Dr. Guebert, one of our radiology professors was pointing some things out on an oblique x-ray of the cervical spine at the end of our Rad Positioning class today and I thought my head was going to explode. All the teachers are just as nice and helpful as can be and I'm starting to understand a few things but I've really got to think about what's going on in the x-ray so there's a considerable time delay between what we're being shown/taught and my eventual comprehension. I did finally figure out the orientation of the holes that the spinal nerves come out of. Those holes are called foramen - intervetebral foramen or IVF's for short. It was after class and about 10 miles on my way home when it finally made sense to me.
If we put a pt in a Right Anterior Oblique position then the pt is facing the bucky (behind the bucky wall is where we find the x-ray film) at about a 45 degree angle with their right shoulder against the bucky and the x-ray will show the IVFs on the right side of the patient.
If the patient is at a Right Posterior Oblique position then their right shoulder will still be against the bucky but there back will be towards the bucky. In this case, the IVFs on the left side of the spine will be showing. Apparently, I still need to stand up and stick my arms out like Dr. Kuhn, our Dx Imaging teacher has shown us to do but, at least I can figure it out and it makes sense to me.
Now, I just need a lot of repetition to improve my speed. Dr. Guebert timed me today as I played doctor and was taking an oblique x-ray of a classmate. With help from the teacher it took me 17 minutes and 49 seconds. For our practicals we need to get it done in less than 5 minutes. Dr. Guebert then did a much more complex x-ray and got it done in about 3.5 minutes. Not too bad considering it was my first time and he's a board certified radiologist with decades of experience. :)
Anyway, I'm in Group C and there's a group D class after ours and am thinking it would be a very good use of time to hang around and maybe see if I can sit in on that D class to get some extra exposure.
Our Dx Imaging tutoring will be held on Thursday from 3:45 to 5:45 and on Friday from 11 to 1. On weeks I don't have Laboratory Dx I could actually get out of class at 12:50 on Thursdays but, with so many people having to take that class over and the massive intimidation level of that class I think I better hang around for tutoring. Every upper tri I've talked with have told me tutoring is a must for that class.
I think I'll be drawing blood tomorrow in our Lab Dx class. Those labs are broken down into 6 groups and I'll only have to go every other week until everyone has had three successful blood draws. The smaller groups are mainly for safety at this point but, once we start doing BUN test with urine we might all start going to lab early as one group. Apparently urine isn't as scary as blood. :)
Next week is our first practical in Physical Dx. We had our mock practical today and it should be pretty easy, it's mainly a matter of technique and coordination. We're just doing vitals or blood pressure, a manual systolic bp, temperature, heart rate and ventilation rate. I should do alright but it wouldn't hurt to get more bodies to practice on. If we don't have our own equipment we lose 50% right off the bat.
One of the books for Basic is by Dr. Coggins and I noticed his name on one of our buildings today. Physical Dx lecture is another class a lot of people are taking over. You're only allowed to miss one Physical Dx lab so, maybe some people missed more than one class which is why we have so many repeating. I'm trying to make up notecards during class of important points then punching them out and using a ring to hold them together.
Cardio Dx needs more reading on my part - Biomechanics also needs more reading done ....and we also have some reading assignments for Laboratory Dx class - oh, Toxicology also.
Diversified IV is the last class i have to deal with.
I think Pro-D should be pretty simple. We only have that class on Monday. This past Monday someone made a comment that the teacher didn't like - I didn't hear it but we were reminded to be respectful and if we weren't he would drop a huge project on us.... I kind of sat up straighter after that comment. Our Pro-D teacher is a local chiropractor who has been very successful. He mentioned something about being able to go to his office - maybe to work? volunteer? something on Monday evenings and shadow each of the different doctors in his office. I'm kind of curious about his offer.
I've got a spreadsheet I made up online with all our reading assignments ...I'm glad we're off Monday, I just might be able to make it through - I know for Dx Imaging I still need to read pages 12 through 188. Is it even legal to assign so many pages?!?!? and that's just part of the reading assignment for that class but, I was able to finish the other part of it this past weekend.
Eyes are no longer functioning properly - gotta get to bed! ;)
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