So radiology was a bright idea of mine. I signed up for it knowing that I would be studying for my USMLE step 2. I wanted a quick and easy rotation and I wanted to be good at radiographs for my ER auditions. This was a great idea in theory, but I can't say I couldn't have learned what I got out of my rotation in a single day.
The structure was to watch the test being done in the morning, and then watch radiologists 'read' them in the afternoon. Needless to say, this rarely ever happened. Watching a single MRI, CT, ultrasound, is enough for me to know what i need to know. While watching the actual test wasn't all that great, I was happy to sit with the radiologists and read the panels. I can see how some people would be attracted to this lifestyle. While many people don't give credit to these guys sitting in the dark looking at shades of grey, there is a real art to it. And the amount of people contact is vastly underrated. Physicians of all specialties are constantly calling and asking for clarification or questions. Not to mention the nervous patients in the hallway, who often want to meet the radiologist.
I did have a single day in interventional radiology and I must say, this specialty might be the best kept secret in medicine. You interact with patients all day long, doing diagnostic procedures. Things like difficult lumbar punctures, artery embolization removal, and any other procedures you can think of. And when you are done, you call and tell other doctors the answer then move on to the next patient. So if you like procedures, patients, and knowing answers who wouldn't like it? For me, it lacks the urgency of the ER, but it was pretty close to awesome. Since I was not able to grab any pictures, I decided to post on here a few super funny ones the Radiologists showed me.
During that day, I saw a 14 year old male with a large thrombus in his ARM. Now for those of you not in medicine, a thrombus is a blood clot in your vein. If the blood can't leave the area, the area will swell. Thrombi can happen anywhere in your body but its is mostly in your legs. Certain conditions can cause your blood to be sticky or clot easily, some of them include: pregnancy, cancer, or taking oral contraceptive pills. But a clot in a kid happens very very rarely and for a clot to be in the arm is even more rare. So it was probably a once in a lifetime patient. The interventional radiologist did end up clearing out the clot, but we never did find out why the kid had one.
The only other neat story I have from this rotation I wish I had grabbed the CT. It was a 'stat' read on several CT images for a patient in the ER that had been hit by a car. We were discussing the pneumothorax in the lungs (a hole that was popped in the lungs) when suddenly the radiologist leaps up and yells shit and calls the ER frantically. He asks for the resident and shouts this patient has an aortic dissection, call the trauma surgeons! Luckily, the resident had already called the trauma surgerons and the patient was whisked off to surgery. I never did find out if she made it. But it was intense. :D
*the majority of these images came from
this website. It was a pinup calendar that a radiology company (Eizo) produced to help with marketing. I thought it was hysterical. Several radiologists had it hanging up in their secret radiology 'batcave" :)
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