I've found a very important addition to my english/aussie dictionary today. And let me just say that i found out the hard way.
So, i went to get a patient today, i think i had the xray her hip or spine or something, she would have been in her 50's and as we were walking into the xray room i said to her ' do you have any zippers in your pants?' , she looked at me absolutely horrified and said 'excuse me?'. thinking she hadn't heard me i repeated myself, same reply, quite indignant. thankfully another radiographer walked by and said 'trousers' and she said no- i xrayed her, no dramas. I did't understand the reaction at the time so i asked the other radiographer about it. Apparently in lovely england pants, as aussie would say, are trousers (yes we say that too, but we say pants as well!). And pants, apparently, refers to underwear, knickers etc. Another radiographer said that saying pants can also particularly refer to those horrible baggy y-fronts that old men wear. No wonder the poor woman looked offended and confused!
So, thinking i had learned my lesson i got on with my day, unfortunately i made the same mistake again. I was xraying a lovely old man, quite sick, for a full spine. I said to him, 'unfortunately we'll have to get you changed because your pants have metal bits on them, here, let me help you pull them down'. A bemused look,'okay' he said. Put it this way, i'm very lucky he wasn't a dirty old man and that i realised in time what he thought i was saying. The poor old bloke was quite willing to dak himself if he had to.....
must remember, trousers,trousers,trousers,trousers.........
must try not to offend women, ask strange questions of people, and avoid seeing old men's nether regions.
