Mi mamá se despierta tosiendo en las noches.

Medical Spanish for healthcare providers: dialogue 46

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46. Mi mamá se despierta tosiendo en las noches. (My mom wakes up coughing in the nights.)

Hija: Doctora, decidí traer a mi mamá porque ya tiene tres días que no duerme bien. Cada noche se despierta tosiendo, con dificultad para respirar, y se le están hinchando los pies.

(Doctor, I decided to bring my mother because already she has three days that she does not sleep well. Each night she wakes up coughing, with difficulty breathing, and her feet are swelling.) Note: Literally it says, "with difficulty for to breathe, and themselves, to her, they are swelling, the feet." Observe that the reflexive pronoun comes before the indirect pronoun: "se, le," or "themselves, to her."

Sra. Gómez: Ay, doctora, mi hija se alarma mucho. Ahora, yo duermo sobre tres o cuatro almohadas, y así la tos no me molesta tanto. Los pies sólo están un poco hinchados. Es que no estoy orinando bastante.

(Ay, doctor, my daughter alarms herself much. Now, I sleep over three or four pillows, and like that, the cough does not bother me so much. The feet only are a little swollen. It is that I am not urinating enough.)

Doctora: Déjeme examinarla. Tiene ruidos respiratorios en las bases de ambos pulmones, y puedo ver que tiene dificultad para respirar. El corazón tiene un soplo.

(Let me examine you. You have respiratory noises in the bases of both lungs, and I can see that you have dificulty breathing. The heart has a murmur.)

Sra. Gómez: Bueno, es verdad. Me siento cansada hasta para hablar. Es que me sentí un poco mejor, y como me fastidiaba orinar tantas veces, suspendí esa medicina de la clínica. Ahora no puedo acostarme porque de inmediato empiezo a toser.

(Well, it is true. I feel tired even for speaking. It is that I felt a little better, and as it was bothering me to urinate so many times, I suspended that medicine from the clinic. Now I cannot lie down because immediately I begin to cough.)

Doctora: Eso no lo debe hacer. Voy a hospitalizarla. Le chequearemos el corazón con un electrocardiograma, y los pulmones con una radiografía. Parece tener insuficiencia cardíaca.

(You must not do that. I am going to hospitalize you. We will check your heart with an electrocardiogram, and the lungs with a radiograph. You seem to have cardiac insufficiency.) Note: Literally it says, "That, you must not do it," and later..."To you, we will check the heart."

Hija: Le dije que pusiera los pies en alto para ver si se le deshinchaban un poco, pero no fue suficiente.

(I told her to put her feet up to see if the swelling reduced a little, but it was not enough.) Note: Literally it says, "that she put the feet on high." Observe the word "pusiera," the imperfect subjunctive verb tense of "poner." Later, the verb "deshinchar" is used in the imperfect tense, "un-swelling itself to her." Of course, "un-swelling" is not a real word in English.

Doctora: Los resultados confirman que tiene insuficiencia cardíaca congestiva. Tiene líquido dentro de los pulmones y debemos ayudar a los riñones para que empiece a orinar nuevamente. Va a tener que estar unos días aquí en el hospital, hasta que podamos controlar estos problemas.

(The results confirm that you have congestive cardiac insufficency (congestive heart failure). You have liquid inside of the lungs and we must help the kidneys for that they begin to urinate again. You are going to have to be a few days here in the hospital, until we can control these problems.)

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Mi mamá se despierta tosiendo en las noches.