I felt embarrassed because...

And you might be bleeding to death. Or don't you watch Casualty?

So if you avoid lying down and raising your legs you're fine?

If you have a ruptured spleen and you lie down and raise your legs, the pain will be felt in the tip of your left shoulder.

Acknowledgements to Dr Google.

Better not vent it then....

I have no idea where my spleen is. Or what it does. Or what a pain in it would feel like.

Please don't anybody tell me.

Your arse is perfect jingl , exactly right.

There are so many bits and pieces of one's 'innards' that it's difficult to tell a doctor just what's wrong. Could I go into the consulting room and say 'I have a pain in my duodenum/gall bladder/spleen/...' without some specialist knowledge which is why we use general terms like 'tummy' or 'stomach' and leave it to the doctor to prod about a bit and make a diagnosis.

Like, talking out of.

Arse is good in some contexts.

I like bottie.

Haven't we already had a thread about that?

Well jingl that also raises an interesting point in terminology re body parts.

Would you prefer bum or bottom or shall we use more technically appropriate terms such as 'anus'....I suppose we could go all Hyacinth Bucket and say derriére ????

Pointing to the place where the pain is works pretty well - no chance of misunderstanding.

Oh go on Anya. Give it a go. I'll read it quickly, before it gets deleted.

gastric or abdominal pain, I guess.

I daren't even hazard a guess what you habitually talk through jingl or my post would be deleted for sure

Oh yeah. I'm talking about my abdomen all the time.

Abdomen

What word do people call it, if not tummy and now not stomach.
People cannot be saying I have a pain in my lower intestines surely?

I get "yes mummy" when preceded with my comment you will need to pay that back following a request for a tide over loan till payday. Bank of Mum and Dad

I think everyone around here says tummy. Including the nurse. It was her who said that a lot of patients do not know where there stomach is.

Anyone else find themselves instinctively touching each area as it is mentioned in these posts.
Ps. I too always thought the word tummy a little childish but often notice doctors using it when talking to patients on tv programmes).

I prefer 'tummy' to 'belly' which some children seem to call it these days...

I get called 'mummy' by son. I did try to get him out of it when he was sixteen. Given up now.

Nothing wrong with "tummy"!

I don't fart deliberately around anybody. I blame healthy oat breakfasts.

Oh my goodness! I have.been teaching my Laos medical students wrongly. Been doing the body and various names for different parts of the body in good old English, included some slang as well in case they get some drunken youth with gut rot! The question I wasaskedwas why do we say ear ache instead of ear pain?