Polite Dissent

A Couple of Notes From Work

January 21st, 2005

Filed under: Medicine

One of the medical assistants likes to accuse me of making up words. A perfect example is the word “foosh” — she-s convinced that I’ve made it up, when in fact it is a legitimate medical term. FOOSH is actually an acronym and describes a common type of injury. It stands for Fall On Out-Stretched Hands. If you’ve ever fallen forward and caught yourself on your hands, then you suffered a FOOSH — rollerblading injuries are a classic form of this injury (and it’s why you should wear wrist braces). FOOSHes are important because certain permanently disabling wrist injuries are associated with them.
I just found out that there’s a caffeinated mint out called Foosh. I think I’ll have to buy a case for work.
A patient named “Mack” came in the other day. I made some comment to our other assistant about Mack the Knife, and she just stared at me. She had no idea who Mack the Knife was (and we probably did more harm than good trying to sing her the song). She didn’t even remember the McDonalds add featuring the song. Conversations like this always make me feel old. Then when I was looking on Musicmatch Jukebox for a version to play for her, I found a rendition by the Psychedelic Furs. That made everything all better.

Matt
January 21st, 2005 at 1:28 pm

FOOSH also appears in Jamie Hewlett’s original Tank Girl series, I think as onomotopeia for a beer can opening. Or maybe it’s an exclamation. I’ve used it as a sound for sundden windy ty0pe sounds. Sorry for the bad typing. The text window is a little screwy in my browser, so I am typing blind a little bit.