One of the interesting things working in Australia is the English we use – even today after nearly 20 years here, I am still learning the language.

Just the other day, my theatre nurse was saying “this whipper snapper is having a double banger this arvo”.  I could see that my registrar(who is an international medical graduate) had no idea what she was talking about. I sort of had to guess what a whipper snapper is…

Anyway, a double banger(also called a top & tail or top & bottom) is a gastroscopy and colonoscopy.

Whipper snapper – I am told that this is a term we refer to someone who is younger. But in this case, we were referring to a “young” elderly man!

To all the medical students and doctors taking the AMC exams who may be reading this, don’t worry – this will should not come out in your exams! Imagine getting a question like this in “layman’s terms” – “Please discuss with this whipper snapper who has family history of  bowel cancer the pros and cons of doing a double banger”

Oh.. and by the way, “arvo” means afternoon – learnt that years ago, when my colleague told me he was taking the “arvo” off and handing over the pager to me.