Road to Radiography

Since today is Halloween, a few of my fellow students decided to get into the spirit by dressing up for the occasion. Chelsea, our favorite Elvis fan pictured above, brought out the wicked gothic witch costume. When our instructor arrived, she sent out for McDonalds breakfast for everyone and then we finished our lecture on mammography. Two of my classmates decided to dress up like our instructors, which was quite entertaining…

Amber tried to pull off the Angie look with some amount of success… Paul, on the other hand, went after the Bruce look…

It’s a little difficult to appreciate Paul’s effort unless you can see Bruce beside him. Bruce doesn’t teach on Fridays, so we decided to have a field trip out to Bruce’s house for some mid-morning trick-or-treating…

Paul has Bruce’s favorite delicacy in his shirt pocket… a vending machine honey bun…

Wendy doesn’t have to work very hard to pull off the Sara Palin look…

It was an interesting Friday to say the least…

Tags: 4th Semester, RAD-211 by John Setzler
No Comments »

I finished my operating room special rotation this week, and I really enjoyed it.  It was an interesting change of pace from the normal grind of radiography work.  The operating room work all involved either portable or C-arm procedures while surgery was in progress.  I worked with one of the hospital staff techs for three days during this rotation. 

I think the two most interesting procedures I was involved with were both endoscopy procedures rather than surgical.  The first of the two was a bronchoscopy procedure where the scope was placed down the trachea into the right and left mainstem bronchi, and from there into the further subdivisions looking for various items.  The only thing I didn’t like about this procedure is that I didn’t really know what the patient’s condition was and what the doctor was looking for.  It was interesting to watch the biopsy process during this procedure though.  Several were taken from various locations within the bronchial tree. 

The second procedure was another endoscopy procedure called a retrograde pyelogram.  The patient had a rather large kidney stone that needed to be removed.  The urologist performing the procedure was expecting to use a laser lithotripsy procedure to remove the stone, but it didn’t happen unfortunately.  I was looking forward to seeing it.  When the stone was located with the scope, they attempted to grab it and pull on it a little, and when they did, the stone broke into three pieces, and they were able to remove each of them individually without using the laser to break it up. 

Some of the other procedures I got to work were a lumber expansion, a cervical laminectomy, a hip replacement, a retrograde cystogram, a hip pinning, and a bunionectomy.  The bunionectomy was rather interesting because I was close enough to the surgeon that I could watch exactly what he was doing during the procedure.  Watching the bone being shaved off with a saw made my own foot hurt :)

I met some nice people during this rotation also.  I had a couple of surgeons who didn’t mind giving me insight into what was going on.  They knew I was a student and were happy to talk with me.  It did occasionally feel strange to me when a surgeon would start a conversation with me while the surgery was in progress.  Those moments did make me more comfortable in the environment though…

Tags: 4th Semester, Clinical by John Setzler
1 Comment »

The fall break is over and I’m back to the grind once again.  My new clinical rotation is in an outpatient center.  My first three days back in clinical this week have been a little challenging for some reason.  My x-rays were good with a couple exceptions that bothered me just a little bit.  After spending 8 weeks in ortho, there are quite a few common x-rays that I simply haven’t done, and getting back to those in the outpatient center has made me have to think a lot about each image once again.  Out of all the x-rays I did this week, the only re-takes I had were on chest x-rays.  I’m almost to the point of doing all chest x-rays on men with the 14×17 IR turned crosswise unless I can see light on both lateral margins of the chest.  The re-takes I did this week were all on RA chest x-rays of male patients where I had clipped a lateral margin of the lung.

One of the x-ray rooms at this site has a system that I also find difficult to use.  My very first clinical rotation in the program was at this same site, but I didn’t get to use this particular equipment at that time.  I’m having to learn how to position and align this particular tube and table.  It doesn’t detent easily either, so I plan to spend some time working on that issue on my next visit to the site.  I won’t be at the outpatient center next week because I have a short special rotation in the operating room at one of the local hospitals. 

The worst thing that happened to me this week was that I lost my Moleskine notebook that I used to keep track of my procedures and other notes that I take in clinical.  I lost it sometime around lunch time on Monday.  I use this notebook to record all of my procedures along with the patient medical record number for my logs that I have to turn in at mid and end of the semester.  I usually transfer this log information to the computer after each day in clinical, so I only lost 6 or 8 procedures that I had done before lunch time on Monday.  I had other very useful notes about positioning techniques written down in that notebook as well, so I’ll have to re-write that stuff in the new replacement notebook. 

Speaking of the notebook, if you aren’t familiar with the Moleskine, I highly recommend checking them out.  I find them to be the perfect companion for notes in the clinical environment.  The only problem I have with them is the cost.  The real Moleskines are $10.95 each at most places where you can buy them.   After using several of the real Moleskines, I stumbled across a clone version of them at Walmart made by a C.R. Gibson called “Markings” that are half the price of the Moleskines.  By some standards, $5.50 is still expensive for a pocket notebook like this, but I, more than happily, pay the price because I like the notebooks.  I think if you try one you will never go back…

Tags: 4th Semester, Clinical by John Setzler
4 Comments »

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my last day of clinical before the mid-term break. I’ll be finishing up my ortho rotation and moving into an outpatient imaging center starting on October 20th. This outpatient center is the same site where I had my very first clinical rotation, so I’m sorta excited about going back there once again. Hopefully the staff technologists will be able to recognize some amount of improvement in my skills.

Looking over my list of comps that I can still get, there are a few that I might be able to pick up at the outpatient center. I have all 15 comps that I need for this semester and one additional to carry over to next semester, so I’m good to go in that arena. Here’s what I hope to get in the second half, and the barium enema is a MUST while I’m at the outpatient center:

Ribs (required)
Barium Enema (required)
Orbits (elective)
Cystography/Cystourethrography (elective)
Pediatric Abdomen (elective)
Esophagram (elective)

I’m not sure if I’ll get all or any of these with the exception of the barium enema. I was told I’d get rib exams at this site. I don’t see very many of those, so hopefully I’ll see some soon.

Tags: 4th Semester, Clinical by John Setzler
No Comments »

I finished up my second-shift rotation last Wednesday and it was fairly successful. I picked up four more of the required comps I need for graduation, which just leaves six more on the list. I hope to get a couple more of those knocked out this semester also.

I’m going back to the orthopedic office for one more week before the mid-semester break. I’m going to try to pick up a nerve block comp on Tuesday, but this is going to be a short week in clinical. Tuesday will be my only full day, so hopefully I will be able to get it then.

We’re doing skull work in the positioning class this week, so I’ll need to put some time into that before Thursday as well.

Tags: 4th Semester, Clinical, RAD-211 by John Setzler
No Comments »