This recording is part of the Medical English For You prototype series. Listen to the recording and follow the script below.
DOCTOR
Hi Peter, I thought you weren’t going to make it. Anyway, I still have time before my next patient.
PETER
Sorry about that. I can’t seem to change the clock in my head even though I moved to Budapest when I was eighteen. Back home in Bolivia, being fifteen minutes late is considered normal.
DOCTOR
So I hear. Anyway, we tend to react a little differently over here. Now let’s get to the nitty-gritty. How can I help you?
PETER
How should I put it. I have bouts of diarrhea and… let’s say I have a lot of wind.
DOCTOR
If you want to be elegant, you’d call it flatulence.
PETER
Right. Anyway, it’s so bad that I can’t even leave home. I had to give up teaching Spanish in a language school, it was so embarrassing. I teach online now.
DOCTOR
It sounds unpleasant. Just to summarize: your main complaint is diarrhea and that your bowel motions are urgent. You feel bloated and have to break wind frequently. There’s blood in your stools, I take it?
PETER
Unfortunately, yes.
DOCTOR
Ok. Tell me what meds are you’re on.
PETER
Let me see, I wrote them down on a piece of paper. Here they are. Metformin…
DOCTOR
How long have you been on that?
PETER
For about a year. Now that you mention it…
DOCTOR
Well, that could be the main cause of your symptoms. Let’s take you off Metformin. Don’t worry; your average glucose level seemed just a bit elevated. Even so, we should refer you for a screening colonoscopy since you’re over fifty.
PETER
I see. Thank you for now, doctor.
