Anesthesia
Anesthesia is a special medicine given by the “sleepy medicine” doctor to help the sick person go into a special sleep during surgery.  This makes it so the person does not feel, hear, or see anything during the surgery, and they cannot wake up until after the surgery is finished.  After the surgery, they may still be tired for a while.

Bleed Out
When a person’s body is very sick and close to dying, their blood may come out of a part of their body like their mouth, nose, ear or bottom.  It may come out slow or fast.  Most of the time, it does not hurt the person.  The family or nurse may have red towels ready to help clean up the blood.

Central Line
A skinny tube a person wears on their chest or arm that is used to give strong medicine or liquid food when they can’t eat.  They may need to wear it for a long time.

Chemotherapy (Chemo)
Chemotherapy is also called “Chemo”.  Chemo is a special medicine that someone takes to try to make cancer better.  Most people get Chemo in an IV (in their veins) or sometimes a pill.
Chemo can make someone’s stomach feel sick.  They can also feel tired.  Some Chemo can make a persons hair fall out.  Their hair can come back if they are allowed to stop taking the Chemo.

Cheyne-Stokes (Death Rattle/Death Rales)
When a person is close to dying the sound of their breathing changes and becomes different.  They make take short breaths, or take longer to take the next breath.  The doctor can give medicine to help them be more comfortable.

Dialysis
A kidney is an organ that keeps your blood clean.   If a person’s kidneys stop working, a dialysis machine cleans the blood for them. 
The sick person has to go to the hospital 3 times a week to have their blood cleaned.  It does not hurt the person to get dialysis, but it can make them feel tired.

Discontinue Life Support
When a person is very sick and using special machines to stay alive, they may not ever be able to get better.  The only reason they are alive is because the machines are breathing for them.
Because they can not ever live without the machines, the doctor and family may choose to stop using the machines and let the person’s body stop working by itself.  A doctor will make sure the person does not have any pain, and is comfortable.  This is a very hard decision for a family to make.

DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)
A yellow piece of paper that a family and doctor sign when there is no chance a person will get better.  The paper tells doctors, nurses and paramedics not to try and make a person’s heart start again if it stops.  A family may keep the yellow paper in an important place where everyone can see it.

EEG (Electroencephalogram)
A test used to see how a person’s brain is working.  Sometimes this is used to help doctors see if a person is having a seizure (see Medical Terms Defined). Other times, it is used to see if the brain has stopped working.  For example, after a very bad accident, or from being very sick.

Failure to Thrive
A term used when a baby or person’s body gets weak and loses weight, even though they are trying their best to eat healthy food, exercise and stay healthy.  Doctors try and help by giving them special drinks or food with extra vitamins in them to help them stay strong.

G Tube
A G Tube is a soft tube that goes into a persons belly to give them liquid food when they are too sick to eat like they used to.  It can also be used to give medicine.  It usually does not hurt to have this tube, but it might be sore for a few days after the doctor puts it in.

Gurney
A special bed with wheels that a person uses to get somewhere when they cannot walk or use a wheel chair (ambulance, hospital, funeral home).  A nurse or other hospital person pushes them in the bed.

Hospice
Hospice is a place with workers that help people who are very sick or that might not get better. Hospice has nurses, counselors, doctors, home health aides, chaplains, volunteers and office workers that all work together to help sick people and their families.
Hospice workers may visit a sick person at home, in the hospital or a nursing home.  They can see the sick person’s family at home or school or at a Hospice office.

Hospice House -   Woodside or Palms of Pasadena
These are places where people go when they are too sick for a hospital.  Some of the reasons people go to Woodside is to help their pain get better, to give their family a break from taking care of them, or if the person may not live much longer.

IV
An IV is a very skinny, short straw that goes into a person’s skin.  It is usually put in their arm or leg by a doctor or a nurse.  The straw is used to give the person medicine.  A needle is used to put the straw in, but the needle does not stay in the skin.

Living Will/Advanced Directives
A very sick person will use this paper to tell their family and doctors things that they want or do not want if they can’t ever get better.  They may choose not to have special machines or tubes to keep them alive if they can not ever get better.

Medi Port
This is a small, round disc put under the person’s skin, usually in their chest, by a doctor who performs surgery.  It is used to get medicine into the body.  The person may need to use this for a long time.

MRI/X-Ray/PET Scan/CT Scan
These are machines used to take pictures, inside a person’s body.  These pictures help doctors see how a person is doing.  They do not hurt. 

Nasal Cannula
A soft plastic tube a person wears on their nose to breathe in extra oxygen/air.  This can help the person to breathe easier.

Nebulizer/Breathing Treatment
This is a special medicine that looks like mist or smoke and helps a person breathe better.
A person breathes the medicine through a mask or a pipe

Orthopedic Boots
These are furry boots a person needs to wear if they stay in bed for a long time.  They help keep the feet from getting weak or sore.

Oxygen Concentrator
An Oxygen Concentrator is a machine that takes regular oxygen from the air and makes it stronger.
The strong oxygen is breathed in by the sick person and this can help them breathe better.  The machine makes a loud, humming noise.

Oxygen Tank
A heavy container used to hold oxygen.  A sick person uses the oxygen to breathe better.  They may take the oxygen with them if they need to leave the house.

PCA Pump
This is a special machine that has pain medicine in it.  The sick person gives themselves the medicine by pushing a button. This helps them not feel as much pain.

Radiation
If a person has cancer, this is a way to get medicine into the body.  It works like a laser or a light, to try and help the cancer get smaller.  It doesn’t hurt, but it can make red marks on the skin.  It can also make a person feel tired.

Soft Restraints
Soft Restraints are used to help keep a person safe.  They may be used on someone’s arms or legs to help keep them still.  This can help them from accidentally hurting themselves.

Suction
A special vacuum straw a nurse or grown up uses to suck germs out of a persons lungs when they are unable to cough them up.

Terminal Restlessness
When a person’s body is close to dying, they may have a hard time getting comfortable.  The person may moan, wiggle, or breathe different.  A doctor may give medicine to help the person relax and be more comfortable.

Trach
A special breathing hole a doctor makes in a sick persons throat or neck if the person can’t breathe like they used to.
It may be hard for them to talk, cough, and eat when they have this in.

Ventilator
A machine that helps someone breathe when their lungs can’t work as well by themselves.

Diagnosis Defined

AIDS (See HIV definition)
When the HIV germ has gotten stronger and bigger and makes the person very sick.

Alzheimer Disease
When a person gets older their brain can get sick and not work like it used to.  This can make them act differently, say strange things, or forget who a person is.

Aneurism
When a vein has a weak spot in it and it breaks, it will cause blood to leak out of the vein to places it shouldn’t be.  If the blood leaks out, it can cause parts of the body to not work right or to stop working.

Cancer
When a group of cells start to grow too fast in a part of the body, and makes that part of the body sick.  Cancer can happen in lots of different parts of the body like the lungs, brain, stomach, blood, or breast.  You can not catch cancer like a cold.  Most of the time doctors don’t know why a person gets cancer.

A lot of people with cancer take medicine called “Chemo” which tries to make the cancer cells go away or get smaller.  Also, some people have radiation or an operation to help the cancer go away or get smaller.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - COPD
When a persons lungs are sick in a way that makes it hard to breathe.  The lungs don’t open and close as well as they used to.

Sometimes they need extra oxygen to make breathing easier.  They also need a special breathing medicine (Nebulizer) to make the lungs breathe better.

Coma
After an illness or an accident, a person’s body doesn’t work like it used to.  The person may look like they are asleep, but it is their body taking a long rest.  You cannot wake them up.  They can hear you if you talk to them, but they can’t talk back.

Congestive Heart Failure – CHF
CHF happens when a person’s heart is too weak to pump enough blood and oxygen around the body.  This makes the person very tired and not able to do many tings.  There are medicines to help the person feel better, but there isn’t a way to make their heart work they way it used to.

Dementia
Dementia is when a person’s brain starts to work differently. They may not recognize people, forget things or not make sense when they talk.  They need people to help remind them of things.

Diabetes
In a healthy person the body can use sugar (insulin) to make enough energy to play.  A person’s body needs sugar and other foods for energy.  Diabetes happens when the body forgets what to do with the sugar.  The person gets sick when the body has too much extra sugar that the body forgot to use.  The person needs special medicine in a pill or shot that helps the body remember how to use sugar. The person has to check their blood with a special machine every day to make sure there is not too much sugar in it. They have to be very careful with the kind of food they eat.  You can’t catch diabetes like you can catch a cold.

Heart Attack
This happens when a person’s heart does not beat the right way.  It may even stop beating.  Sometimes, doctors or nurses can help the heart beat again, and sometimes they can not. Some things that cause a heart attack are the person being very old or very sick, but sometimes it happens very suddenly.

Heart Disease
When a person’s heart is sick and may not work like it used to.  It may be caused by smoking or eating unhealthy foods.

HIV
HIV is when a person has a strong germ in their blood.  This can cause the person to get sick easier.  The germ cannot go away, but medicine can help keep it from growing.  It is very hard to catch this germ.  You can not catch it from a hug, kiss, or by touching the person.

Miscarriage/Still Birth
When a mother is pregnant, but the baby inside may have been sick or had something wrong with it, and it stops living.  The baby comes out of mommy, but it is not alive.  This does not hurt the baby.  The mommy may have a bad tummy ache until the baby comes out.  The mommy and the family will be very sad this happened

Multiple Sclerosis
Nerves in our body carry messages from our brain to our muscles, telling them what to do.  When someone has MS, their nerves are not working right.  The messages do not get to the muscles.  Without these messages the person is not able to move like they used to.

Seizure
When a persons brain sends mixed up messages to other parts of the body.  This can make a person fall down or lose control of how their body moves.  They cannot talk or hear during the seizure.  After a seizure, the person can feel sleepy or be weak.  Doctors try to make seizures stop with special medicine.

SIDS
When a baby suddenly stops breathing and its heart stops beating, its body stops working and dies.  The baby does not feel any pain when this happens.  Doctors do not know why this happens to some babies.  It was not anybody’s fault this happened.

Stroke
A stroke is when a blood vessel or vein gets clogged and blood can not pass through it.  The part of the body where blood can not get to does not get the vitamins and oxygen it need. This causes the person’s body to work differently.  They may not walk, talk or be able to think the same as they used to.  Some people get better after having a stroke and some do not.

Tumor
When a group of cells stick together and grow faster than other cells.  Sometimes you can see or feel it under a person’s skin.  Other times, it can’t be seen or felt.  A doctor may try and take the tumor out or use special medicine to shrink it.

To request counseling services, please ask parents or guardians to contact the Stepping Stones Program (727) 523-3458