In emergency medicine, a GI cocktail (gastrointestinal cocktail) is a generic term for a mixture of liquid antacid (often Mylanta), viscous lidocaine, and an anticholinergic (often Donnatal). It is primarily used to treat dyspepsia. It is also useful as part of the diagnostic protocol for patients complaining of chest pain, to help differentiate the causal factor of the pain as gastric versus potentially cardiac-related.
Usage:
We gave Hank a GI cocktail because he was packin' a lot of dung.
Fecal impaction. The expression is used to describe the process of removing the solid, immobile mass of excrement in the rectum that results from chronic constipation.
Usage:
Her bowel is impacted. Time to glove up and dig in.
Sounds like I'm working in the geriatric unit tonight. Ah, God's waiting room. I've never seen so many people wearing capes in my life. Where can you even buy a unisex fleece cape?
A demanding patient who wants more attention than his or her minor condition warrants.
Usage:
If the goldbrick in 24 pushes her call light again I'm going to lose it. Last time it was to flip around the channels for her to find Iron Chef America or "a suitable subsitute."
The first hour after a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Thrombolytic therapy, or "clot busting," is indicated for the treatment an MI if the drug can be administered within 12 hours of the onset of symptoms, the patient is eligible based on exclusion criteria, and primary PCI is not immediately available. The effectiveness of thrombolytic therapy is highest in the first 1-2 hours (the golden hour). After 12 hours, the risk associated with thrombolytic therapy outweighs any benefit. Because irreversible injury occurs within 2–4 hours of the infarction, there is a limited window of time available for reperfusion to work.
Usage:
The golden hour has past. We're going to have to do a bypass.