I need to go into the medical field.

[camwyn]

And do you know WHY?

Because if I go into the medical field I get to study ALLERGIES. And if I get to study ALLERGIES then I get to write RESEARCH DOCUMENTS about what I've studied. And if I get to write RESEARCH DOCUMENTS and they are about ALLERGIES then I get to use the Great Grand Medical Phrase of the Week: "nasal provocation".

Seriously. When you study whether something causes an allergy one of the ways you test it is by sticking some of it up a person's nose and waiting to see what happens. This is called "nasal provocation" and is undoubtedly the coolest blandly-put medical term since I first encountered the chapter heading "MEGACOLON*" in an old Merck Manual.

"Skin-specific IgE tests were positive to Abachi wood extract, and serum-specific IgE was demonstrated. Specific nasal provocation and bronchoprovocation tests performed by exposure to fine Abachi wood dust were positive..."

See? RIGHT THERE. NASAL PROVOCATION.

*wanders off to bed, happily humming and thinking nasally provocative thoughts*

*Lord, Lord, if you do not know what this term means, then I assure you that you will be a happier person if you just forget you ever saw it. Unless you're like me. In which case there's a lovely example of it in the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.

Comments

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Dude!

Nasal provocation!

-- Lorrie

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I understand where you're coming from--I have a copy of the edition of the Merck Manual with the article on farting, which mentions Le Petomane*. Don't know who Le Petomane was? That's why there's Google. *wicked cackle* Medical stuff is cool.

*I think it's the 14th edition.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

As uncomfortable as nasal provocation sounds, I think I like the idea of bronchoprovocation even less. I dislike the idea of purposefully sticking something down my windpipe, just to see what happens.

Say, would a three-year-old sticking lima beans up their nose count as self-inflicted nasal provocation?

[camwyn]

I don't think so. I think the 'provocation' involved is supposed to be the allergic response. Maybe if the three year old was sticking crumbled-up bits of Mommy's lipstick up its nose instead, since that might conceivably trigger an allergy.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

This is -so- you :-)

[zou.livejournal.com]

My nose found this very provocative. Va-va vooom!

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

How is that... How could that... Is that even...

Sometimes, I hate having a large vocabulary.

Good to see you being back to normal, back home, and... Erm... Back to being Camwyn. *Wanders off to find Bleeprin* *Makes mental note never to go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.* *Or in a two mile radius of there.*

[camwyn]

I assure you, my friend, if something as small as this disturbs you, then you will be significantly happier forever avoiding the Philadelphia College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is where they keep the Mutter. It's disturbing enough for me- and I generally find that kind of thing fascinating. (When the collection of Things One Doctor Has Pulled Out Of Noses And Throats Over The Course Of His Career is the reassuring bit of the museum's main collection...)

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

No, it wasn't that, it was trying to figure out that was even possible was what got me.

And now, I must run off screaming, because DEAR GOD, THE MENTAL IMAGES, DEAR GOD GET THEM OUT. (this is at the collection you told me about...)

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

NASAL PROVOCATION!

MEGACOLON!

*plays happily*