Clinical Experiences

Thinking back over the past few weeks, two exams stick out in my mind as memorable learning experiences. Those are elbow and soft tissue neck. Seems that in my past several months of clincicals I have not seen very many elbow exams. However, in the past month I have been able to scan several elbows. I have been fortunate enough that all my patients have been able to lay in the preferred position, on their back with their arm extended over head in a knee coil. With that said, just because their arms have all been in the same general position, the actual position of the elbow has varied in each exam. This is due to the ability to rotate the arm comfortably and also the individual anatomy of the patient. I always think back to my original learning experience with elbows- scanning an apple. This allows me to remember that just because my localizer may say that the anatomy is in a specific plane may not really mean it truly is in that plane. I have become comfortable differentiating the planes and setting up accordingly for each scan. I actually am starting to enjoy elbow scans and not be so nervous about them. Soft tissue neck was an exam that I had not seen or scanned in MRI until two weeks ago. I was able to review the scan set up and protocol with two experienced technologists the evening prior to the scan. While doing the scan I was the only MRI technologist in the building, which made me slightly nervous. Luckily because the patient received contrast, the radiologist was in the building, which happened to be the radiologist reading the exam. He was very friendly and willing to teach me about the lymph nodes and blood vessel being imaged and how to differentiate between them. He watched me set the scans up and explained why they were set up that way. I am grateful for his patience and his willingness to help me understand the scan.