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I recently went to visit my doctor, who, after a short checkup, told me that I would need to be admitted to hospital.

However, instead of telling me what was wrong, she simply handed me the following piece of paper and told me this would explain what kind of procedure I would be having:

My first and my last is one third of a lake
My fourth is the start of what can be enjoyed with a cake
My third is the end of the sound made when cold
And second is second of the second where one can find 79

Once you've found all five (and don't get too heated!)
Look in the gaps to find how you'll be treated

What's going to happen to me?

Hint 1

One part of the first four lines really stands out, use that as the basis for solving the first part

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    $\begingroup$ You're going to get a second opinion, I hope... $\endgroup$
    – Xenocacia
    Feb 25, 2018 at 12:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Xenocacia indeed! You should have seen my last prescription, it was a Vigenère square cipher! :P $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 25, 2018 at 19:00

4 Answers 4

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And after read carefully the comment section of SwiftPanda's answer, I think the answer is (but I still didn't get the "heated" part :/)

PAINLESS OPERATION

Why?

because after solve the first four lines will gives you OERTO, which is OPERATION without PAIN, and the hint is two word, so may be PAINLESS OPERATION.

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  • $\begingroup$ I get it but wouldn't it technically be Operationless Pain? Perhaps there should have been a rebus tag or some other part to the riddle. $\endgroup$
    – SwiftPanda
    Mar 1, 2018 at 7:38
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    $\begingroup$ because I'm not a native english speaker, after "oerto is a word operation without word pain" shown up in my mind, my first taught is painless. "heartless man" is a man without heart. so I think oerto is painless :) $\endgroup$
    – malioboro
    Mar 1, 2018 at 7:47
  • $\begingroup$ Yah I agree with the "operation without pain" but less means minus, so operation less pain is oerto. I think this must be the answer tho, good job! $\endgroup$
    – SwiftPanda
    Mar 1, 2018 at 7:55
  • $\begingroup$ Congratulations @malioboro! I have to give a lot of credit to @SwiftPanda though, they were the one that got the big breakthrough on the first part of the clues :) $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Mar 1, 2018 at 9:33
  • $\begingroup$ yeah I agree, I think @SwiftPanda should get more credit, without him I will still stuck so far :) $\endgroup$
    – malioboro
    Mar 1, 2018 at 12:47
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Building off Sid's answer and Bass' lake suggestion

My first and my last is one third of a lake

If the "lake" is a name, it must have number of letters divisible by 3 and have a repetitive letter. Baikal fits and is a famous lake so first and last would be A.

My fourth is the start of what can be enjoyed with a cake

I think coffee is much more likely than ale, or even cigarette. Both start with C.

My third is the end of the sound made when cold

Like Sid, my first idea is "Brrr" so R.

And second is second of the second where one can find 79

Gold rhymes with the previous line and is the 79th element. The second element in the table is Helium, He. so E. We end up with Aerca. I assume filling in the gaps means filling in letters to get the answer, but I can't find an obvious way to do this. This leads me to believe I misunderstood one of the lines.

Edit

After way too many hints...

Oerto -> Operation The added letters are Pain, though not sure this fits the "how I'll be treated" or "whats going to happen to me"

My first and my last is one third of a lake

Lakes are filled with... water one third of H2O is O

My fourth is the start of what can be enjoyed with a cake

I'd prefer coffee, though tea is good (Ti or Te), T

My third is the end of the sound made when cold

Brrr or Br, R

And second is second of the second where one can find 79

2nd element is Helium, He, E

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    $\begingroup$ Spot on with Br and Ti! :) You'll have to think a little outside the box for the lake one, although you've got the idea now. Perhaps I should mention it's not a specific lake...? $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 28, 2018 at 6:01
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    $\begingroup$ Oh man, I was so hung up on an actual lake I forgot about dihydrogenmonoxide! $\endgroup$
    – SwiftPanda
    Feb 28, 2018 at 6:07
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    $\begingroup$ You had Br right the first time... $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 28, 2018 at 6:24
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    $\begingroup$ (I think that you should take a closer look at the letters you've put into the gaps.) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Feb 28, 2018 at 6:44
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    $\begingroup$ Does no one else here eat cake with ice cream? $\endgroup$
    – PopularIsn'tRight
    Feb 28, 2018 at 20:26
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It looks like the final answer is:

AURAL. This means that you have an ear infection or something similar.

My first and my last is one third of a lake

LA from LAGOON for Lake. A is the first letter and L is the last letter.

My fourth is the start of what can be enjoyed with a cake

Cakes and Ale is an idiom or so I have heard. So, the fourth letter is A from Ale.

My third is the end of the sound made when cold

Sound made when cold is probably "Brrrr" and so, the third letter is R.

And second is second of the second where one can find 79

Now, this part is sketchy to me. 79 is Atomic number of Gold and so, the second letter of the word is the second letter of Au(Symbol of Gold) which is U

I am not sure what to make of the last line about looking in the gaps of the words.

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  • $\begingroup$ A really neat answer, but not quite I'm afraid! $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 25, 2018 at 10:09
  • $\begingroup$ The lake is most likely this one. $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Feb 25, 2018 at 10:35
  • $\begingroup$ @dmihawk do you mean that the final answer is incorrect or one of the interpretation of the lines is incorrect? $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Feb 25, 2018 at 11:39
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    $\begingroup$ @Sid in this case, both. The last two lines are definitely relevant, so perhaps revisit your logic. One of your interpretations is on the right track though! $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 25, 2018 at 18:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Bass I'm not disregarding Sid's answer, in fact in my first comment I praised it and thought it was quite creative. However, "Aural" is not a procedure (it simply means "relating to the ears or hearing") and the last two lines of the riddle haven't been acknowledged. I even responded to say that the last two lines were relevant and that one of the interpretations was on the right track, as a means of providing a subtle hint. If no further progress has been made in a few days, then I'll provide a hint or two, as is common :) $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Feb 26, 2018 at 8:20
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Full answer from OP

The credit for right answer has been given to @malioboro, but @SwiftPanda deserves a big shoutout as they were the one that cracked the majority of the clues.

As the solution is scattered across a few different answers and comments, I'm leaving the complete solution here as a single answer.

Where to start?

The first clue is the rhyming scheme being broken (lake/cake, cold/79), so we are looking for something which rhymes with 'cold' and is associated with the number 79. A quick look on the periodic table of elements shows us that gold has atomic number 79 and so the periodic table is probably key to solving at least part of the puzzle

My first and my last is one third of a lake

There aren't any lakes on the periodic table, but lakes are usually full of water, which is H20. One third of a water molecule is oxygen, so our first and last letter is 'O'

My fourth is the start of what can be enjoyed with a cake

The chemical symbol for titanium is 'Ti', which sounds like "tea". The start of the word "tea" is 'T', and so that must be our fourth letter

My third is the end of the sound made when cold

This time we need the chemical symbol for bromine, which is 'Br' and sounds a lot like "brrrrrrr" (the sound one would make when cold). The end of 'Br' is our third letter, 'R'

And second is second of the second where one can find 79

We've already worked out that "where one can find 79" is the periodic table, so the second element is helium, which has the symbol 'He'. The second letter of that is 'E', which must be our second letter

Once you've found all five (and don't get too heated)

In order, our letters are: O E R T O (the "don't get too heated" was just to make the rhyme match with the final line)

Look in the gaps to find how you'll be treated

By viewing our 5 letters like this: O_ER_T_O_, we could fill in the blank spaces using the letters 'P', 'A', 'I' and 'N', to make the word OPERATION.

So what is O_ER_T_O? - it's the word "OPERATION" with the letters that spell "PAIN" removed from it, which makes it a...

PAINLESS OPERATION!

(I still need to find a new GP though...)

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think it was at all clear that "79" sort of applies to all of the clues. You could have started out by saying that you visit your doctor periodically and that would have nailed it. $\endgroup$
    – Kate Gregory
    Mar 1, 2018 at 14:27
  • $\begingroup$ @KateGregory oh what would've been perfect! I wish I'd thought of that $\endgroup$
    – Dmihawk
    Mar 1, 2018 at 19:05

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