Back Again

I was at Old Job today. They needed help, because someone was on vacation. It was great to see everyone again. I'd forgotten how friendly everyone is at Old Hosp. Not like at New Hosp. were they are rude. They = EVERYONE!
I did mamms and it felt like I wasn't even working, that's how easy it is to use their machine. Instead of struggling to get passable images, I could walk into the room and walk out 15 mins later, with perfect images. I didn't even break a sweat.
Sigh.
But there are things I like about New Job too
I just can't think of any right now.
Ironically, one of my students, that just graduated, was hired as my replacement at Old Job. Interesting.
There really is a definite attitude difference between the 2 hospitals.
Perhaps, it's a difference of big vs. small.
Mean vs. nice.

This is a pic of the ancient beast that (wants to) whip my butt once a week. As you can see Wilma Flintstone had her first mammo done on this very machine.

This is sort of what the Old Job's mammo machine looks like. I couldn't find a very good pic. Surprisingly, usually GE has their advertising stuff all over. Any way it is a very gorgeous GE Diamond.

Rockin' Boobies

I totally rocked the Mamms on Monday.
Perfect pictures, even with difficult patients. (oooo, I can't lift my arm, ow ow ow)
The processor ate two of my MLO's, but other than that everything was great!

I've realized that I just have to suck it up and use more compression than I was previously comfortable with. Every job has it's little tricks. Every machine is different. Every patient is different.
But I think I've finally beaten the sucky machine!

Monday Joke

Too tired today.
I was in Mamms again.
I think I have the meanie machine beaten. Finally. The lead tech. checked my work and said I did an "excellent job". Good....but I still feel bad using so much compression. :( Oh, well, it's kind of funny, not a single woman complained about the compression.
At my old job everyone complained about compression - before we compressed them. Then they would say "oh, that wasn't so bad".
Strange.

OK I have to get up super early tomorrow so here is a funny joke:

Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?

No, Really?

Yeah. It runs in your genes!

I Suck

I hate, hate, hate my new job!

After yesterday, where I did a post-op knee in recovery ALONE (even though I didn't know where the recovery room was or what their protocol was!! I like to jump in and try not to drown) and a port-a-cath placement in surgery ALONE(with 2 students, but that totally counts as alone). -longest sentence ever!

Anyway after yesterday, I thought I was pretty hot stuff! Rockin' the new job no sweat.
I hit a wall today. Crawling over this wall, called Mammograms, took all day!

I used to be really, really good at Mammos. No pain, pts would thank me and request me to do their Mamm the next year. All that is over....

The machine at the new job is really, really old. More than 13 years. I'm used to a new machine that does everything for you except comfort the pt. This ugly, stupid piece of junk that I will have to use every single week, is a real wham, bam, thank you ma'am piece of crap. I like to do the compression slowly - it's not so painful that way.
Sucky machine has 2 speeds - off and super fast.

I was apologizing to pts all day long!
A mammo is NOT suppose to be painful.
At times I almost wanted to give them the number of my old job, just because they have a better machine and I felt so bad for the pts getting squished.

This is how my day went: I love this job....oh, mammos no problem....holy crap what is this thing!?! that's your mammo machine?!?! No Way! No way!..... Ok well, that didn't look too bad let me try one....ok I suck....no I really suck....I hate this job.....I really hate this job....now I want to kill myself....will this day never end?....oh, that wasn't too bad....wow! maybe I've beaten this!....No, I suck....stupid machine...Wow! good mammos! finally!....Sorry lady, I'll wrap your breasts up and you can tuck them under your arm.....She needs new boobs, but I got good mammos....Ha, Ha!....I'm outta here!

Happy March

Happy March!
I turn 25 this month. Boo.

It's depressing. If I live to be 100 (ha,ha, not likely) 1/4 of my life is already over.

But really, I should look at it as 1/3, because statistically I'm more likely to only live to 75.
Sad.

I thought this article about hormone related side effects was interesting. I see anecdotal evidence of this when I'm doing mammograms on women that have taken HRT in the past. Their breasts are very firm and hard, so it's much more difficult to get adequate compression. We all hate doing HRT pts.

However, the worst are women with breast implants. We draw straws to see who has to do those.
One woman came in to the dept. and was suprised at how difficult her mammogram was now that she had breast implants. Her surgeon told her that mammograms would be easier now that she had the implants, because there 'wasn't as much breast tissue'. -Not true!

As you can see from these pictures.
First, standard mamm views are taken with moderate force to the breast and implant.



Then, implant displacement views are taken. The implant is pushed back against the chest wall and the breast tissue is pulled forward and compressed. Imagine a half empty tube of toothpaste. Just like pushing the toothpaste toward the cap, we push or squeeze the implant toward the chest wall. There are double the views(x-rays) = more time and more times compressing the pt.