A ^Retired Plastic Surgeon's Notebook

Tatty – my favorite new word

Seattle Plastic Surgeon shares a fun word – “tatty”.

I came upon a fun word last weekend while visiting my mother.  I was out for an early morning walk and stopped to check out the beautiful display gardens in Spokane’s wonderful Manito Park.   I was admiring a lovely stand of Cone Flowers and noted instructions on trimming them back if they become “tatty”.  What a great word!  And it’s a great word for surgery. 

Tatty means shabby or unruly and we surgeons sometimes take something from tatty to tidy by cleaning and trimming.   I had a tatty to tidy moment today when I stitched up a lovely lady who dumped her bike and suffered a cheek laceration.  Her wound was ragged and dirty and looked a mess.  After some local anesthetic, a little washing away and picking out the road dirt and trimming the ragged edged it was nice and tidy and ready for stitches. 

Surgeons speak of “tidy and untidy wounds” but I am going to replace “untidy” with “tatty”,  just for grins. 

Thanks for reading!  The very easily amused (it’s a gift) Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder.

 

Category: Gardening, Now That's Cool, Trauma | Tags: , , , , ,

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