I don't glow in the dark, and you won't either.

After my lovely 5 days off in a row (the not quite a vacation vacation,) I head back into work today.

Sometimes the last thing I ever want to do is go to work. It is not that I hate my job, because I don't. It is just the fact that I have to work for a living and cannot live like a cat or dog, you know, the good life. I really enjoy what I do, I love taking care of patients and making their exams the best I can for them.

It is scary to be in the hospital. You don't know what is going on, and sometimes the doctors order all these tests and you don't know what they are and what they are for. Even a routine chest x-ray can frighten patients. I tell them that it is a screening tool that most doctors use when you come into the hospital, or come for surgery and it can tell you a lot of things. Also, they want a baseline for your admission should the situation change, that means get worse OR better. It is almost as routine as a CBC (that is a complete blood count, the most simple blood test there is.) A good rule of thumb is to never, ever lie to your patients. They always find out the truth.

Most people don't realize that the amount of radiation they receive from a chest x-ray is the equivalent to flying one hour in an airplane. Most people never hesitate to fly, but yet they question an x-ray the doctor orders. In other words, it is not that much radiation. Pilots and stewardesses get more radiation in their job than I do in mine.

And for the last time, x-rays do NOT make you glow in the dark! You would not believe how many times I hear people say this. Sometimes they are joking, but many times people are serious, they truly don't know this.

One of my favorite things to do is show kids what their insides look like on the x-rays. Most of them like it, and I encourage them to bring the x-rays to show and tell at school. I like to point out all the important parts to them; like in a chest x-ray: these lines are your ribs, these boxes are your spine, and this gray blob is your heart, the black area under the ribs is all the air in your lungs. Truthfully, I think many adults wish I would do that for them too.

What I cannot do is "read" your x-rays. That is up to the radiologist to do. He is a doctor, I am a technologist. Two years of school for me verses a billion years for the doctors, trust me you want them to read your films. Yes, I can see obvious fractures, but I bet you can too if I showed you the picture. Those are usually the people who come in with their arm going in two separate directions asking if it is broken before we take the x-ray, we can usually say yes, especially when the bone comes out through the skin, that is not normal.

I grew up being taught that the only dumb question is the one unasked. So, go ahead and ask me, because I don't mind. If I don't know I will say it. Some things I just cannot answer, or are better asked of your nurse or doctor, so don't be mad if I say so. Just don't ask if you will glow in the dark because I already answered that one.