End of the Road

I have accumulated all my MRI observation hours for the semester. On my last day at CDI, I scanned a few lumbars and an ankle and then headed home. It was a bittersweet moment because I was happy to be finished yet I was sad because I will miss the technologists and their wisdom. I have not acquired the certain amount of scans required in order to take the MRI board but I hope that in the near future, I will have a MRI position where I can gather enough scans to take the MRI board. Wish me luck!

I have learned so much about MRI and yet I realize that I haven't even scratched the surface about all there is to know in this field - I suppose that will come with experience. I wish the best for all my fellow students in their endeavors. Good luck in everything that you do.

Winding down the semester

Five weeks left of the semester! I hope that everyone is doing well!

This week at the facility where I'm doing my MRI clinicals, we had a young man whose knee was so enlarged that I had to position it in the knee coil by lining up with the opposing knee. He had been playing basketball and he came down from a jump when he heard and felt a pop in his knee. He has had a history of knee dislocation in the past.
We knew he would definitely have a fluid-filled knee and with it being so distended we were not surprised to see blood in the axial views. We expanded the FOV and slices to obtain as much of the fluid as possible. I think I was mostly impressed by how well the patient remained still throughout the entire procedure with cushions packed around his knee.

I am down to less than 13 hour of completing my clinical observation hours and 1 competency test. It has been quite a journey and I have learned so much. I hope to carry this knowledge onto a future position somewhere as a MRI technologist.

New MRI Protocols

Hello again, this week there has been minimal scan time for me at the facility where I do my clinicals here in Indianapolis Indiana. They just had new MRI protocol loaded on Tuesday and have had to make quite a few adjustments which has taken a better part of the week to do. With the new protocol, IPAT has been added which will help cut down scan time for patients that are having their cervical, thoracic lumbar and so on scanned that are in too much pain or are claustrophobic. With the IPAT, you use the body coil plus the neck or body coil. It is amazing to see just how short the scans are performed.
There are still a great deal of scans to set up so next week will probably be the same as this week with minimal scan time for me. I understand that it has to be done but it has come at an unfortunate time. I'm struggling to comp out on two more scans so I hope all of this will be figured out so that I can comp out before the end of the semester. Wish me luck!
I hope everyone is doing well this semester - hang in there!

Exciting day!

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I was finally able to see a few MRI soft tissue necks with and without contrast exams and an abdomen (liver) with and without contrast. The soft tissue neck was interesting because of the patients history and as to why we were scanning them. The first patient had cancer of the lymph nodes and the other patient had a carcinoma of the mouth. The abdomen (liver) was for a patient that had metastatic cancer and they had spotted lesions on liver. That exam was interesting for me because I work during the day so I don't have many opportunities to take off from work to come in to the MRI facility and see contrast power injections. It was very cool to watch the breathing holds because one actually lasted 35 seconds which is a long hold but the patient did an excellent job. It was a very smooth day and I hope to be able to see more power injections in the future.

I hope everyone is having a great semester.

A weak moment - Smells and Sounds

This last Thursday was a rough day for me. I had already worked that day at my regular job and I wasn't feeling well and then I came in later on that afternoon to get in MRI observation hours at CDI in Indianapolis. MRI scanning was going okay for me until we had a patient the was in a hover-round because he'd had a stroke. Everything went well in getting him positioned for a hip scan until we had to remove him from the machine. The technologists were still rapping things up back at the console so I pulled the patient out of the machine. Now mind you, because of the patient's circumstance of paralysis, his hygiene was not the best. When he can out of the machine his breathe and body odor reeked. I was blown away by the smell but was okay and managed to continue. I took the coil off of him and by then the other girls were there to help sit him up. Just as I turned to go around to the other side of the table he said that he thought that he was going to get sick. One of the girls placed a trash can in front of him and he proceeds to vomit. I think the smell started my doom in starting my dry heaves but then the sound of him getting sick just finished me off. I tried to stay and help out but continued with the dry heaves so I stepped out of the room to compose myself. By the time I was able to get myself under control, I had tears in my eyes from heaving and my hands were shaking like crazy. The patient was okay, I believe that he got overheated along with having sinus drainage that turned his stomach. I am hoping that this was just an isolated incident with me otherwise I am in trouble and will probably be sitting right along with the patient taking turns on getting sick!

First Month of MRI Scanning

My first week of clinicals didn't start off very well. The night MRI tech called me on a thursday to tell me that she would probably be done by the time I arrived there and that I shouldn't worry about coming in. The next day I called and got no answer so I thought that they were just busy so I just went ahead and drove to the facility - the MRI machine is down. The supervisor said to call Saturday morning to see if the machine is up and running so I called the MRI tech and she said not yet but she would call me if it is working and if I don't hear from her then it isn't working - I don't get a call.

The second week the facilities night schedule was really small so I didn't get much done in the way of scan time but this week has been better. Today I am going to try and Comp out on a MRI Brain W/O! Later today, there is going to be an IAC scan so it should be interesting to see and hopefully if the MRI schedule is running on time, I will get to scan it. The rest of the evening will be knees, lumbar, ankles and a foot.

I hope to have a more interesting month in February. I hope everyone is having a good semester.

Introducing myself - RADT 416 Clinicals

Hello all,
My name is Rhoda Stanton and I am on my third semester of clinicals for my MRI certification. I live in Indianapolis Indiana and I have worked at Methodist Sports Medicine/The Orthopedic Specialist also in Indianapolis Indiana for 10 years this coming May. I am planning on doing my clinicals again at CDI at the south office in Greenwood Indiana.
I am ready to get more quality time in at CDI and I hope to keep learning as much as possible from the great technologist there. I saw some very interesting cases at CDI last semester and I am looking forward to seeing more this semester. I hope everyone has a great semester and I am excited to reading your blogs!
Good Luck to all of you!