Down Fall

This patient fell 15 feet from a roof and broke his radius and ulna. Another tech did the x-rays (and hung this first one upside down).

The bones are so crushed that this lateral looks almost like an AP.

El Bow

Saturday was a dislocated elbow night. Two in one night - how often does that happen?


This pt was very, very drunk. They gave her 8 of morphine and she was still writhing around on the cart. She also threatened to murder me if I touched her elbow and it hurt her. I couldn't really do a lateral (or an AP or anything that looked right), but I tried and she didn't kill me, so fairly successful.
This next pt dislocated and fractured his radius. He also wanted to kill me. The student I was working with said he looked like he was going to punch me when I was positioning his arm. Hey- if you come to the ER, you're in a lot of pain and you want x-rays done, it might hurt. Boo hoo. Would you rather not know what is wrong with you?
He wouldn't let me move his arm for the AP, so the x-ray below was done with tube/film angle magic. I was pretty close to AP all things considered.
Then I spent an hour in surgery workin' the C-arm.
And ta da- post op films. Looks a lot better, right? (ignore the yellow arrow-it's not pointing at anything)

Getting Old

This is such a neat x-ray in real life, but unfortunately it doesn't copy very well.
The pt was an 86 y/o cancer pt. She had absolutely no control over her arm. When I lifted her arm to position it, it flopped around like a wet noodle.
I also did an external rotation, but that did NOT copy at ALL. And it was so gross looking too.