behind the scene

so...when i was a kid...the few times i had xrays...i always wondered what the technologist doing my xrays actually did when they left the room. i imagined her or him hanging out with other xray techs, talking and laughing...meanwhile, i'm holding as still as possible in case of any need for repeats. my films? well, who knows? maybe the tech would develope them after finishing the conversation topic at hand with his coworkers. i never realized the behind-the-scenes amount of work required to get from 'patient on the table' to 'developed film.' until i became an xray tech myself. and yes...we do hang out and talk...while the films run through the processor...while evaluating films...while hanging films for the radiologist...while waiting for a patient to dress...well, hell...we talk all the time!

one of my all time favorite exams to perform is the lumbar spine. 5 views. ap, lat, bilat obl, spot. hehe. you still with me? in laymens...front to back view, side view, right and left posterior oblique, and a spot view of the 5th lumbar-1st sacral disc space. i'm so damn good at lumbar spine xrays! today, other than this patient-who had a beautiful lumbar spine btw-i did a lumbar spine series on a lady that easily weighed 350 lbs. and she wasn't very tall. her abdomen was so big, so distended, that feeling for body landmarks was impossible. so...i did what every seasoned technologist does...guesstimate! it worked. they turned out amazingly beautiful! the only bad thing about extremely overweight patients is the amount of radiation that scatters from their fatty tissue to the film and creates what we refer to as noise...mottle...scatter...you get the point. it makes for a grainy appearance. considering this patient's weight and girth...scatter was not too bad.

and here...behold my very own legal torture chamber! i'm even registered! hehe. so, the breakdown...girls, this is what you have to look forward to! (and some guys also...) the xray tube (where the radiation is made from a heavy thrust of electrons across some serious rare earth elements...) is the top portion. the clear portion extending from it is the face guard. think the sneeze guard at the buffett. this keeps heads from leaning in over the area of examination and superimposing over the breast tissue. the clear rectangle portion attached to an arm on a track is the compression paddle. this is what comes down along the chest wall and breast...this is what i control! don't piss me off at this point. i'm likely to let my foot slip on the pedal and come down with more pressure than one would appreciate. jk. i'm not that mean! the area covered with the white pad is known as the bucky. this is where the film is inserted into...the breast rests on the bucky and in essence is sandwiched between the compression paddle and the film. the curved bar exists on both sides of the machine and has 4 sets of the same buttons. one set on top. one set on bottom. two sets on each side. no excuse to reaching/not reaching buttons. they're always there. these buttons control the movement of the machine (angulation), the height, and the light. the glass off to the right is where i walk behind to take the exposure. once the exposure is made, the compression paddle automatically decompresses. (and the patient is very relieved at this point...) on an average day, each tech does approximately 6-8 mammograms. who needs strip clubs? hehe!