Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
OK, this is really starting to worry me. Since June, I've now had 4 CT scans, multiple x-rays and an MRI.
The scans were due to:
- Car accident in June with pain in the neck. They scanned my whole back and neck;
- Abdominal issue in September, that I think were likely due to diffuse symptoms of the PEs;
- PEs in September;
- And now stroke-like symptoms on Tuesday.
When is too much radiation too much?
I'm soooo sick and tired of being sick and I don't want to worry about cancer on top of everything else!!
The scans were due to:
- Car accident in June with pain in the neck. They scanned my whole back and neck;
- Abdominal issue in September, that I think were likely due to diffuse symptoms of the PEs;
- PEs in September;
- And now stroke-like symptoms on Tuesday.
When is too much radiation too much?
I'm soooo sick and tired of being sick and I don't want to worry about cancer on top of everything else!!
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
When I had a PE in October they initially booked a CT scan of my pelvis to check where the clots came from The consultant cancelled it because he said I'd had too many CTs in recent years and that he didn't want to subject me to unnecessary radiation when the results wouldn't make any difference to my treatment. I could see his point. He said a CT scan was the equivi. of 500 chest xrays and that did concern me. I'd had CTs scans for a broken back, fractured wrist, fractured clavicle and to check on some urinary problems, plus the chest CT for the PE, so five in all.
When I came home from hospital I did a check on the dangers of CTs on the internet. Some US sites did state they gave up to 500 times more radiation than a single x ray but most estimated the radiation to be 100-250 times higher. That is still high!!!
I am happy that the CTs scans I had were necessary but I agree with my consultant that if the CT scan result isn't going to make any difference to diagnosis or treatment then it isn't worth the risk of radiation exposure.
Remember radiation is all around us and people living in particular areas get a much higher daily dosage than the rest of us!
Sheesh I've lost count of how many I've had since my PE 5 years ago. I've had them for the PE thing and due to another issue, and would prefer not to have them. It's something I now discuss with my docs when they recommend it to make sure it's necessary.
I do know that I'm more cautious now with "unnecessary" radiation. If I see a new chiropractor and he wants x-rays of my spine "just to see," then I usually tell him no. No reason for that, as far as I'm concerned.