RT Wannabe

Conference Time!

2008-03-01T22:17:00.003-05:00

Happy March! It's hard for me to believe that another month has come and gone in 2008, and I only posted once during the short month. Classes and clinicals have been whizzing by, and I only have FIVE more days at the clinic! My finals start late next week, then this quarter will officially be over on March 17! Reflecting back on this quarter, I will admit that MANY things have been easier, and the time really did seem to fly by. I'm wondering if that is because I'm used to the techs at the clinic (we've sort of become co-workers in the past six months) or because I'm just more comfortable period. I've had several discussions with the techs over the past couple of weeks about my progress, achievements and shortcomings. Some fellow students have said that I'm a "glutton for punishment," but I'm actually getting really good feedback! Everyone I talk to says that they are pleased with my progression and that after some more clinical experience, I will be a good tech. They praise me on my patient care and positioning skills and remind me to watch the use of my markers (sometimes getting in the anatomy) and collimation. I'm pleased to have an honest assessment and am looking forward to moving on to the next site...after a three-week break, of course! :)

I am blogging tonight from the Student & Radiographer's Seminar hosted by the Atlanta Society of Radiologic Technologists. Today was the first of four days filled with general sessions, workshops and networking. The keynote speaker this morning was Dr. Steve Sobel, and he was INCREDIBLE. He spoke a lot about passion, ambition and drive. I think everyone left the general session with the "warm and fuzzies." He was hysterical without being over the top and really delivered a message that I have been trying to live by: try your ABSOLUTE best in everything you do, don't sweat the small stuff and try to laugh about something silly every single day. I also got the opportunity to hear authors Philip Ballinger, Ph.D., RT(R) (Merrill's Atlas of Radiographic Positioning) and Terri Fauber (Radiographic Imaging & Exposure) present on the topics they know best. Because I use both of these books in my classes, it was a neat feeling to be learning from them. My favorite presentation of the day was by Dennis Bowman, RT(R), who spoke about the art of techniques. This one hit home for me because the techs at the clinic are "encouraging" us to set manual technique no matter what. Mr. Bowman was a fantastic presenter (very enthusiastic, etc.), but because it was at the end of the day, my brain was having a hard time keeping up. Luckily his power point presentations are online. While it's exciting to be at the conference and meeting students from all over the country, I'm finding that I'm not really LEARNING anything that hasn't already been taught in my classes. Maybe tomorrow will be different!

Since the last time I blogged, I have comped on several more exams:
Pediatric Chest (EXCELLENT patient. The kind that makes you want to have a kid!)
Tib/Fib (finally!)
Clavicle (fluke - first order I've ever seen for a clavicle!)
T Spine
L Spine
Upright Abdomen
Barium Enema
Small Bowel Series

I've been able to knock out several of my fluoro comps that technically aren't due until next quarter, but since we do so much fluoro at the clinic, I grabbed 'em while I could. I have some trauma comps that were scheduled to be completed this quarter, but because of the nature of my site, I won't be able to get them. I'm feeling good about what I've accomplished this quarter and hope that I can at least get my Rib comp before I leave.

Have a great week!

C-Spine: Check!

2008-02-01T09:18:00.001-05:00

Today is the first day (in MONTHS) that I have a day off and don't feel guilty about it! Our school was closed today for consortium meetings, so rad tech students got a free pass to miss clinicals! Yay! I toyed with the idea of going into work to get a few hours but then decided that a nice, relaxing day of lounging at home would be much more beneficial to the pocket full of change I would earn at work. Don't get me wrong, I still REALLY enjoy my job, but I'm not exactly performing brain surgery so the pay is a bit dismal. And I'm ok with that - it's all about the experience and contacts anyway!

The past couple of weeks in the program have been good. I've had two tests in my Exposure II class (both As, thank you very much!), and one test in my Contrast Procedures class (100! Woo!). While I understand that it's necessary to learn about the x-ray tube, how it works and why the electrons do what they do for the registry, I have to admit that I am not interested in the LEAST. I think our instructor gets the vibe because he is constantly making jokes about how "exciting" this subject matter is and how he only teaches it because there "could" be questions on the registry pertaining to Target Interactions. :) I give him props for doing his best, but the class I really look forward to this quarter is Contrast Procedures.

I have mentioned on here a couple of times how the days I spend at clinical are fluoro days. Since October, I have been setting up the room and watching fluoro cases without a CLUE of what the radiologist is looking for, why the patient must drink different types of Barium and how this all pertains to the RT. My Contrast Procedures class is telling me anything and everything I ever wanted to know about fluoro. (For those who might not be familiar with fluoro, it is basically "real-time" x-rays of internal organs. These x-rays are taken by the radiologist who is administering barium to the patient. Because organs are not easily seen on normal x-rays, the barium coats the organs and helps us to visualize any abnormalities.) The exams we have learned about in class so far have been the barium swallow (also called an esophogram), upper gastrointestinal study (UGI), small bowel series and barium enema (BE). My family has a history of gastrointestinal problems, so I take great interest in learning about the exams that I (or family members) might be asked to complete one day. :)

Last week at clinical, I F-I-N-A-L-L-Y comped on my C-Spine. I don't think I have ever been more relieved. The patient that I comped on was in a lot of pain, and I was worried that I would not be able to get her shoulders down so that we could see the all important C7/T1 junction on the lateral projection. To make sure I got it on the first try, I handed her a sandbag, and even though she was in pain, she handled it like a trooper! As soon as I said we got the shot, she dropped the bag, and we moved onto the next shot. She was wonderfully patient. Another C-Spine exam came in after hers, and the requisition stated that we were ruling out "cervical radiculitis." None of the techs had ever heard this term, so we assumed it was a typo. When we looked at the films, it appeared that the patient's C5 and C6 vertebrae were fused together or compressed. When I got home later that night, I looked up cervical radiculits, and that's exactly what it was: compressed vertebrae which pinches a nerve. Now that I've knocked my C-Spine comp out, I'm moving on to the L-Spine. The L-Spine is not a difficult exam to do, however my outpatient clinic doesn't see many orders for them.

We received our clinical assignments for the rest of the program, and I am very happy. Next quarter, I will be rotating at a smaller hospital about 10 minutes from my house. That means that my days of waking up at 5:00 am are numbered - for awhile at least.

Have a great week!

Reinvigorated

2008-01-17T18:23:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (And since it's been so long since I've posted, "Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas" as well!) I have to admit that the primary reason I dropped off the face of the blogger planet was pure exhaustion. My Fall quarter of school ended the second week of December, and it was everything I could do JUST to squeeze in a few final comps and study for finals. My family didn't see much of me during that time except for a flash of scrubs coming in and out of the door and throwing out promises of quality time around Christmas. I comped on all of my required exams except one (tib/fib - I only saw one ALL quarter) and aced my finals. I am happy to report that I am still maintaining my 4.0 GPA. :) (If you happen to be an overachiever like me, you'll know just what a big deal that is...not necessarily for the academic benefits but for personal achievement and satisfaction.)

After three very long and relaxing weeks of a break at home, I returned to class on January 8. Clinicals began on January 9, and I returned to the same outpatient facility. (As I've mentioned before, I will go to a new facility in April.) On my first day of class and clinical, I was nervous. I was nervous that I wouldn't remember my positioning. I was worried I had forgotten my anatomy. What I discovered on my first day of clinical was that I remembered ALL of that. The ROOKIE mistake I continually made was not lining up the tube to the wall bucky. Can you believe it? Of A-L-L the information that I have been cramming in my head for the last two quarters, the ONE, should-be-no-brainer thing I couldn't remember is the tidbit that I learned on oh, let's see...maybe DAY ONE of the program? Geesh. I was so embarrassed. On my first day back, we had several C-Spines come in, and since I have to comp on a C-Spine this quarter, I jumped right in. My clinical instructor described my positioning on the three exams I did as "perfect." I even NAILED the Odontoid shot on all three showing the space between C1 and C2 and the odontoid tip beautifully. However on one exam, I didn't line up the tube and wall bucky; on the second, I forgot my marker; and on the third, I remembered my marker, but it didn't show up within my collimation. So, I got some great experience, but no comps. Several other class members turned in 5, 6 and 7 comps after the first couple of DAYS, and I didn't have anything to show.

I have tried to explain before just how competitive and how much of a perfectionist I am. My competitive nature is directly linked to my confidence. I wrote this in an e-mail to a friend on Tuesday night: I fully expected to be able to jump right back into my clinicals like I never went on break, but I'm finding that I'm almost as hesitant/nervous/unsure as I was during the first couple of weeks LAST quarter. I know things will get better, but I just hope this isn't how it's going to be at the beginning of EACH new quarter. I have five more to go and hoped that I would be more comfortable by now. Ahhh...just me being entirely too hard on myself again! :)"

My clinical day on Wednesday was MUCH better which leads me to believe that this blog does much more for my psyche than I originally gave credit. I had convinced myself that I was writing this blog for friends, family and other rad tech wannabes, but now I realize that I'm writing this for myself, too. Jotting down my thoughts about this new chosen profession helps to reinforce them in my mind and helps me to build confidence. I comped on four exams on Wednesday: knee, shoulder, hip and pelvis.

The great thing about all of this is that I truly do feel like I've found my "place" professionally. I love healthcare. I love almost everything about it. I love that at the end of the day, I can go home and not have to feel like there's something I should be doing (checking e-mail, paperwork, etc.). I love that when a patient looks me in the eye and says, "Thank you" I feel as though I've really done something to help them or have touched their lives in one small little way. And I love that at the end of ONE day of clinicals that I go home feeling more fulfilled than I did in 5 years of working in PR. I feel like I have made this amazing transformation internally/emotionally that I can't fully (or justifiably) explain. When I worked in PR, I was nice to people and cared about helping people, but it was never truly genuine. I would help them book a hotel room, help them register for a conference or join the association, but none of that was life-altering for them. I realize now that a lot of my "niceness" was strictly professional - I only did it because my job depended on it. Now, I realize that I am still nice to people, but it's in a totally different way. I GENUINELY care about the patients I see. I am concerned that they are in pain or sick without knowing why. I see the fear in their eyes when they come in for tests because they're more afraid of the results than they are the exam, and I sympathize with them. There's so much about the medical field that the general public doesn't know, and it's FRIGHTENING for them. I don't claim to be a genius or a doctor, but I can help them to relax a little while they are in my exam room whether it's by explaining a procedure or making them laugh. And I'm so grateful for that.

The friend I e-mailed on Tuesday night had asked me for a point-blank, one-on-one description of this experience of abandoning my comfort zone and going back to school, and I am so grateful for her. She is a writer, and maybe she did or didn't know exactly what she was doing when she asked me for that, but I'm so glad that I took the time to send her my thoughts. My passion for healthcare has been with me since day one of this quarter, but I was allowing my competitive nature to take over and that's not what this profession is about. Thank you, friend, for knowing just what I needed. :)

Remaining Comps for Winter Quarter:
Ribs
Trauma Shoulder (not likely at my outpatient clinic)
Cross-table lateral hip
C-Spine
T-Spine
L-Spine
Tib/Fib (from last quarter)

Happy Tech Week!

2007-11-07T16:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Tech Week! In honor of Wilhelm Roentgen discovering the very first x-ray on November 8, 1895, this week has been designated as Rad Tech Week. The hospital where I work planned several activities to celebrate including pizza for lunch, cake, pumpking carving contest, chili cook off and gifts for the imaging department staff. Since I haven't been at work yet this week, I haven't been able to participate, but I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for Friday. At clinicals on Tuesday, the site provided us breakfast, and there is an "imaging quiz" scheduled for tomorrow during lunch. I've always enjoyed occupation appreciation weeks and think they can be very rewarding.

Today in class, we received our tests back. In Exposure, I earned a 92, which I was pretty happy about. In calculating the average gradient on one problem, I "fat fingered" one of my calculator buttons which gave me a wrong answer, so I missed THAT question plus a second question related to that answer. Just a stupid mistake on my part for not double checking my work, but I'm satisfied with a 92. My positioning test went much better - I scored a 100!! I was relieved to have gotten such a good grade, and since I'm so competitive, was happy to hear that I was only one of three students with a perfect score. :) I've been trying REALLY HARD to keep my competitive nature under wraps and have been doing a decent job; however this is MY blog, and I will gloat when I want to. :)

Clinicals on Tuesday were really busy - we had several Upper GIs scheduled, along with two Small Bowel studies which tend to be time consuming. In the midst of the fluro chaos, an order came in for a tib/fib (one of my remaining comps!)...on a four-year old boy. My experience in working with children is limited (at best); my clinical site caters more toward adults, I have no children of my own, and my closest nieces are more than 400 miles away. I enjoy (most) kids and actually want to have one of my own some day, but up until now I'm inexperienced. :) The tech I worked with on Tuesday had just returned from a several-month long medical leave, so she was in the process of re-acclimating herself to x-ray. Before bringing the patient into the exam room, I told her I'd like to comp. When the young boy (Spidey for short - he had on a Spiderman shirt) came into the room, we realized there was a mistake with the order: the doctor had ordered a left tib/fib and a right foot. When I verified the information with his mother, she said it should've been his left foot and left tib/fib. My tech took the paperwork to correct the mistake with the doctor. When she returned, I was in the process of positioning Spidey's left leg for the tib/fib and having trouble getting him to keep his foot flexed. The tech must have recognized some frustration in my eyes because she had the mother hold Spidey's toes and took over the rest of the exam (and left foot). I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to participate more because this was the first tib/fib exam I had EVER seen ordered at clinicals, and I'm worried that it could be the last. When we finished up with Spidey, my tech asked me about checking off. I told her that I didn't feel comfortable comping on the exam since I didn't do it alone, and she was fine with that. I understand that all techs are different, however I had grown used to comping with techs who weren't participating in the exam but rather standing off to the side mentally evaluating us and checking our finished image for perfection. Hopefully we'll get another tib/fib exam tomorrow - NOW I'm ready. :)

A Real Doozie

2007-11-05T17:51:00.000-05:00

Today was quite possibly one of the most mind-draining days at school that I have ever experienced. (Consider yourself warned for the remainder of this post!) I had tests in both classes this morning, and while that is not out of the norm, the AMOUNT of material covered on each test was unusual. Last week one of the instructors remarked to the other, "The test I have scheduled for Monday is going to be a REAL doozie, and then I heard you scheduled your test for the same day!" A REAL DOOZIE. From the INSTRUCTOR. :) Needless to say, I thought the exposure LAST test was "a real doozie," so I made sure to study extra hard for this one. I read over my notes every night last week and put in a good 3-4 hours studying this weekend, so when the test came, I felt 98% prepared (there's usually about 2% of self-doubt in almost everything I do). I FLEW through the test. I can't decide if the test was actually a bit easier than the last one; if I had just studied really well; or if I, after hearing my instructor's "doozie" comment, had built this test up to be SOOOO hard in my mind that anything would be easier. Probably a little of each. :)

Our positioning test covered the pelvis and hips, and while the actual positions we were required to learn weren't difficult, there seemed to be a lot of nooks and crannies on this particular anatomy which made diagram labeling more of a chore than normal. After our test in exposure, I wanted nothing more than to crumple into an intellectually-exhausted ball on a chair in the lounge. But, like the dedicated student I am, I forced myself to look over my positioning notes and anatomy ONE MORE TIME...for an hour and a half. :) I only got caught up on one or two of the questions on the positioning test (one of which was in the labeling section), but overall, I feel really good about it. We'll find out our grades on Wednesday.

Since my last post, I've been able to comp on a few more exams at clinicals, and I only have one more required comp for the quarter and 3 more "elective" comps. (The elective comps are not really elective...we still have to comp on them, but out of the list of ten we received at the beginning of the quarter, we are required to comp on at least seven. The ones we don't comp on this quarter just roll over to next quarter.) The exams I still have to comp on are listed below under my goals. The exams I still need to comp on are pretty common at my clinical site, but since I'm there on "Fluro Day," we have fewer routine exams (ortho exams) scheduled. One of my favorite techs always taunts me during my clinical days by saying, "Do you have ANY idea how many forearms we did on Monday? I won't even tell you how many tib/fibs came in when you weren't here!" ;) He knows that my goal is to finish all ten comps very soon, and it sounds like he was the same way when he was a student. I'm very fortunate to have such a great teacher.

Goals for this week:
1. Continue increasing confidence
2. Begin working on C-Spine and T-Spine exams
3. Gain at least two comps (ankle, tib/fib, hand, forearm)

Have a great week!

Superwoman's Kryptonite

2007-10-19T20:07:00.001-04:00

I had been feeling under the weather all week and yesterday at clinicals, I was eating Halls and Coldeze like candy. It's been a rough week (physically), so when my alarm went off this morning, I decided to call into work. It's not something that I typically do, but my body just needed a day to rest and recooperate. After leaving a voicemail for my supervisor at 5:15 am, I popped some NyQuil and jumped back in bed. I didn't wake up again until around 9:30 and felt somewhat refreshed despite the medication hangover. The truth of the matter is that I have been feeling rundown a lot lately, and I think that this cold is my body telling me to slow it down a bit. I have a tendency of pushing myself too hard sometimes and trying to be Superwoman (everything to everyone), but I'm learning to ask for help and simply letting some things go. THIS Superwoman's kryptonite is time management.

Yesterday was an interesting day at clinicals. It was a pretty slow day, relatively speaking, and we received a visit from the instructors at school (suprise!). I have been practicing on chest x-rays since Tuesday and have had several chances to comp, but just didn't feel as comfortable with them as I should. So, a requisition for a chest printed off RIGHT as my instructors rounded the corner into our department. And, they decided to observe ME in all my nervousness. :) The PA view turned out GREAT - the patient was short but extremely thin, and everyone (classroom instructors, clinical instructors, me) was amazed at how LONG his lungs were. When I went back into the room to position the patient for the lateral, I blanked out, and when I took the exposure, I realized that I chopped off the bottom fourth of his lungs. Yep. And my classroom instructors were there to witness it. :) I ended up getting everything on the second shot, and I overheard one of my classroom instructors saying, "Ah, much better" to which my clinical instructor responded, "I guess she won't be comping on THIS chest." :)

Later in the day, a patient came in that needed both chest x-rays and hand x-rays. I was psyched that I could comp on both exams and exclaimed to my tech, "I'm going to NAIL these!" Yeah...that was my first mistake: being overly cocky. :) On this particular patient, who was very muscular and wide, the lateral turned out perfectly, however I clipped the VERY ends of his costophrenic angles on the PA. We're talking the VERY TIP of his angles. So, it had to be repeated with a shot of just the angles. (As a sidenote, I *hate* having to take a shot of just the angles. I would prefer to retake it to try to get the whole lung fields on the same film, but my tech pointed out that we run the risk of having to repeat that if the patient's lungs are too big to fit on one film.) Chest Comp: NADA. When I moved the patient to the table to start his hand x-rays, I thought I had everything positioned correctly. When the image came up of the oblique, I realized that his distal radius and ulna were angled quite a bit on the film which made the oblique look really strange. The rest of my views were fine, but I repeated the oblique. Hand Comp: NADA.

The remainder of the day was spent staring at the printer waiting for a chest x-ray. At 4:00, I packed up my bags, had my keys in my hand and was ready to walk out the door when the printer kicked on. One of the techs yelled out, "Chest!" and I dropped my belongings. :) I was DETERMINED to get my chest comp before the weekend. The patient was an elderly female who had trouble standing on her own for long periods of time. I got the room set up and shot her PA. When the image came up, I realized I had gotten her full lung fields on the film, but JUST BARELY which suprised me because I almost certain I had her perfectly centered. When the lateral image came up, I noticed that her ribs were not entirely superimposed which would have suggested rotation. Frustrated, I showed the images to my tech and said, "I'll have to reshoot the lateral. I was certain I had her completely aligned, but her film shows that she was rotated quite a bit." My tech looked a little closer at the lateral then at the PA. She smiled at me when she said, "Take a look at her spine in the PA and tell me what you see." In taking a second look, I realized that the patient's spine was curved - she has scoliosis - not so much that it could be seen by the naked eye, but the x-rays showed a different story. We finished up the comp paperwork, and I walked out to my car to start my weekend with one more comp under my belt. :)

One of the hardest things I'm realizing about radiology is body habitus. EVERYONE is different, which makes it hard for those soon-to-be-techs like me who see most of the world in black and white. :)

Achievements for this week:
1. Increased confidence
2. Abdomen comp
3. Finger comp
4. Chest comp

Have a great weekend!

Comping...it's a beautiful thing.

2007-10-15T16:19:00.000-04:00

Clinicals continue to get better every day I'm there. Last week, I comped on a wrist and could have comped on an abdomen but there was some confusion on how many views needed to be taken to qualify as a comp. For some reason, I was under the impression that to comp on an abdomen, I needed to perform both supine and upright exams, however it turns out that we only need one or the other. So, that means that I will comp on a supine abdomen tomorrow - hopefully first thing! We do a lot of small bowel studies which allows me PLENTY of practice on abdomens!

Comping on the wrist was fairly easy, and my comp was the first wrist exam I had done! My patient was very cooperative, and although it was difficult for her to turn her wrist for the ulnar deviation projection, I got a beautiful shot. :) I'm still learning how to choose the technique on my own, but I'm sure that will come with more practice.

The techs who work at my clinical facility ROCK. They are so patient and seem to really want me to understand not only what I'm doing correctly but also what I'm doing incorrectly so that I can learn from my mistakes. Even though the drive is painful on the way home, I'm so glad I'm rotating at this particular site this quarter. The pace and atmosphere are a perfect fit for me and the way I learn.

We had our first test (of the quarter) in positioning this morning on the foot, toes, ankle, calcaneus, and tib/fib. I know for sure that I missed one question that was purely a stupid mistake (what bones make up the instep of the foot? my answer: tarsals. correct answer: metatarsals.), but other than that, I feel really good about it. I know I've said it before, but I REALLY like the tests in my positioning class. We had a pop quiz in Exposure today, and unforutnately I'm not as confident that I got an A. :) I didn't look over my notes last night, so I was a bit surprised when he announced the quiz. We're studying density, mAs, kVp, inverse square law, direct square law, 15% rule and the reciprocity law, and it all kind of ran together on the quiz. At least now I know what to focus on for the test next week!

I once read that goals are more likely to be achieved if you put them in "writing." In spirit of that, I am going to start working weekly clinical goals into my blog. (Thanks to Radiologic Confidential for the inspiration!)
1. Comp on abdomen
2. Comp on foot or ankle
3. Don't be afraid to try "new" exams that we haven't covered in class

Have a great week!

And They're Off...

2007-10-02T20:07:00.001-04:00

My morning began as most mornings when I work at the hospital: the alarm goes off at the ass crack of dawn, I sleepily stumble my way toward the bathroom to shower and pry my eyelids open long enough to brush my teeth, put on some makeup, blow dry my hair and slip into some scrubs. I'm not FULLY awake until I slump into the kitchen and smell the sweet, sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee. The DIFFERENCE this morning was that my scrubs happened to be embroidered with the name of my school. Today was the first day of clinicals. :)

The other difference in this morning's routine was the commute. When I work at the hospital, I usually leave around 6:00 to make it by 7:00 am. The drive usually takes about 25-30 minutes, so I have plenty of time to finish my coffee and get organized for the day. This morning's commute found me leaving at 6:00 only to arrive at my destination approximately 1 HOUR later. :) Knowing how unpredictable traffic can be sometimes, I knew I was giving myself quite a cushion, so I took the hour to read in my new Merrill's Pocket Guide to Radiography (thanks for the suggestion, John!) and call some of my classmates to wish them luck. I found that everyone I talked to was JUST AS nervous and excited as I was! (Why is it in times like these that we find such comfort in "feeling like everyone else" when most of us spend our entire lives trying to be unique?)

My prior experience with the Clinical Instructor was not at all the same today. Granted, we hit the ground running as soon as we clocked in, but in a "no-nonsense, I-really-want-you-to-learn-this" kind of way. Clinicals started at 8:00, and I bet I was mixing contrast by 8:05 and calling our first patient by 8:08. It was INCREDIBLE and the day didn't stop from there! Tuesdays and Thursdays are "Fluro" days at my facility, so I got to observe/assist with SEVERAL UGIs, Barium Swallows and Small Bowel studies. We also had several "walk-ins" that needed CXRs (chest x-rays), knees, hips, feet, hands, etc. The whole day really moved along well as I learned about ALL of the paperwork involved (much more so than in the inpatient setting I'm used to!), and before I knew it, it was lunch time. My fellow classmate and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and sat outside to eat lunch and reflect on the morning's activity. After lunch, I met a tech who works a later shift (who also happens to be a fairly recent graduate of my school's program) and followed her around the rest of the day. She showed me how to prepare a sterile field for a Hysterosalpingography (HSG) and volunteered me to assist the RPA (Radiology Practioner Assistant) during a second HSG!!! All I basically had to do was fold back the sheet covering the patient (RPA was wearing sterile gloves) and hand him the betadine swabs, but it was very exciting - AND I "got" to wear a lead apron. :) The only suggestion the RPA had for me following the procedure was to open the betadine swabs AWAY from the patient and the RPA. He said that he got some betadine sprayed in his eye one time, and while it didn't cause any permanent damage, it did burn quite a bit. I was happy for the critique and grateful for the tip!

Shortly before it was time to leave for the day, the clinical instructor asked one of the techs if she thought we would be good students. She responded by saying, "They'll only be as good as we teach them. But this one here [pointed to me], I like. She shows a lot of intiative and is a real go-getter!" WOW! My first compliment! :) I was thrilled and floated out to my car on cloud nine.

It was really an incredible day, and I can only hope that my other days at clinical are the same. Tomorrow we start classes, Positioning of Lower Extremities and Exposure, then it's off to clinical again on Thursday. What a great profession we are in!

Have a great week!

One Down, Seven to Go

2007-09-20T20:18:00.000-04:00

The comprehensive final in my positioning class proved to be much easier than I thought. Admittedly, I sometimes have a tendency to only learn things for tests, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the information came rushing back to me when I read the test questions. Our instructor e-mailed our grades to us this afternoon, and I scored a 95% on the final exam and a 97% in the class. I am extremely happy with both scores and hope to find out my grade in RAD 101 tomorrow. The first quarter is OFFICIALLY over, and I'm looking forward to Fall Break (a week) to catch up on some mindless house work and spending some quality time with my husband.

After class yesterday, a fellow student and I drove to our clinical site to introduce ourselves to our clinical instructor. The drive (in late morning) wasn't too bad, and the facility is located in a very nice area. The room where the techs congregate and wait for orders is HUGE - much bigger than any of the rooms at the hospital where I work - and the facility is really nice. They have CR but no PACS system (yet), so we'll be responsible for printing hard copy films of each x-ray and making sure that they are delivered to the radiologists in the reading room. The clinical instructor has a heavy accent that makes him a little difficult to understand and made the point right off to let us know that he is "notorious" at our school for being "the mean one." He also gave us one expectation: "I will show you how to do an exam one time. Feel free to ask as many questions as you need. After that, I expect you to be able to perform the exam on your own. That's how I learned." YIKES! He certainly made me very nervous, but the more I think about it, I wonder if that was his intent. Maybe it's his way of seeing what we're made of - either we will rise to the occasion or crack under pressure. Maybe he was just messing with us. He seems like a very nice guy with very high expectations. Either way, I want to make certain that I am up on everything, so I think I'll take part of Fall Break to start reading ahead in my positioning books. That way, at least I'll be somewhat familiar if he throws an exam at me that we haven't covered yet in class. Needless to say, I'm a little more nervous about starting clinical than I thought I might be - partly because of my meeting with the clinical instructor; partly because of all the paperwork we have to turn in on a weekly/biweekly basis; and partly because I am overwhelmed by the comps we are required to complete during clinical. For the Fall quarter, we have seven mandatory comps but three "optional" comps that will be carried over if we don't get them in this quarter. There are only 10 weeks in a quarter, so you do the math. :)

In the meantime, as I pointed out in my very first post, I am a TV junkie. :) Lucky for me (and others like me), my Fall Break happens to coincide with Premiere Week!!! I couldn't be happier about the timing and can't wait for Grey's Anatomy and ER to return as well as the new show Private Practice. Because I'm trying to keep this blog mostly about my experiences in school, I will *try* to keep my commentary about my favorite shows off this forum, but I'm not promising anything. :)

I recently heard a quote that I LOVE and think it applies to anyone going back to school: "I never said it would be easy; I said it would be worth it." Another one of my favorites: "If it were easy, everyone would do it."

Have a great couple of weeks!

Organized Chaos

2007-09-17T06:15:00.001-04:00

This morning's post is coming to you a full two hours earlier than my normal wake up time for a "school day," largely in part that I have one more test in positioning class today (shoulder girdle) and our comprehensive final on Wednesday. Needless to say, I have been studying - A LOT - this weekend and wanted to get a little more time in this morning before class. On a side note, I want to point out that as I get older, I am falling in love with early mornings, and I NEVER thought I would say that. There is something very cathartic about being awake when the rest of the world is still sleeping. Early mornings are turning into MY time - just me, my coffee and my cat. :)

We had our final in RAD 101 last Wednesday, and while I don't know the official results yet, I feel really good about it. It was a comprehensive final which I had been a bit worried about just because there was SO MUCH information thrown at us this quarter, but it actually turned out to be easier than I thought. (Knock on wood because I'm so superstitious!) I most certainly pulled off an A in 101 and am on a good course to pull an A in my positioning class, so I'm glad to keep my 4.0 rolling!

Work is going very well. The hospital I work at has three separate imaging units - one for inpatients, one for ER patients and one for outpatients. 99.5% of my time is spent transporting inpatients, so when the opportunity to work in the ER for a day came up, I jumped all over it. :) In the ER, the "transport pit" (where transporters wait for orders) is actually in the same room with the rad techs and digital radiography (DR) monitors. Because the techs all know that I'm an x-ray student, they let me observe their cases then went over the images with me to point out anatomy, fractures, dislocations, abnormalities and what they could've done to get a better shot. It was AWESOME. I got to see a wide array of shoulder dislocations (which helped out a lot considering that's what we're studying in positioning class), fractures and spine work. They also performed quite a few CXRs and abdominal x-rays, but I see a lot of those on the inpatient side as well. Our energized lab at school uses computerized radiography (CR) technology, which I thought was amazing, but DR is INCREDIBLE. There's no cassette - you get the shot and it immediately pops up on the DR monitor making it extremely interesting for nosy student bystanders (hi!) and efficient for the tech who doesn't have to take time to remove the cassette from the bucky, load it in to the reader, wait for it to load then decipher whether or not to reshoot. A-MAZ-ING. Technology rocks!

I've written before about the "buzz" I feel around the hospital on any given day...the ER is an energizing place with people all over the place. The best term I can come up with in describing it is "organized chaos." I certainly enjoyed my day there and am eager for a clinical rotation at one of the major trauma centers in our area. I never thought I would be an ER nut, but I can definitely see myself thriving in that area.

Have a great week!

Sweet Success

2007-08-27T14:03:00.000-04:00

Both classes are going well as the end of the first quarter closes in. Last week we received our clinical assignments for next quarter, and my facility is about 40 miles from my house. It's one of the farthest sites from our school, but I'm not worried about the distance. In speaking to a senior student in my program, I learned that my site is an outpatient only facility meaning that *most* of the patients I see will be able to assist me in positioning rather than me having to work around stretchers, patients that can't stand, etc. On one hand, I can see the benefit of being thrown into a situation where all odds seem to be stacked against me, but on the other hand, I'm looking forward to easing my way into the pool with able-bodied patients. The way I look at it, I want to make sure that I'm doing the x-ray correctly before I have other factors to think about. Besides, I'm not naieve enough to think that ALL of my patients will do exactly as I say as if we are playing Simon Says.

We received our second positioning test back today - 100%! I'm really enjoying the practicality of my positioning class. All of the lectures are very straight and to the point. There's not a lot of time spent going over information that isn't necessary to the day-to-day in the life of an RT, and I appreciate that. I also appreciate the methodical, organized style of our instructor's lectures. Everything seems to be in the exact place I might put it if I were writing the lectures myself. That's comforting to me; helps me understand the material more.

My RAD 101 class, on the other hand, is not going quite as well. I understand the material just fine, but I'm not doing as well on the tests as I would have hoped. Our latest test covered medical emergencies and pharmacology. I studied all of the material, but unfortunately, I placed more emphasis on a section of the notes that didn't warrant even one question on the test. I'm not blaming the instructor - afterall, it's HIS class. It's his choice what to include and what not to include on the exams. I'm just finding it a bit harder to get into the groove of what to expect on his tests. I got an 89% on the test, which isn't bad, but I'm a perfectionist, as I bet a good many of you are, so I don't need to explain any further. :) I still have an A average in the class (which is what matters more than any test grade), and I am "getting" the material, which is the ultimate goal anyway, right?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we only have a few more weeks left in the quarter which our instructors have squeezed in two more tests and finals. :) It'll be a busy next couple of weeks, but I'm looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel (fall break) then clinicals beginning!

Homemade Study Aids

2007-08-13T12:22:00.000-04:00

Classes and work have been going well the past couple of weeks, and I can DEFINITELY see where my job is going to help me in my classes - especially in positioning. Today we had a test over chest, ribs, sternum and abdomen positions and were asked which positions are typically protocol. A few other students were struggling to remember, but because I see the requisition forms on a daily basis, I have a good grasp of what the docs are looking for. I feel VERY fortunate to have this opportunity!

Speaking of the test, I studied my bum off ALL weekend and even started my own pocket-sized positioning book to carry with me to clinicals. There are some of these available online (and pretty inexpensively, I believe), but I decided to make my own. I'm finding that this time around in college, I'm much more aware of what kind of studying works for me and what doesn't. I'm not someone who can read a few chapters in a textbook and be ready for the test. I need to write - EVERYTHING - and use my own abbreviated shorthand. Soooo...by making my own pocket positioning guide, I'm reinforcing the positions in my brain through my hand; I am making notes that mean something to me; AND I'm saving money! :) In case anyone is interested, here's how my book works: I bought a spiral bound book of index cards and a set of post-it tabs. I wrote out the positioning criteria for each position we will be required to comp on (patient position, part position, central ray position, respiration and anatomy) and separated them with the tabs. Each position (ex: PA Chest) gets the front of one card. I found diagrams on the Internet of the position and of the x-ray and taped the pictures to the back of each card. Some pictures are better than others, but the important thing is that I understand it, and I do. :) Here's a quick snapshot of how it looks:

I apologize that the pictures are a bit blurry...unfortunately I am NOT a photographer, and my point-and-shoot digital camera is about as old as I am. :) Anyway, I'm not sure if this book idea would help anyone else, but it certainly helped me study! If anyone else has any tips to share on studying, feel free to leave me a comment!! :)

Without giving away too much detail about my job or my patients, I will say that I am really enjoying it! I love the patient interaction part and am enjoying the hospital setting. Even when there isn't anything exciting going on, there always seems to be a buzz of activity around the halls that I've never experienced anywhere else. And, of course, a chill runs through my spine everytime I step into an x-ray room. :) One of my coworkers tells me on a daily basis how that will eventually go away. I sincerely hope not. :)

Have a great week!

New Job...New Experiences

2007-08-03T20:42:00.000-04:00

It has been awhile since my last post, and all I can say is that life is VERY full in RT Wannabe World. I recently accepted a position at a local hospital to make some extra money and glean as much information as humanly possible from some Rad Techs. I am working for the imaging department as a patient transporter. This particular hospital has two imaging departments - one for inpatients and one for outpatients (located outside of the hospital). I am working with inpatients and when they are scheduled for a procedure in the department, I get them from their rooms and deliver them to the techs. It's a fairly easy job and (so far) rewarding, and I'm learning a lot. I just started this week but have been trying to (un-obnoxiously) point out to the techs I see that I am an x-ray student. Everyone has been receptive, and I'm finding that a few actually graduated from my program! Having this job has also helped to instill just a bit more confidence in my decision to change careers. I REALLY enjoy working with the patients and most of them have been grateful for my services so far.

We also had another test in RAD 101 this week, and I hope to find out my score on Monday. The test dealt mostly with radiation protection and units of measurement, and I'm confident that I did well. I'm sure many of you seasoned students and/or techs will remember the Inverse Square Law. :) In positioning class, we started talking about chest positions, and will go to lab next week to demonstrate those positions (along with abdominal positions) with real equipment. As always, I'm looking forward to the hands-on portion.

At work today, I met a student from another rad tech program in my area. She is in her second year and rotating through MRI. She'll take the registry in September, and when I asked if she was nervous, she revealed her study book to me - FULL of notes. :) It was nice to see that I'm not alone. Even if I were interested in selling any of my books at the end of each quarter, there's no way I could...they're too marked up, highlighted, dogeared, etc. for anyone other than me. The other student and I discussed the different modalities, and she said that her original plan was to move on to MRI after she finished x-ray school. BUT, thank goodness for clinical rotations because she realized that she's better suited for CT. Even with my general knowledge, I'm leaning toward Radiation Therapy but wonder if that will change once I actually rotate through that department. Here's a question for you...are you interested in a certain modality? If so, which one? Why?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

PS - Be sure to check out the new blog, Road to Radiography, I added to my list of links and welcome a new RT student to our blog community!

First Tests - Success!

2007-07-23T15:58:00.000-04:00

As I hoped last week, I got As on both of my first tests!! I got a 97.7 on my positioning exam and a 100 on my 101 exam! Yippee! Off to a great start so far!

Today in positioning, we had an equipment manipulation lab to familiarize ourselves with the CR station, the x-ray tube, collimator and table. It was all very interesting and TOTALLY exciting because we're finally getting to put everything in motion. My school just got a whole new, fancy-schmancy lab complete with Fuji CR system and brand new phantoms so that students don't have to simulate images anymore - they can actually do them! My class is the first to use the new lab, and we were warned from day one that it would take awhile for our professors to stop telling us the price tags of each item. :) I don't mind knowing - it just makes me THAT much more careful around the equipment! We are having check offs on Wednesday and Monday by completing an AP axial on the phantom. I tested out the equipment today, and in just the VERY basic way I used it today, it seems pretty straightforward. There's something very powerful about manipulating the equipment and feeling it lock into place.

Even though we were only working on a phantom today, the feeling of fear was replaced by little tiny feelings of confidence and assurance. Because this is a complete career change for me, I think I'm a bit more gun shy than most students in my class. Afterall, when I finished ONE internship and my BS in communications, I thought I had found THE CAREER for me! And I was confident that I would do great in that field...until I reached my first job and realized that the work I did in school was no where close to the work I would be doing in the workplace. I made due for a few years but was not as happy with the situation as I knew I could be. If any of you have ever gone through a career change, maybe you can relate to the FEAR of not knowing what you want to do with your life. As children we are asked repeatedly "What do you want to be when you grow up?" This seems like a fairly safe question, but are we putting extra pressure on children to decide what they want to do at age 6? or 10? or even 18 when applying to college? In my opinon (and why wouldn't I share MY opinion? It's MY blog!), we change as individuals SO MUCH between the ages of 18-21 then again from 21-25...who can know for sure what they want to do at those ages if they aren't even sure who THEY are yet? (As a sidenote, each of you is getting a glimpse into the mind that belongs to the RT Wannabe. Enjoy!) And because this dialog runs around the inside of my head on a weekly basis, maybe now it's easier to understand why I was so excited to have the feelings of confidence and assurance today when working with that x-ray equipment. I can only hope that those feelings will grow as I continue my education and begin working in clinicals.

I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of this blog! What a great little online community we have of students and techs!

Have a great week!

And We're Off...

2007-07-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

Today I had tests in both of my classes. I always tend to stress out a little more about the first test of a class only because it's the FIRST one, and it takes at least one test to figure out the professor's "testing philosophy." Today, both tests were a combination of multiple choice and short answer/fill in the blank. And, even though I also tend to stress out a little about short answer, I think I actually do better with those types of questions. Either I know the answer or I don't. Luckily, today I did. I think I did pretty well on both - maybe missed one or two questions on each, but I feel good that I got As.

After completing five quarters of pre-reqs at this school, I'm FINALLY getting used to the quarter system (rather than the semester system). At first I felt like my classes were moving at warp speed and I was stumbling to keep up. Now that I'm more used to quarters, I find that I actually like it better than semesters! With the semester system, it was almost TOO long. And it gave students a chance to get lazy with school work because typically the first week was devoted to going through the syllabus and explaining how things would work for the next 15-18 weeks. With the quarter system, the first 10 minutes of class are devoted to that, then it's off and running for 10 weeks. Of course, because class work on the quarter system moves so quickly, I often experience a little bit of burn out around week nine. :)

In 101 today, we started going through the mechanical side of radiology - how it all works. Granted that we're still in the VERY early stages of the process, I feel pretty good about what we learned today. I owe part of that to Prof. Y. He has such a great way of explaining things until they make sense. But, he keeps mentioning two upcoming classes (physics and bioradiology) that make my bum go numb every time I hear it. In high school and early college, I took the required science classes but I wouldn't say that I exactly excelled in those classes. Don't get me wrong. I did well enough to pass, and even well enough to maintain a respectable GPA; but I was never the student chosen as a tutor or had the highest grade on a quiz or test. So, because of that, I am nervous about physics and bioradiology. Any seasoned students or techs out there that can give me some advice?

We have our first lab on Monday - "equipment manipulation" - complete with check offs during the next two class periods. I'm looking forward to the hands-on portion of this new adventure and shaking out some of the nerves.

If you have a chance, take a look at two links I posted on my sidebar (Radiologic Confidential and Mountain Imaging). I have been following these two bloggers for quite awhile and greatly enjoy hearing about their experiences!

Have a great weekend!

Another First

2007-07-12T07:52:00.000-04:00

After months and months of anticipation, the first day of x-ray school FINALLY arrived yesterday. I spent the night before organizing and reorganizing my school supplies and small fortune of books required for the two courses I'm taking this quarter. I must have gone through four book bags before I finally decided on one very simple Samsonite backpack. I chose the backpack for two reasons - to keep my hands free to carry other necessities needed for a four-hour lecture period and to balance the weight of the small fortune of books.

I was pleasantly surprised to walk into the classroom to find the friendly faces of many students I already knew from previous pre-reqs. I was also relieved to see the same mixture of excitement, anticipation and fear in their eyes that resembled my own. There was a nervous energy that ran laps around the room until our two professors arrived to start our very first class.

My first class is a positioning class where we will be focusing on the body, trunk and upper extremities. My second course is RAD 101. I'm looking forward to soaking up as much information as humanly possible in both classes, but particularly 101 to get a really solid foundation. We have one quarter of only classwork, then will start rotating through clinical sites next quarter. Of course, everyone is anxious and eager to learn more about clinicals, and one entire class period near the end of this quarter will serve as "clinical orientation" where we'll get the FULL scoop on the hands-on portion of our new adventures.

For those who might be interested, my class consists of 18 people. There are four men and 14 women; ages range from 50s to early 20s. It's a pretty diverse group, and in doing introductions yesterday, I think we're going to have a lot of fun together. It's a "neat" feeling to look around at these other students and know that we'll all be going through this amazing opportunity together.

Looking back on it now, it kind of reminds me of the first episode of Grey's Anatomy when the interns are walking around the OR with wonderment in their eyes as the Chief says, "The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the worst and the best of your life." Now, granted, our professors weren't QUITE that dramatic, but they did mention that this would be a very busy and intense couple of years. And I don't doubt that one iota.

And yes, I am a HUGE Grey's Anatomy fan. I know several healthcare professionals who would rather push thumbtacks into their eyeballs than to watch a TV medical show, but I'm not one of those. I fully recognize that shows like Grey's, ER, House and Scrubs ARE TV shows - produced for entertainment and not sound medical advice. But I enjoy listening to medical jargon and scanning through the newly-formed medical terminology dictionary in my brain to analyze what they are actually talking about. I also must admit that I shamlessly enjoy seeing ridiculously gorgeous doctors caught up in relationship dramas all the while saving lives without one beautifully coifed hair out of place.

The First One...

2007-06-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

There are some firsts that come easy to me and some that make me struggle. Writing the first post on a new blog is one of those that is a struggle. I always feel this need to explain to readers JUST who I am and JUST how I got here. But, this blog is a bit different than anything I've done before...THIS blog actually has a purpose other than serving as a location for me to jot down random thoughts and observations. THIS blog is to archive a very exciting period in my life...My Return to School.

In 20 days (and counting), I will become a full-time student again studying to be a radiological technologist (rad tech) at a small technical college in the Southeast. My plan is to remain as anonymous as possible to save the identity of myself (and any trouble I might get myself into) and to save the identity of those that cross my path during this incredible journey.

I feel the need to give you SOME sort of background such as why I chose this profession. To start that story, I must first explain that I am nearly 30 years old and have completed a bachelor's degree in communications. During my first semester of college, I started out as a social work major but quickly realized that working with the welfare system was not my calling, however working with people was. My first advisor listed some options she thought might interest me, and public relations sounded pretty good. After completing four years of classes, I was ready for the "real" world. Unfortunately, the "real" world I had come to know was not *quite* what I was expecting and on top of it, I was not getting to work directly with people like I had hoped. So, I began some soul searching - it's AMAZING what Google can do! - and I found radiology. Working directly with people AND technology? What more could I ask for??

The program at my school is two years (or eight quarters). It is very competitve - only 18 students are allowed in each year. Selection is based on grades and an interview, so I knew that if I wanted to make it in the first time around, I'd have to work very hard in pre-reqs that were not required of me while obtaining my BS degree. For instance - anatomy & physiology. These were two of the hardest courses I have taken in my college life, however they were also the most fulfilling because I had to work so hard for the grades I received. I imagine that my next eight quarters will be very similar.