"Sir, we are tamponing this woman" I was informed during our round of the gynecological ward.
The word 'tamponing' reminded me of the word harpooning and then of captain Nemo and his Nautilus. Then it made me think of lampooning - which is transitive form of 'to lampoon', which means 'to attack or satirize in a lampoon', a lampoon being 'a satire in verse or prose ridiculing a person'. Then I thought of 'cartooning' meaning to draw a cartoon. But there is no such verb in the dictionary. I thought of all these other words because I believed there was no such verb as 'to tampon'. I checked the dictionary to make sure, and discovered that there was indeed a verb 'to tampon', which meant 'to plug a wound or body cavity with a tampon'. a tampon being 'a plug of lint, cotton or cotton wool, inserted into a wound or body cavity to stop the flow of blood or absorb blood. It is inserted by some women into the vagina during menstruation to absorb menstrual blood. We use it in gynecology to reduce edema of the cervix due to pelvic organ prolapse. Of course it has to be soaked with glycerine-acriflavine prior to insertion for this indication.
This Resident Doctor made me proud by correctly using a word when all people are criticizing the Resident Doctors for using abbreviations which they make on the fly.
The word 'tamponing' reminded me of the word harpooning and then of captain Nemo and his Nautilus. Then it made me think of lampooning - which is transitive form of 'to lampoon', which means 'to attack or satirize in a lampoon', a lampoon being 'a satire in verse or prose ridiculing a person'. Then I thought of 'cartooning' meaning to draw a cartoon. But there is no such verb in the dictionary. I thought of all these other words because I believed there was no such verb as 'to tampon'. I checked the dictionary to make sure, and discovered that there was indeed a verb 'to tampon', which meant 'to plug a wound or body cavity with a tampon'. a tampon being 'a plug of lint, cotton or cotton wool, inserted into a wound or body cavity to stop the flow of blood or absorb blood. It is inserted by some women into the vagina during menstruation to absorb menstrual blood. We use it in gynecology to reduce edema of the cervix due to pelvic organ prolapse. Of course it has to be soaked with glycerine-acriflavine prior to insertion for this indication.
This Resident Doctor made me proud by correctly using a word when all people are criticizing the Resident Doctors for using abbreviations which they make on the fly.
