Word: abdomenal
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...chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen...
Stitcher. In Cleveland, police held a man who claimed he had stabbed himself in the abdomen, then neatly sewed himself up. When doctors refused to believe him, he sewed on himself awhile, by way of demonstration...
...Says Dr. Miller, detonation of bombs often causes definite brain injury in persons near by. But today, instead of shell shock, doctors call it blast concussion. The force of a bomb exploding may exert suction or compression on the abdomen, violently displacing fluid in the brain, sometimes ruptures tiny cerebral blood vessels. The nervous system undergoes an enormous shock, and psychological storms follow, even though the patients may be unscratched. Such mental upsets, said Dr. Crichton-Miller, have "no intrinsic connection with . . . morale, courage, discipline, or any other ethical virtue...
...condition is by no means rare: hundreds of cases have been reported in medical literature. Most famous case: Mary Tudor, Queen of England. In addition to a distended abdomen, a woman may present other signs of pregnancy such as amenorrhea (absence or suppression of menstruation), full breasts, fetal movements, etc. If a doctor is at all suspicious, a biological test, like the Aschheim-Zondek pregnancy test, will solve the problem. But a few doctors have been taken in by the symptoms...
...Many conditions may cause symptoms of pseudocyesis. Sometimes, in older women, an apron of fat develops over the abdomen at menopause. Other women may have large tumors, or their abdomens may be distended with air. Most common cause is hysteria: an intense psychological desire for a child creates a muscular spasm which pushes the abdomen out. Treatment varies : purges may be helpful, or the muscles may be worked into place while the patient is under an anesthetic. Since most of the cases are hysterical, Dr. Rutherford thinks pseudocyesis is psychiatry's baby...