Mi mamá se despierta tosiendo en las noches.
Medical Spanish for healthcare providers: dialogue 46 (My mom wakes up coughing in the nights.)
congestive heart failure - insuficiencia cardiaca congestiva
Hija: Doctora, decidí traer a mi mamá porque ya tiene tres días que no duerme bien. Cada noche se despierta tosiendo, con dificultad para respirar, y se le están hinchando los pies.
(Doctor, I decided to bring my mother because she has not been sleeping well for three days. [Literally, "now she has three days that she does not sleep well."] Each night she wakes up coughing, with difficulty breathing, and her feet are getting swollen.) Note: Literally it says, "with difficulty for to breathe, and themselves, to her, they are swelling, the feet." Observe that the reflexive pronoun comes before the indirect pronoun: "se, le," or "themselves, to her."
Sra. Gómez: Ay, doctora, mi hija se alarma mucho. Ahora, yo duermo sobre tres o cuatro almohadas, y así la tos no me molesta tanto. Los pies sólo están un poco hinchados. Es que no estoy orinando bastante.
(Oh, doctor, my daughter worries too much. [Literally, "alarms herself a lot."] Nowadays, I sleep with three or four pillows, and that way, the cough does not bother me so much. My feet are only a little swollen. It's because I don't urinate very much. [Literally, "It's that I am not urinating very much."])
Doctora: Déjeme examinarla. Tiene ruidos respiratorios en las bases de ambos pulmones, y puedo ver que tiene dificultad para respirar. El corazón tiene un soplo.
(Let me examine you. You have (respiratory) noises in the bases of both lungs, and I can see that you have dificulty breathing. The heart has a murmur.)
Sra. Gómez: Bueno, es verdad. Me siento cansada hasta para hablar. Es que me sentí un poco mejor, y como me fastidiaba orinar tantas veces, suspendí esa medicina de la clínica. Ahora no puedo acostarme porque de inmediato empiezo a toser.
(Well, it is true. Even talking makes me tired. [Literally, "I feel tired even for speaking."] I started feeling a little better, and since it was bothering me to (have to) urinate so many times, I stopped taking (suspended) that medicine from the clinic. Now I can't lie down because I begin to cough right away.)
Doctora: Eso no lo debe hacer. Voy a hospitalizarla. Le chequearemos el corazón con un electrocardiograma, y los pulmones con una radiografía. Parece tener insuficiencia cardíaca.
(You must not do that. I am going to hospitalize you. We will check your heart with an electrocardiogram, and the lungs with an x-ray. You seem to have cardiac insufficiency.) Note: Literally it says, "That, you must not do it," and later..."To you, we will check the heart."
Hija: Le dije que pusiera los pies en alto para ver si se le deshinchaban un poco, pero no fue suficiente.
(I told her to put her feet up to see if the swelling went down a little, but it was not enough.) Note: Literally it says, "that she put the feet on high." Observe the word "pusiera," the imperfect subjunctive verb tense of "poner." Later, the verb "deshinchar" is used in the imperfect tense, "un-swelling itself to her." Of course, "un-swelling" is not a real word in English.
Doctora: Los resultados confirman que tiene insuficiencia cardíaca congestiva. Tiene líquido dentro de los pulmones y debemos ayudar a los riñones para que empiece a orinar nuevamente. Va a tener que estar unos días aquí en el hospital, hasta que podamos controlar estos problemas.
(The results confirm that you have congestive cardiac insufficency (congestive heart failure). You have fluid inside of the lungs and we must help the kidneys so that you begin to urinate again. You are going to have to be here in the hospital for a few days here until we can control these problems.)
Aviso: Esta página no es para proveer consejos médicos o información médica, sino sólo para ayudar a las personas a comunicarse en español. Si tiene algún problema de salud, consulte a su médico.
Notice: This page is not for providing medical advice or medical information, but only for helping people to communicate in Spanish. If you have a health problem, consult your doctor.