(no subject)
I learn a lot of things working with Pat. It's one of my most favorite things about working at the Northwest office. Today, I learned that cancer messes up the clotting factors in your blood. There have been a number of patients that found out they had cancer because of a DVT.
We had one of those today. She'd been in on Wednesday for purple toes...she'd embolized from somewhere and the damn thing ended up in her toes. Being the prudent man that he is, the doctor decided to get an abdominal study to see if there was an aneurysm that may have become ulcerated and thrown clot or perhaps some plaque. We were unable to perform the study that day though...something about a referral and authorizations from insurance.
she came back today, following all the rules we had for her. No eating. No carbonated beverages. No gum chewing. This is all for our benefit...and hers too, i suppose. It's supposed to give us better pictures, which in turn lends to a better diagnosis. I was hoping that I'd be able to perform her study. she's a nice lady, who laughs easily. With her, it's a good quality.
Luck would have it that I'd be performing another study when her paperwork finally came through. Peter got her, first thing in the morning.
Now, an abdominal study isn't all that tough in most people. On this patient, it was a bit more of a challenge. She was a bit heavier than most, which puts more tissue between the tech and what they're interested in. That's ok. It's something a tech can work with. Unfortunately, she had a weird shadow in her stomach. Peter came to ask me for help finding a few segments of the artery he was interrogating, because of this odd, vascularized mass.
Vascularized mass?!? oh fuck.
Please, not on this lady.
I'd tried to find the segments as well, with as much luck as peter had. I might have pressed a good deal harder, and might have seen just a bit more of the aorta than him, but it was still a tough scan. I asked him to grab Pat, since her eyes might be seeing something that I couldn't. God knows that they have quite a few years of experience on me.
I think that when peter asked for pat's help, he neglected to mention the vascular mass. To me, that probably ought to have been priority one. It's alright though. Students gotta learn somehow. All the same...i hate incidental findings like that.
"yeah, uh, you don't have an aneurysm but it looks like cancer."
somedays, i wanna go back to working fast food. It isn't quite so "life and death".
We had one of those today. She'd been in on Wednesday for purple toes...she'd embolized from somewhere and the damn thing ended up in her toes. Being the prudent man that he is, the doctor decided to get an abdominal study to see if there was an aneurysm that may have become ulcerated and thrown clot or perhaps some plaque. We were unable to perform the study that day though...something about a referral and authorizations from insurance.
she came back today, following all the rules we had for her. No eating. No carbonated beverages. No gum chewing. This is all for our benefit...and hers too, i suppose. It's supposed to give us better pictures, which in turn lends to a better diagnosis. I was hoping that I'd be able to perform her study. she's a nice lady, who laughs easily. With her, it's a good quality.
Luck would have it that I'd be performing another study when her paperwork finally came through. Peter got her, first thing in the morning.
Now, an abdominal study isn't all that tough in most people. On this patient, it was a bit more of a challenge. She was a bit heavier than most, which puts more tissue between the tech and what they're interested in. That's ok. It's something a tech can work with. Unfortunately, she had a weird shadow in her stomach. Peter came to ask me for help finding a few segments of the artery he was interrogating, because of this odd, vascularized mass.
Vascularized mass?!? oh fuck.
Please, not on this lady.
I'd tried to find the segments as well, with as much luck as peter had. I might have pressed a good deal harder, and might have seen just a bit more of the aorta than him, but it was still a tough scan. I asked him to grab Pat, since her eyes might be seeing something that I couldn't. God knows that they have quite a few years of experience on me.
I think that when peter asked for pat's help, he neglected to mention the vascular mass. To me, that probably ought to have been priority one. It's alright though. Students gotta learn somehow. All the same...i hate incidental findings like that.
"yeah, uh, you don't have an aneurysm but it looks like cancer."
somedays, i wanna go back to working fast food. It isn't quite so "life and death".