Medical OET · Test 02
Test 02 - Part A - Extract 1
Good morning, Mrs Croft. I see your GP has referred you to me...
Level: C1 · 70 sentences
Transcript
- Good morning, Mrs Croft.
- I see your GP has referred you to me...
- Yes.
- Okay...
- I've got some notes here with his referral letter,
- but it'd be helpful if you could tell me in your own words the sort of problems you've been experiencing?
- Okay, well, I've had high blood pressure for several years,
- but these last few months... that's tending to get worse.
- I've been on corticosteroids too these last three years or so,
- and that's a result of the fact that I've suffered from asthma since my teens.
- I see.
- But I understand you've developed several other problems recently?
- Oh yeah, as you can see, my stomach is huge.
- I've put on a lot of weight and it seems to be concentrated there.
- And, oh dear, I don't know what's happened to my face!
- All this hair which has appeared, it's... so embarrassing.
- And something else which I didn't notice at first, but which other people have pointed out to me.
- Here, see?
- In between my shoulders, is this... well, I can only describe it as a hump.
- That really bothers me too.
- Yes, I can see...
- And look at my ankles... you know, they're swollen too.
- Something else which has got really bad is that I'm also sweating so much, even in cold weather.
- No amount of anti-perspirant seems to help.
- Yeah, that must be difficult...
- And any aches or pains?
- Well, my back tends to ache a bit,
- but I take ibuprofen which helps.
- My periods used to be painful in the past, but...
- to be honest, they're so infrequent now that the pain really isn't a problem anymore.
- I often feel tired though, in fact... like really tired.
- And what about your skin?
- Oh yeah... it seems to bruise at the slightest thing.
- And I've noticed that if I get a cut or a scratch or something, it takes ages to heal.
- And something else I've spotted on my thighs,
- see here... is these stretch marks.
- They're quite noticeable because they're a real purple colour.
- My face has changed too.
- I used to have quite pale skin, but, as you can see it's quite red now.
- And it looks, well... puffy.
- I mean it never used to look like that.
- Okay... so there's been quite a change.
- Definitely.
- And if you look, here, on my neck, the skin's gone dark, really odd.
- I don't know what's happening.
- And, though I never really had it before, I've now got acne into the bargain!
- That must all be distressing.
- I can appreciate that this is having an effect on you...
- Have you noticed your general mood changing at all?
- Well, it's enough to get anyone down really...
- and, yes, I do feel a bit depressed.
- But the frightening thing is that I've started getting mood swings.
- I've never had them before.
- I mean, one minute I'm laughing and the next I'm crying and I don't know why.
- It's quite alarming.
- Anything else?
- Well I confess I feel, well... irritable all the time.
- Everything seems to get on my nerves!
- And I can't seem to concentrate like I used to,
- you know, I find it hard sometimes to do stuff in my head
- like working out a sum, or remembering names and things.
- I just hope that you can help find out what's wrong with me.
- Well, I'm sure we will...
- Now, I see you've already had some blood tests, but I'll need to do one or two more.
- You've had a urine test to look at your blood sugar,
- so I probably won't need to repeat that.
- We may do a saliva test, depending on the bloods.
- Okay, I see.
- And how long will everything take, I mean before we know what's causing the problems?
- Well, I'm afraid it can all take some time as diagnosis can be quite complicated...