Damn, this guy's having a bad day.....

Two views of the skull performed after significant trauma. Not much in the way of fracture lines, but i'm sure you can see the real issue this person has.

A normal abdominal xray

This is a normal film, the black is gas in the stomach and intestines as well as a moderate amount of stool.

A link to go with my previous post. Go Colonel Sanders

HAHAHAHA gotta love colonel sanders.

Chick-Fil-Whofreakingcares?!

Now this isn't radiation related, except the fact that they might irradiate the crap out of their chickens to sterilize them, but i'm sick of this whole controversy over the statements by Chick-Fil-A's president. Who cares what one man's opinion is? I bet Colonel  Sanders hates everyone who doesn't eat at KFC, do we see people boycotting his operation?? Heck no. There's more grease guzzling going on there than ever before. I personally want to thank both chicken chains, for making people obese and keeping me in business. Knees can only take so much weight, and knee replacements require extensive imaging. People just need to grow the heck up and lighten the heck up. I'm tired of people getting their panties in a bunch over things like this. We all have the right to our own opinions, just because they differ from yours doesn't make it wrong, it just makes it different. I think everyone should get married and be miserable like everyone else if they choose that life, and I think everyone should have a right to their opinion. Rant concluded, have a great day.

On Call............

Nothing beats eating a nice dinner with your family, getting 2 bites in , and then having to get up and drive to the hospital to scan or xray someone. And then having to do it 1,000,000 more times. I'd rather work 24 hours straight then work  8 hours and take 8 hours of call. It makes me feel like I have no more freedom, being at someone else's beck and call. Actually, I'd rather eat a plate full of broken glass and wash it down with a glass of battery acid than take one more on call shift, but alas, it comes with the territory. After I get to the hospital, however my entire attitude changes. I see the person or persons I'm there to help and my heart softens and I actually enjoy my job. Then I go home and get called in again. Fahk.

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday folks!Any radiation in your forecast today?

Radiation Exposure While Flying

A Video about how much dose you get flying. Click Here


A pretty interesting video about how much radiation you get exposed to when flying.

Weddings

Weddings are interesting. Especially the receptions, when you know 40% of the people neither know or care about the bride and groom, they just wanna get sauced and get a free meal. At least that's the impression I've gotten from the ones I've seen. And of course, there's always one person who's dancing so hard they snap an ankle/foot/wrist etc. Those are always fun patients to examine. 5 crown and cokes deep and they still wanna dance, fractures and all ;).

500 Views! Thanks everyone!

Thanks a lot guys for checking out my blog. I really appreciate all my visitors, if I get to 100,000 views I'll submit my dog as a write in candidate on the next presidential election. No joke. I'll even campaign for him. Elmer for president, he'd prolly do a better job then the morons we're dealing with now.

Racing with the Lab staff.

Let's say you were talking crap and some guy threw you down a flight of stairs. Metal ones. Rusty Metal ones .You get the idea. After waiting for three days your cuts get infected and you have to go to see a doctor. You go to the ER, the doctor sees you, orders a bunch of xrays to see if you broke your ass and a bunch of laboratory testing to see if you have a systemic infection. These orders all print out in their respective departments at the same time. Then, the race is on.

         I jump out of my chair and get to the ER as fast as I can, yet somehow, the lab techs and their superhuman speed always make it there first. I've tried locking the door, I've tried sneaking in the ER the back way, and I've even tried leaving a trail of M n M's that leads outside to trick them, but they're too smart to fall for my schemes. It's frustrating to have to wait when the only patience you have is for when you're dealing with actual patients. Just kidding of course, the lab work needs to be drawn first  because it takes longer to run, but I still like to look at it as a competition with my friends who work there ;)

Here's a chest xray with anatomy labeled.

Calculate your Exposure!

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/understand/calculate.html


Here's a really cool site to calculate your radiation exposure!

Nurses

What can I say. How you treat your nurses directly impacts how your work experience goes. People are people, so you'll find some nice ones and some rude ones. Big ones, small ones. Old ones and young ones. What do they all have in common? They are a critical part of the healthcare team, just like we, as technologists, are. I make it my goal to be as nice as I can and to be as much of a team player as I can. A happy nurse will make a happy Xray tech. I can honestly say that the nurses I work with all appreciate my work and will all help me in a second if I  need it. If I would be rude or selfish or not a team player then that wouldn't be the case, so to all you techs, patients, and whoever else out there, make sure you're nice to your nurse. You won't be disappointed by the care you will receive or by the amount of help you get from them.

Why I have to move your broken arm.

So if you've ever broken your arm, you prolly wanna punch me in the nuts for having to move it while I'm xraying you. I don't blame you. If some smug jerk was trying to get me to move my broken arm and I didn't know why I'd wanna punch him in the nuts too. I'll explain why to you, and hopefully I won't lose my ability to have children next time I xray you.
        In order to tell the extent of your injury, we have to get multiple planes of view. Looking down from the top, I can see that your arm is broken, but I can't tell if the bones are pushed up, pushed down, or pushed into each other. By looking at things at an angle and then sideways, I can tell if you've shoved your radius and ulna above the fracture or below, which will tell the doctor how to treat you.
    That being said, there are ways that I can move my camera and film in order to get the views I need without having to move your arm much, so if you're in a lot of pain, ask the tech to try to do a shoot thru lateral view instead of moving your arm. If they don't know how or refuse to do it, then see the first paragraph of this post.