Okay i have crohns disease, i had a bowel resectioning in 2010 and am currently on remicade, in the past few years i have had many many CT scans, like 20+, so far i havent had any side effects from it but i was ignorant of the long term risks, how can the doctor and the hospital not catch that? i finally had one doctor tell me thats too many no more, but ive had like viciously uncontrolled crohns until recently, anybody know how screwed i am or might be from all this radiation? Just blows my mind thanks
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Question about tests
- Thread starter Jyeager
- Start date
Hey Jyeager,
That is a quite a lot of CT scans. If they helped treat your condition then this far outweighs the small added risk from the radiation.
That being said, it is estimated that 44% of American males will get some type of cancer in their lifetime (seems high doesn't it.) The added radiation from 20 scans, with about 15mSv of radiation from each scan (which is 5 times the average background radiation of 3mSv received in each year by all people) theoretically increases your risk by about 3%. That's not a big increase, though no-one wants any increase!
People who need scans regularly are being moved to M.R.I's, and there is also work being done on neutralizing any effects from the radiation.
Live your life and enjoy yourself without worrying about any of this would be my advice. (Smoking and drinking are far worse contributors of risk than any number of scans.)
all the best.
That is a quite a lot of CT scans. If they helped treat your condition then this far outweighs the small added risk from the radiation.
That being said, it is estimated that 44% of American males will get some type of cancer in their lifetime (seems high doesn't it.) The added radiation from 20 scans, with about 15mSv of radiation from each scan (which is 5 times the average background radiation of 3mSv received in each year by all people) theoretically increases your risk by about 3%. That's not a big increase, though no-one wants any increase!
People who need scans regularly are being moved to M.R.I's, and there is also work being done on neutralizing any effects from the radiation.
Live your life and enjoy yourself without worrying about any of this would be my advice. (Smoking and drinking are far worse contributors of risk than any number of scans.)
all the best.
Unfortunately CT scanning technology is very new so we really wont be able to see the actual long term affects from them for at least ~15 more years (I read that somewhere while doing research on radiation for another forum member maybe about a month ago).
I agree with handle, live your life and enjoy yourself. You know what the possibilities are now so do you best in the future to take an active role on what tests are done in the future to prevent further problems (if any!) by bonking your GI on the head and saying, "no, we'll be doing an MRI."
I agree with handle, live your life and enjoy yourself. You know what the possibilities are now so do you best in the future to take an active role on what tests are done in the future to prevent further problems (if any!) by bonking your GI on the head and saying, "no, we'll be doing an MRI."