Coatastrraphe: coh • tah • stroh • fee: noun. See also white coatastrophe. The act of moving too quickly, sitting down in a chair, or bending over, causing the multitude of notes, journal articles, reference books, pens, stethescopes, cell phones, PDAs, and other assorted items to fall from the pocket of one’s white coat onto the floor.
This is a medical weblog--a collection of thoughts about medicine, medical training, and health policy--written by a fifth-year medical student.
I recently stopped blogging, as I graduated from medical school and I'm now a physician in my residency training in New York City. But feel free to read and enjoy!
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I like that. I always called it coatorrhea.
coatastrophe could also apply when your overly full pockets slide down the cracks of the chair, so you nearly break your back when you attempt to stand up and find your coat stuck in the chair by the crap in the pockets
also known as pocket emesis
It’s the return of ‘sniglets’! Or are you all too young to remember sniglets?
Not unlike the codetastrrophe. Running to an intubation with the code box in hand and the latch slipping, and all the contents of the box spill….well, you get the idea!
What are sniglets?
coh • tah • stroh
Looks like a version of the sine/cosine/tangent mnemonic gone horribly horribly wrong.
the worst is when your Palm TX falls out of your pocket onto the floor in the ED and the screen cracks in 5 different places (not under warranty) Oy Ve!!!
Sniglets are Words that don’t appear in the dictionary, but should. Rich Hall from one of the Saturday Night Live casts in the 80′s or 90s first came up with them. I’m not tech savvy enough to give you the link with a mouse clique, but check out this site for a listing. (but these aren’t nearly as good as Rich Hall’s originals
http://bertc.com/sniglets.htm
I agree… Love that definition. I, ah, um, dont want to count the number of times that happens to me, okay?
at least stuff getting dumped can be easily remedied…I had 2 coats get caught on the arms of chairs, and the pockets ripped right out
Clearly, the coat needs a redesign. Over at LabLit, they are sponsoring a “Pimp My Coat” contest:
http://www.lablit.com/article/279