear off soon after the procedure.
However, the doctor will keep you under sedation for the rest of the day so you can rest.
Forget it.
When it's done, I'm going home.
I'm not staying here overnight.
That's not advisable.
You need to remain under observation for 24 hours.
That's for other people.
I'm tough.
I'll be up and ready to go.
What's that needle for?
It's to give you a shot before your procedure.
I don't like needles.
Get that away from me.
Our dialogue begins with a nurse saying, Saying to Bruce, I'm here to prep you for your procedure.
To prep.
P-R-E-P means to prepare.
Prep comes from the verb prepare.
It's a short form of that verb.
To prep means to make someone ready for something.
In this case, the nurse is prepping Bruce for his procedure, something that the doctor is going to do to him.
She then asks Bruce, did the doctor already talk to you about the general anesthetic you'll be getting?
An anesthetic.
A-N-E-S-T-H-E-T-I-C is medicine that is given to you to prevent you from feeling pain.
A general anesthetic, however, is medicine that usually makes you unconscious and This is something that is used, for example, when you are going to have what is referred to as a major or important surgery, S-U-R-G-E-R-Y.
A surgery is when a doctor goes inside of your body, cuts into your body to do something.
We hope that will make you better.
So a general anesthetic is something that usually puts you to sleep.
This is compared to a local L-O-C-A-L anesthetic, which just makes certain parts of your body no longer feel anything, so that the doctor can work on a certain part of your body without putting you completely to sleep.
Bruce says that he doesn't want a general anesthetic.
He wants to be conscious, C-O-N-S-C-I-O-U-S, during the procedure.
To be conscious is to be awake.
It's the opposite of to be unconscious, which is to be basically asleep.
Don't confuse the word conscious with a similar sounding word conscience, C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
Conscience refers to your feelings of right and wrong.
Conscious refers to being awake.
The nurse says you'll be inhaling a general anesthetic and getting an intravenous muscle relaxant.
To inhale I-N-H-A-L-E means to breathe in, to bring in air or something else into your body, specifically into your lungs L-U-N-G-S.
Your lungs are what you use to breathe.
Former President Bill Clinton famously said, when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana, That yes, he had, but he didn't inhale.
That is, he didn't put the marijuana smoke into his lungs.
We love politicians.
Anyway, the nurse says that Bruce is going to be inhaling a certain kind of gas which is a general anesthetic and getting an intravenous muscle relaxant.
Intravenous I-N-T-R-A-V-E-N-O-U-S refers to something going through your veins, which is a part of your body that carries blood.
Muscles, of course, are those parts of your body that move your body parts, your bones, back and forth.
A relaxant R-E-L-A-X-A-N-T is something that relaxes you, makes your muscles loose and And we would say, limp L-I-M-P, which is the opposite of firm.
So an intravenous muscle relaxant is basically an injection, that is something that is put into your body with something called a needle N-E-E-D-L-E.
A needle is a small thin metal tube.
Basically that goes into your skin so that drugs can be put into your body.
The nurse is going to give Bruce a general anesthetic which he will breathe in to his lungs, as well as what we would call simply a shot S-H-O-T, which is taking a needle and putting something into your body.
Bruce says, I'm not a wimp.
A wimp.
W-I-M-P is is a weak person, who is not brave, who is not courageous, who is afraid of pain.
Bruce says I'm not a wimp.
Tell the doctor all I need is a local anesthetic to numb the area.
We explained local anesthetic as being a drug that prevents pain in a certain part of your body.
The verb to numb, N-U-M-B, means to cause you to lose feeling in a certain part of your body.
If you lose feeling, you won't feel pain there.
That's the purpose of a local anesthetic.
When you go to the dentist who works on your teeth, the dentist will often give you a local anesthetic to numb the parts of your mouth where the dentist will be working.
The nurse says, however, that Bruce needs something stronger.
She says Sensation S-E-N-S-A-T-I-O-N here means feeling something that you can feel when someone touches you.
That's a sensation, or at least one possibility of a sensation.
Bruce says, I'm not afraid of a little pain.
Bring it on.
That phrase bring it on is used to show that you are ready for some problem or difficult situation or challenge.
The nurse says, anyway, the general anesthetic will wear off soon after the procedure.
She's explaining to Bruce that after the doctor has finished with his procedure, whatever it is, the general anesthetic will wear off.
To wear W-E-A-R off means to slowly, gradually lose strength or effectiveness.
If you take a pill, if you swallow a pill that has medicine, eventually the medicine will probably wear off, meaning it will no longer be effective, perhaps two hours or five hours from when you take it.
The nurse explains that the doctor will keep him under sedation for the rest of the day.
Sedation, S-E-D-A-T-I-O-N, is when you are given drugs that don't necessarily make you fall asleep, but make you very calm, make you very relaxed.
Bruce says, however, forget it, meaning no, I don't want that.
When it's done, meaning when the procedure is finished, I'm going home.
I'm not staying here overnight, meaning he doesn't want to sleep at the hospital until the next day.
The nurse says that's not advisable.
Advisable is A-D-V-I-S-A-B-L-E means recommended or useful or helpful.
The nurse says that Bruce's idea of just leaving right after this procedure is not advisable.
It's not a good idea.
You need to remain under observation for 24 hours.
The phrase under observation means that someone is watching you or someone is monitoring you to make sure there aren't any more problems.
That happens a lot at a hospital.
We say someone is under observation, when the doctor and the nurses keep the person in the hospital to make sure there aren't any more problems.
Bruce says that's for other people.
I'm tough, meaning I'm strong, I'm brave.
I'll be up and ready to go. meaning after the procedure, he'll be ready to go home.
Then he says to the nurse, what's that needle for?
The nurse says, it's to give you a shot, an injection, before your procedure.
The nurse is going to take the needle and inject or put into his body the drug.
Bruce suddenly, who said he was very tough and strong, starts to whimper.
To whimper, W-H-I-M-P-E-R, means to make a small sound that indicates that you're very scared.
Bruce says, I don't like needles.
Get that away from me.
We learn, of course, that Bruce isn't as tough as he says he is.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm here to prep you for your procedure.
Did the doctor already talk to you about the general anesthetic you'll be getting?
I don't need a general anesthetic.
I want to be conscious during the procedure.
You'll be inhaling a general anesthetic and getting an intravenous muscle relaxant.
That's standard for this procedure.
I'm not a wimp.
Tell the doctor all I need is a local anesthetic to numb the area.
You'll need something stronger.
You don't want to feel any sensation or pain during the procedure.
I'm not afraid of a little pain.
Bring it on.
Anyway, the general anesthetic will wear off soon after the procedure.
However, the doctor will keep you under sedation for the rest of the day so you can rest.
Forget it.
When it's done, I'm going home.
I'm not staying here overnight.
That's not advisable.
You need to remain under observation for 24 hours.
That's for other people.
I'm tough.
I'll be up and ready to go.
What's that needle for?
It's to give you a shot before your procedure.
I don't like needles.
Get that away from me.
There's no better way to prep yourself for speaking English than to listen to the wonderful scripts written by our excellent script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
