Dr Will Adair and Dr Pete Thurley discuss the use of CT scanning, the benefits for patients and clinicians, and considerations with regards to radiation dose.
I had 3 CT scans this year. I asked the doctors and nurses and the radiologists that they know it's a massive amount of radiation to give you, and that's why they don't do them for no reason. They need a serious reason for it, and something so serious where an MRI won't suffice. One was a brain scan 2 weeks after I had a decent concussion and I was just getting worse and worse. Well, they found nothing, no bleeding or anything. Well, the concussion ended up being just an unfortunate coincidence because the real reason I was getting worse was a serious case of sepsis (blood poisoning) and bacterial endocarditis (a bacterial heart valve infection) which got me hospitalized a few weeks afterwards. They did a chest CT because my lungs were filling up with fluid, and I can't really remember what the third one was about, being completely delirious with high fever, midazolam, and ketamine.. I think it was a full torso one to check if the infection had spread to my spine or organs. Luckily it hadn't. Now I'm kinda worried because I had such a massive dose in such a short timespan, they were all within like 2 months. But they still had a _serious_ reason to do them, and I really won't blame them if I get some type of cancer down the line for something that ended up saving my life in the first place. I already feel like I'm on borrowed time after the open heart valve replacement surgery. I'm so thankful that science has come so far ❤
CTs can also exposure patients to ionizing radiation, correct? The information from a CT scan versus the risk of radiation exposure. MRIs are noisy, but there is no radiation exposure.
