Radiation

anyone worried about radiation received
in diagnosis etc?

What diagnostic tests have you had? Radiation could be a concern if you had multiple high radiation tests but it would something to discuss with your doc.

The tests are often deemed necessary and there is a risk/benefit ratio since the illness has its own set of risks if not dxed.

If in the future, while determining diagnosis, you could ask for tests with no radiation, such as pill cam, MRE(magnetic resonance imaging) colonoscopy etc.

Sometimes the doc may feel a radiological test is needed. My son just had a ct because the MRE although great for bowels wouldn't be great for things outside the bowel, which is what he was looking for.

i did. i had a mammo, 2 chest ct and pet/ct all in 6 mos.
drs knew what id had. i didn't know the amount of radiation in pet/ct
but it is very high. the drs/hospital who administered pet/ct will not
talk to me because its done, and they gave me dose, and i don't think they care, and also because the state health dept is investigating. if itd been any
other dr i probably would have been protected. my fam dr says yes its high exam
and also that the dose they used was too high. im just wondering if thats typical for this exam i know its used in crohns. (pet/ct)

I was and still am a bit I guess, when I got Ill I was in hospital for 8 weeks or so and had 7 ct scans. Now I didn't know at the time but have read since that each CT is equivalent of 50 normal x rays in radiation. Is this true? Surely I should be glowing lol.
Seriously though I would love to know the facts if anyone has the answers
Thanks

I had 6 CT scans in the 5 weeks I was an inpatient last year. I've since been told I shouldn't have any more CTs for about 10 years! I've only had MRIs and ultrasounds since then.

This comparison may help show exactly how much radiation you are getting
http://www.hpa.org.uk/topics/radiat...ontopics/dosecomparisonsforionisingradiation/

For info, a year's worth of smoking a pack worth of cigarettes will expose you to approx 53mSv

absent sorry are you male or female? were they all abdominal?
Ry, I will look at that I've seen different msv
for cigarettes.

also absent are you over 60?
I think they worry less when a persons
older. I'm 39.

sorry Lucinda did they tell u dose on the scans?

I see what you mean, I didn't look into it too much and got the figure from here
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/und...diologytests/imaging-radiology-tests-rad-risk

Personally I think its so few and far between compared to other exposures (and that "maximum" allowed per year) that the pros far outweigh then cons. Thats why I don't worry about it

ry have you ever had pet or pet/ct?

Oops edited it to say I've had an MRI, but have had a few X-rays on my stomach and wrist (due to breaking it)

absent & great do you know if your scans were
low dose?

I'm female, was 27 when I had them done, so definitely not over 60 and they were all abdominal.

Not a clue about the doses of the scans, I don't tend to worry about any of these things, I just go with it. I was so out of it at the time I doubt I would have remembered the answer if they'd told me anyway.

In the past 6 months I've had 6 x-rays and 2 CT scans, in 2012 I had roughly 15 x-rays and 6 CT scans.
The radiation has never concerned me.
Worst case scenario: sterility (I've no plans on producing offspring anyway)
Best case scenario: superpowers.

thx Von.
all abdominal scans?

In the past couple of years, yes.

In 2010, prior to my disembowelling I had full body CT, MRI and x-Rays taken when they were trying to discover the source of what caused every single joint in my body to seize up (It was serum sickness caused by a delayed allergic reaction to Remicade)

vonfunk said:

In the past 6 months I've had 6 x-rays and 2 CT scans, in 2012 I had roughly 15 x-rays and 6 CT scans.

The radiation has never concerned me.

Worst case scenario: sterility (I've no plans on producing offspring anyway)

Best case scenario: superpowers.

Click to expand...

I seriously hope I get superpowers after all my scans!!

If you do a google search for

"the why axis Understanding Scale in Radiation Dosage Charts"

there are a couple of charts I remember seeing after the fukushima incident which visually demonstrate quite nicely the scale of exposure to various radiation sources.