A couple days ago I had to go to the hospital due to severe chest pain. (Nothing to worry about. The problem isn't my heart but one of my nephews who likes to lie on his uncle like the latter is a recliner. ;) My sternum and ribs apparently can't take the weight of his head.) Anyway, in my moment of intense pain at home, I had a couple of symptoms happen all at once, especially nausea and cottonmouth.
So Milady and I went to a nearby hospital where a doctor and two interns decided to examine me. The doctor asked for my symptoms, and I mentioned the cottonmouth.
She looked very surprised. "Cat-in-mouth???"
One of the interns corrected her. "No, cottonmouth."
"Cottonmouth???" As if she had never heard of the condition before.
"Dry mouth," I said, hoping that she finally understood me.
Some time later the thought occurred to me that "cat-in-mouth" is probably just as appropriate to describe the symptom as "cottonmouth." ;)
6 comments:
Happy to hear you're OK, I work in the medical feild too , but never heard of that expression, cool one tohugh.
hmm noticed that cotton mouth is strictly american lingo, the rest tend to use dry mouth. hmm you come from the west coast by any chance ?
@ Thakir: Thanks. I have no idea when/where the expression "cottonmouth" came from, but it's always seemed appropriate to me the times I've had the condition. ;)
@ No Angel: You may very well be right that it's an American term. I'm originally from the east coast, but moved to Arizona after high school. Of course, now I live in Asia, which has been home for almost eight years now.
Hi JDsg...I hope you are all better now, inshallah!
Kay: Mostly. I thought last night that I might be able to drop taking the paracetamol, but some slight discomfort in the middle of the night got me up to take a few more tablets. The only time I feel any pain is when I lie in bed. :P
The condition when mouth become dry can be referred as Xerostomia... I've written a whole article on that, hope you will find it useful.
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