I’ve spent the last week relaxing in Antigua, Guatemala, hauling myself through 6 hours of Spanish lessons a day in a last minute attempt to quell the panic before I start work. I’ve discovered that learning to take a history in Spanish is somewhat like those 3rd year days of worrying; what came after the ‘history of presenting complaint’; was it the ‘social history’ or the ‘family history’?  Will the patient notice if I get it round the wrong way?  Do I really need to think of a memorable, inappropriate rhyme to recall the order of a medical history? more…

It wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that I began to have terrible, panic-stricken nightmares about my dreadful communication skills.  I wake in a trembling state, sweating because I can’t remember how to ask my patient ‘Does the pain radiate anywhere else? Does it come and go?  Is it sharp, stabbing pain?’
In my night terrors, it’s always the same patient, and me standing open mouthed bubbing like a goldfish. Now don’t worry, this memory problem isn’t pathological, I’m not dementing or growing a tumour, I’m moving to Guatemala for work.  Despite my 6 months of Spanish lessons slotted in around understaffed rotas, without a doubt I’m going to have some total communication failures.  The Calgary-Cambridge model probably isn’t going to cut it in the event I forget the words for ‘I need some help, she’s haemorrhaging’. more…