Medical Terminology Peer Responses

Medical Terminology Peer Responses

Explaining Conditions Instructions:

• A quality peer response is a minimum of 150 words
• You must respond to at least two (2) of your peers’ initial posts.

Just as students learn in different ways, patients may need different strategies to understand technical information. Carefully examine classmates’ posts and respond to two of your peer’s posts with the following:

• Explain how the information presented could have been described differently
• Describe any personal struggle with understanding technical information
• Explain one or more strategies that can help make the technical information more understandable

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format.

Peer 1: 

One illness that affects the Gastrointestinal Tract is Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Symptoms of this common disorder are chronic abdominal pain, altered bowel habits, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating diarrhea and constipation. Also, there are alarming symptoms such as bleeding, weight loss, or bloody diarrhea which may mean a person could have Ulcerative Colitis. Ulcerative Colitis (notice itis which means inflammation) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of the colon that is common in younger persons such as those in their 20’s, but can be seen in any age. Ulcerative Colitis can be cured by taking out the colon. The cause of Ulcerative Colitis is unknown according to the Herzing University terminology list for the Unit 4:2 Digestive System. The gastrointestinal tract leads from the mouth to the anus and is part of the digestive system which is a system that breaks down digested food into nutrients and energy which is transported to the cells through the blood. The gastrointestinal tract or GI Tract consist of the mouth, stomach, intestines, colon and rectum. Other symptoms of a GI Tract disease could be fever, bloating, and pain. Disorders of the GI Tract could be ulcers, cancer, infections, blockages, and many other conditions. The way to know the Gastrointestinal Tract is part of digestive system is by knowing that the root word gastr/o means stomach. The word intestinal has the word intestine, which according to google means bowel. When you put these together you get stomach intestines which would indicate we are talking about the digestive system.

Peer 2:

Endometriosis is a disorder that affects the reproductive system. Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterine cavity. This tissue grows on the ovaries, bowels, and lining of the pelvis. The side affects of endometriosis include: painful periods, cramps one to two weeks before menstruation, heavy bleeding during or between periods, painful sexual intercourse, and infertility (Mohamed, 2023).

Endometriosis also affects the urinary and digestive system as it can attack the bowels, bladder, intestines, and rectum. It also can go in-between the spaces of the bladder, rectum, uterus, and vagina. Since it can grow in these spaces it can cause symptoms such as: constipation, bowel and urinary dysfunction, and also gastrointestinal distress. This means that it would affect a woman’s ability to poop and potentially cause stomach issues (Martin, D & Croyle, W, 2022)

Endometriosis is also a condition that is not highly focused on in medical school so it is very common to be misdiagnosed with something else before being diagnosed with endometriosis. Some common diagnosis endometriosis has been mistaken for are: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ovarian or colon cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, ovarian cysts, sexually transmitted diseases, and fibroids. Another unfortunate issue of endometriosis is many women are told that it is all in their heads and the pain does not actually exists which leads to them being referred to a mental health professional instead of treating the physical symptoms (Martin, D & Croyle, W, 2022).