Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 922, Getting a Second Opinion.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 922.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode has a learning guide on our website at eslpod.com.
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This dialogue between Greg and Anne is about someone who doesn't believe their doctor or who at least wants to get someone else's opinion an additional opinion about a medical condition.
Let's get started.
Where are you going?
My doctor diagnosed me with a serious medical condition, and I don't want to take it at face value.
Your second guessing your doctor?
No, I just want to make sure he's right.
He's also recommending a conservative treatment for this condition.
And if I really have it, I want to be more aggressive.
Doesn't your doctor mind that you're getting a second opinion?
No, he even gave me a recommendation for another specialist.
What's all of that?
This is a complete set of my records along with my test results.
I'm hoping he'll have a fresh perspective when he looks at all of it and my patient history.
What are you hoping he'll find?
The best case scenario is that he'll find that my doctor was wrong and that I don't really have this condition.
If he tells you that, wouldn't you be dubious?
You'll have one doctor telling you that you have it and one telling you that you don't.
Then it would be time for a third opinion.
Greg begins our dialogue by asking Anne, where are you going?
Anne says, I'm going to see another doctor to get a second opinion.
The expression second opinion means you've gotten the recommendation or an opinion of one person, but you want to get someone else's opinion, someone else's recommendation.
The expression is often used in talking about health care, about medicine.
When you talk to one doctor who says you should do this, and then maybe you don't like that idea or you don't think the doctor knows what he's talking about.
So you go to see another doctor and get his or her opinion.
And wants to go see another doctor to get a second opinion.
She says, To diagnose D-I-A-G-N-O-S-E means to identify a problem, especially a medical problem why someone is sick or what illness a person has.
Medical condition refers to a disease or an illness that you have, some problem in your body.
The expression to take something at face.
F-A-C-E value means to accept something as being true, but without investigating it very much.
To believe that it's true without getting more information, without researching it.
Face value is a term that we often use in talking about money.
We talk about the face value of a coin or the face value of a certain bill, a certain piece of money.
Sometimes money that's very old might be worth more than what it says on the piece of money.
That would be where you have something that is worth more than the face value of the coin or the face value of the bill.
So if you have a five cent coin from I don't know 1893, it might be worth more than five cents, even though the face value is still five cents.
When I was growing up, we used to collect pennies, and And you would try to collect pennies from different years, but also from different mints.
A mint, M-I-N-T, here means the places where they manufactured or made the coins.
And that would be indicated on the coin itself.
Anyway, getting back to our dialogue, Anne doesn't believe her idiot doctor and wants to get another opinion.
Greg says, you're second guessing your doctor?
To second guess means to question someone's opinion or to question someone's actions.
Ann says, no, I just want to make sure he's right.
I want to be certain he's correct.
He's also recommending a conservative treatment for this condition.
And if I really have it, I want to be more aggressive.
Treatment refers to how you try to get someone better, how you try to heal someone, how you try to get someone to recover from their sickness or illness.
A conservative treatment would be a treatment where You do the minimum.
You do a small amount but not as much as you could.
The opposite of conservative here would be aggressive.
A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E.
Aggressive treatment would be to do the maximum, to do as much as possible to try to get the person over their sickness or to get the person healthy.
Greg says, doesn't your doctor mind that you're getting a second opinion?
Here, the verb to mind means to be bothered by.
Doesn't your doctor mind you're getting a second opinion?
Anne says, no.
He even gave me a recommendation for another specialist.
A specialist.
S-P-E-C-I-A-L-I-S-T is a doctor, in this case, who knows a lot about one particular illness or one particular kind of medical condition.
You might have a specialist in ears and throats and noses.
In fact, there's something called an ear, nose, throat specialist in American hospitals.
These are doctors who know a lot about those three things.
So if you have a problem with your ears my wife thinks I have a problem with my ears you would go to a ear, nose and throat specialist.
Greg says...
What's all of that?
He sees something else that Ann is holding in her hand.
Ann says this is a complete set of my records along with my test results.
The word records, R-E-C-O-R-D-S, has a couple of different meanings.
Here it refers to documents or pieces of paper or nowadays, electronic files that have information about you.
Medical records is a reference to documents about your health how old you are, how much you weigh, results from medical tests you might have taken in the past, and so forth.
And, in fact, talks about test results.
Test results are outcomes of exams or analyses, that especially when we are referring to things like a blood test.
The doctor takes some of your blood, and then they analyze the blood for certain things.
That would be, once you get the results, once you get what the analysis says, your test results.
Anne has all this information that she's going to give the other doctor, the other specialist.
She says.
I'm hoping he, the doctor, will have a fresh perspective when he looks at all of it, all of my records and my patient history.
A fresh perspective means a new opinion about something, especially from someone who has not been involved in the case or involved in the situation.
If you work on something for a very long time, sometimes you can't see certain issues or certain problems because you're too close to it.
You've been involved with it for too long.
You need to get a new or a fresh perspective, a new view on things, usually from someone else who hasn't been working on the same thing you have.
Anne wants to get a fresh perspective on her medical records and her patient history.
Your patient history is a detailed record of everything that the doctor has done for you, all of the tests he has done performed on you, all of the drugs that he has given you, and so forth.
That would be your patient history.
Greg then asks, what are you hoping he'll find?
Ann says the best case scenario is that he'll find that my doctor was wrong and that I don't really have this condition.
A scenario, S-C-E-N-A-R-I-O, is a situation or an outcome, a result.
Best-case, C-A-S-E, refers to the best possible situation.
So a best-case scenario is the best possible thing that could happen.
If you apply for a job...
The best case scenario is that they give you the job and they give you a new house and a new car.
Well, that probably won't happen, but that would be the best case scenario, the best possible thing that could happen.
The opposite of a best case scenario is a worst case scenario.
A worst, W-O-R-S-T hyphen case scenario.
Ann hopes that the...
Second specialist will tell her that she doesn't have this disease or this problem at all.
Greg says, if he tells you that, wouldn't you be dubious?
To be dubious D-U-B-I-O-U-S means to be doubtful, not to believe or not to trust someone or something.
Greg says you'll have one doctor telling you that you have it and one telling you that you don't.
Ann says, quite logically, then it would be time for a third opinion.
It would be time for her to see a third doctor, a third specialist, which I think is actually a good idea.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Where are you going?
I'm going to see another doctor to get a second opinion.
My doctor diagnosed me with a serious medical condition and I don't want to take it at face value.
You're second guessing your doctor?
No, I just want to make sure he's right.
He's also recommending a conservative treatment for this condition, and if I really have it, I want to be more aggressive.
Doesn't your doctor mind that you're getting a second opinion?
No, he even gave me a recommendation for another specialist.
What's all of that?
This is a complete set of my records along with my test results.
I'm hoping he'll have a fresh perspective when he looks at all of it and my patient history.
What are you hoping he'll find?
The best case scenario is that he'll find that my doctor was wrong and that I don't really have this condition.
If he tells you that, wouldn't you be dubious?
You'll have one doctor telling you that you have it and one telling you that you don't.
Then it would be time for a third opinion.
She brings a fresh perspective to learning English on the Internet.
I refer to our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
