I
wanted to review a common list of terms I come across frequently when
discussing eye problems/conditions with my Spanish-speaking patients. I have
mentioned a few of these previously in my blog, notably in my October 2013
entry “A Rose by any other name...well, except for ischemia”. As I have said before and as any physician
knows (usually through personal experience), in any language, speaking to the
patient only using medical terminology is not beneficial. For anyone not medically trained, such words
are foreign, scary and often misunderstood. People have common ways to refer to
medical conditions, diseases, the human body and to fully know a language you
need to be intimate with all of these manners of expression.
Now,
Spanish language has the added issue of varying its dialect depending on
country of origin. So, a Puerto Rican patient may have a different way of
expressing an eye “floater” than someone from the Dominican Republic. I have
not yet reached a level in my own Spanish knowledge and experience where I can
differentiate terms based on national origin, or vice versa. What I do instead
is repeat all the forms of the word that I know to the patient, until I reach
one that the patient understands and identifies with. For example:
1
) Mole,
or any skin growth
You
could try saying nevo for nevus, but
likely that won’t be understood, just as the word nevus usually isn’t! The equivalent Spanish word for mole is lunar. Now, what term to use for a generic growth of the skin is a
different story.
Years
ago I looked up the word growth in
an on-line English-Spanish dictionary. The supposed equivalent Spanish word it
gave me was protuberancia,
apparently similar to the English word protuberance.
So, I started using this word anytime someone had a growth I wanted to describe. Well, I can tell you I received many a
strange look from the patients when I used this word! In fact, when I shared
this experience with my Puerto Rican technician, she practically guffawed, and
we had a hearty laugh at my expense!
The
problem was resolved when a patient came in one day pointing to and describing
what were actually small chalazia on his lower lids. He used the word bolita: ¿Qué es esta bolita? Since then I have been using bolita for growth and the patients understand me, so it must be a valid and
universal description.
2) Lazy eye
When
I was studying Spanish during my high school days, I learned the word for lazy to be perezoso.
During my residency, it made sense, therefore, to refer to a lazy eye as an ojo perezoso. No patient
ever questioned it or seemed to misunderstand. Sometimes I will introduce the
patient to the medical term, amblyopia,
or ambliopía in Spanish.
But
many patients don’t really understand what constitutes making the eye “lazy”.
In my experience, I have found that patients think that lazy eyes are eyes that
drift, ie. a strabismic eye. Knowing this, I will sometimes refer to a lazy eye
as ojo cruzado or crossed eye if I know that strabismus
is the reason for the amblyopia.
Obviously I cannot use this term in all cases of amblyopia.
A
description that a Puerto Rican patient may use to indicate lazy eye is ojo vago, but according a technician I work with, this is a very
base way to describe a lazy eye. Per the Spanish-English translator, vago means slouch, lazybones or
slacker. Can you imagine? “Hey, your eye is slacking off!” If you visit the
website www.ojossanos.org, you will find the term ojo perezoso, which appears to be the acceptable way to express a
lazy eye in Spanish.
3)
Eyelid “crusts” and discharge
One
complaint I hear about often from patients is that when they wake up in the
morning, they have crust buildup on the eyelids/lashes. In English, they refer
to this as crust, or flakes or “eye sleep”. I’ve heard even
more unflattering terms to describe it, but I won’t go into that right
now. But how does a patient refer to
this in Spanish? Some common words are: legaña,
lagaña or pinchas. But I have asked, “¿Tiene
algo como una costra en el ojo
cuando se despierta?” and they do understand what I mean by costra = crust.
Incidentally,
to ask about eye discharge, I often
used the word descarga. “¿Tiene
Usted una descarga del ojo?”, but I
found I was stared at quizzically more often than not. Instead, now I use lagrimeo which is closer to the English
for tearing. I do recall one patient
describing her eye discharge as flujo,
but I do not hear this word used too often.
4)
Pterygium/ Pingueculum
Un
pterigio or una pingüécula are words I will introduce to the patient just so they
know the medical word for this lesion growing conspicuously over or near their
cornea. However, Spanish-speaking patients have many colorful terms to describe
these lesions: una carne, una carnosidad, and una uña, which are meat, fleshiness and fingernail, respectively.
I
often start out: “Esta cosa que Usted tiene en el rincón del ojo, esta
carnosidad/carne/uña, es algo se llama un pterigio.” English speakers typically
refer to it as “this thing growing”,
“this growth”or “lump”on the eye.
5)
Blue Eyes
I
remember when I was studying Spanish in college, my professor—wow, I just
remembered her name now, just this moment! La Profesora Marques. I haven’t said
it or thought it for years! Perhaps the old brain is still retaining and not
simply leaking words, phrases and experiences like water through a sieve (as
previously thought!).
La
Profesora Marques told my class one day that blue eyes are not referred to as blue eyes or ojos azules in Spanish. This is because, as she said, blue eyes are
very rare among the Latino people. Instead, she said, that blue eyes are
actually referred to as ojos blancos
which literally translated means white
eyes. I have never had the opportunity to use this expression with my
patients. The majority of them are from
Central and South America, and the Caribbean islands. Their eyes are almost
always a dark brown or marrón, rarely I will see even a hazel
eye.
6)
Flashes / Floaters
Patients
coming in with potential PVD or retinal tear complain of destellos (flashes of light) or puntitas de luz (points of light). Sometimes they will describe the
flashing lights as lightening or relámpago.
Floaters I have heard called by different names: manchitas
(literally ‘little stains’), manchas
(stains), pajaritos (little birds), moscas (flies) or líneas en la vista (lines in the vision).
I
almost always will refer to the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s website www.ojossanos.org (an informational site
for patients describing various eye conditions written in Spanish) to expand my
vocabulary of medical ophthalmological Spanish. There, floaters are called flotantes. However, I have used the word floaters / flotantes with my patients,
and many do not know what I am referring to. It is easier to get across the
following sentiment whether in English or Spanish: ¿Ve Usted puntitos negros que se mueven en su
campo visual? Once people hear ‘black spots’or ‘moving spots’ and understand,
then I introduce other ways to refer to them.
7)
Black Eye /ojo morado
Not
everything can be literally translated from English to Spanish. If you describe
someone as having an “ojo negro”
literally ‘black eye’, it is
interpreted as simply a dark brown eye
in Spanish. It doesn’t have the same meaning as in English, where a black eye
is an eye that is bruised as the result of a punch. Instead, you have to use
the words ojo morado which literally
means purple eye.
8)
Blind Eye /ojo ciego
Any
reference to blindness brings us to the word ciego in Spanish. Many patients, particularly those with eye
problems like glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, truly fear that they will lose
the vision completely and go blind. Often I will hear, “Voy a ser ciego?” The
answer is almost always no. So far in my >10 years in private practice, I
have not heard of any slang (jerga) for a blind eye. Maybe the closest thing I
have heard is bad eye (ojo malo) or weak eye (ojo debíl).
9)
Prosthetic Eye
I
have been using the most direct tranlation of these terms: prótesis ocular or ojo
artificial. Another description that
is a little more basic would be ojo falso,
or false eye.
10)
Pink Eye – Viral Conjunctivitis
Pink eye is also another expression in
English that is not necessarily literally translated into Spanish.In Central
America, this condition is referred to as mal
de ojo or ojos rojos, not
rosados. You can also use the medical term conjunctivitis or conjuntivitis. However, conjunctivitis
is a broad term and not always understood. If I use that word I preface it
with: “La piel que cubre la frente del ojo se llama ‘conjuntiva’. Cuando esta
piel se vuelve inflamada, se llama ‘conjuntivitis’”.
There
are times, however, when I will interject the English words pink eye when explaining the diagnosis
to a Spanish speaking patient. Why? Again, it takes me back to an earlier blog
entry of mine “Spanglish” http://www.eyesayinspanish.blogspot.com/2013/10/spanglish.html
when I talk about how Spanish in the Americas has been influenced by English.
Because of this, sometimes the English slang equivalent is the jerga that
Spanish speakers here will use and understand.
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