# What does my doctor mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595 "2009-10-21T12:04:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/1 "2009-10-21T12:04:22Z")
I have a few health issues. I’m seeing a new doctor for _sigh_ a new health problem and he requested the files from some of my other specialists. A file from my neurologist was sent to my home, to my attention, so I read it. For the most part it is a record of my tests, the conclusions, and conversations the doctor and I had. Some of the records are letters between doctors. In one letter the neurologist stated in part to another doctor “. . . to follow up with **this very interesting patient** ”. I’ve seen the Seinfeld episode wherein Elaine is called “difficult” in her chart and subsequently no doctor will see her. Is “very interesting” a code of some sort about me personally, or is it more likely the neurologist is commenting on my “case”? Just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/2 "2009-10-21T14:19:41Z")
Judging by the doctors I know, your case. Do you have anything that nobody has been able to diagnose or anything that puts you “off the charts”? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/3 "2009-10-21T14:29:26Z")
I agree with Nava, he/she is commenting on your case. I have a couple ‘interesting’ conditions, and have had parts of me used in lectures as examples of some ‘interesting’ issues. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/4 "2009-10-21T14:34:45Z")
Surely “interesting” is simply a shorthand way of saying “this patient’s condition is not a textbook situation, so don’t treat it as such.” But it’s funny how things can sound when they’re in that context. I noticed once on the diagnostic sheet I get a copy of after each office visit that in a mostly empty space near the top were the words “RESEARCH CASE.” It really unnerved me, until I checked one of my (then) wife’s similar sheets and saw that hers said it, too. I’m guessing they’re actually headings under which little codes can be placed and not indications that we are somehow secretly being monitored for a journal article. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/5 "2009-10-21T14:47:12Z")
Yes, **Nava** I am a special case, I think. 🙂 I used to say I’m part of the 5% club. You know, if within the entire population only 5% suffer from a particular condition, I’d be one of those. For example: 5% have no frontal cavity? That’s me. Only 5% reject a dental implant after 5 years. Yup that’s me. And on and on. Now, however, they think I might have shifted into the 1% club. I guess 5% was too crowded for me.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![FalconFinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@FalconFinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FalconFinder)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/6 "2009-10-21T15:06:46Z")
I was amused to read a doctor’s report where I was described as being two years younger than my actual age and “well nourished”. Nice way of describing me being overweight! LOL ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/7 "2009-10-21T15:28:31Z")
From what I’ve seen on patient records, it’s just one doctor being polite to the referring doctor. Almost every entry I ever read from a referred physician ended with something like, “Thank you for the interesting referral.” Maybe one of the MD’s here can confirm. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/8 "2009-10-21T15:40:53Z")
I looked at my doctor’s notes one time and he wrote down that I was “labile.” Not an insult, but I was insulted. (He was talking about my blood tests, not my personality.) Still, hmmmph. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/9 "2009-10-21T15:47:35Z")
> [@FalconFinder](#): > > I was amused to read a doctor’s report where I was described as being two years younger than my actual age and “well nourished”. Nice way of describing me being overweight! LOL Heh, I got the term “well developed” back in the early eighties when I was overweight. (all of me was bigger, not just my boobs, so I guess that’s not what he meant!) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/10 "2009-10-21T15:48:56Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I looked at my doctor’s notes one time and he wrote down that I was “labile.” Not an insult, but I was insulted. (He was talking about my blood tests, not my personality.) Still, hmmmph. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/11 "2009-10-21T15:58:00Z")
“Well-nourished” just means you’re a healthy weight. If they thought you were fat, they would put obese or morbidly obese. ---
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/12 "2009-10-21T16:22:05Z")
> [@](#): > > and interesting does sometimes mean "full o’ \*\*\*\* (but still open to interpretation) Huh. That’s what I feared, I think **hellpasso**. However, the tests have shown some weird things - so I guess I’ll rely on it meaning ‘interesting case’. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/13 "2009-10-21T16:55:59Z")
Ha, when I was a teen I broke my foot during the summer and had to wear a cast. Boy did that ever stink. When he removed it, he said my foot smelled ‘mature’. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/14 "2009-10-21T18:39:32Z")
Regarding “well developed, well nourished”, I did transcription for a doctor who said that for every single patient that she saw. Every single solitary one. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/15 "2009-10-21T18:45:05Z")
In the notes for an exam, a doctor once described my mother’s breasts as “smaller than normal.” It’s become a family gag. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/16 "2009-10-21T18:53:41Z")
**Shot From Guns** , that reminded me of the time a radiologist told the nurse who had done my mammogram that my “breasts were unremarkable”. Maybe to you, buddy, I thought. (I do realize that it was in respect to being ‘normal’, but still) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/17 "2009-10-21T18:55:26Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > From what I’ve seen on patient records, it’s just one doctor being polite to the referring doctor. Almost every entry I ever read from a referred physician ended with something like, “Thank you for the interesting referral.” > > Maybe one of the MD’s here can confirm. IANAD, but in my former job I had occasion to see a lot of doctor’s reports, and many of them started or ended with a reference to “this interesting patient”, which leads me to believe that it’s a common convention in the profession. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/18 "2009-10-21T18:57:02Z")
My wife was all bent out of shape when the fertility doctor we went to described her as an “elderly nulligravida” in the chart. I thought “well developed, well nourished” just meant that none of my limbs were stunted or shriveled or anything like that. I had a problem with my rotator cuff a while back. The doctor tested it by pushing on my arm, found it was weak, and gave me a cortisone shot and some exercises. Six weeks later, I returned, and he held my arm again and said, “Push as hard as you can”. I threw him across the room. He marked the chart, “Patient has regained function in the limb.” Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/19 "2009-10-21T18:59:35Z")
Almost every autopsy report I’ve ever seen says that the deceased’s anus was “star-shaped and unremarkable.” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595/20 "2009-10-21T19:16:35Z")
I used to work for lawyers so I got to read a lot of medical records. One that stood out was a doctor’s description of an attractive female patient as “sensual”. Hmmmmm. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-my-doctor-mean/514595.md?page=2)