THE HUMAN BODY. ILNESSES, AT THE DOCTORS, HOSPITALS

Our world is bringing new discoveries, inventions but also new diseases are making their appearance. We are talking in particular of civilization diseases – asthma, allergies, migraines, high or low blood levels, heart attacks and strokes. Of the serious deadly diseases, we can mention cancer and AIDS. AIDS involves infection with the HIV virus. There are several means of transmission – not protected sexual intercourse, infected hypodermic needles. No cure has been found yet. Despite high level of awareness among people, new cases of infection keep on appearing. Let’s not dwell on such serious diseases. Sometimes we suffer from common ones. Cold, cough, toothache, headache or flu. Aching head, scratchy throat and stuffy nose. These are signs of cold. Flu is like a cold but with a fever. The stomach flu is different – you are vomiting and suffer from diarrhea.
Among more serious illnesses are pneumonia, polio and whooping cough. There are also children diseases such as measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox, mumps, rubella. We should not underestimate the signs of being ill. It is not recommended to make self-examination using the Internet. The best thing to do is visit your doctor. In the case of a serious illness we call an ambulance that takes the patient to the hospital.

When we decide to see the doctor’s office, we must take the health insurance company’s card and, in some cases, also vacation certificate. Actually, when you are doctor’s permanent patient and he has information about you in his office, you can leave the documents at home. Only when you go to the hospital or to doctor’s office you have never visited before you must bring them with you. But it’s better be safe than sorry. We can either make an appointment or our medical examination or go directly. It is important also to know surgery hours. If there are other patient waiting, we wait in a waiting room. As soon as our turn comes, the nurse calls us. The doctor asks us what the matter is and how do we feel. It is not good to hold back information about our problems. The doctor examines our body. Sometimes we need to open our mouth and the doctor examine our tonsils, examines nodes or the nurse takes a blood sample. We can get injected or the doctor prescribes some medicine. Then we go to the pharmacy and buy the medicine. Mostly we must stay in bed until the next check-up. Light diseases can be traded at home. We must stay in bed and take pills, syrups, drops or sprays. We should measure our temperature. Grave illnesses must be treated in hospital. Sometimes our general practitioner can send us to visit another doctor – a specialist. For example, dentist, cardiologist, surgeon, allergologist, psychiatrist, gynecologist or neurologist.

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency department to treat urgent health problems ranging from fire and accident victims to a heart attack. We can find there a large number of beds for intensive or long-term care. Specialized hospitals include trauma centers, rehabilitation hospitals, children's hospitals, and hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric treatment (psychiatric hospital). Specialized hospitals can help reduce health care costs compared to general hospitals. We also visit hospitals in case of an injury (broken bone and so on).
Surgery is the branch of medicine that treats disease or injury by operative measures (appendicitis). Operations are classified as emergency, essential and elective. Oncology is the scientific study of tumours, which takes up much of an oncologist’s time. Many hospitals have a cancer centre to take care of such patients. Cancer is particularly dangerous because malignant cells are able to metastasize (spread) throughout the body by way of the bloodstream or lymphatic vessels. If you have problems with your bones, you may be sent to visit a bone doctor or orthopaedist at the hospital’s orthopaedic services unit. Other important hospital wards include cardiology where a cardiologist will examine you if you have problems with your heart, gastroenterology if you have problems with your stomach or intestines, including perhaps a consultation with a dietician who has extensive knowledge of the basic foods, or paediatrics to see a paediatrician who is concerned with the care and development of children and the treatment of diseases that affect them. Many hospitals also have OB/GYN wards with specialized doctors called gynaecologists who deal with disorders of the female reproductive system and obstetricians who deal with the birth of children.