Here's a strange thing that happened to me yesterday. I went in because of some joint pain in my shoulder and hip. They scheduled a bone scan and some x-rays. When they were doing the x-rays, the machine wasn't functioning correctly and they seemed to be just starting it over and over. One once instance the machine was on for at least 30 seconds instead of the quick noise. One time the tech forgot to put film in and after he came back in and put the film in I could hear the other tech say something and the tech replied something that sounded like "he already has cancer". My shoulder hurt much worse the rest of the day.

Here's a question I have. If the machine was malfunctioning, could it harm me in any way? Just curious.

Ed

Ed,

It's strange that you should mention this. I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago that has had me rattled ever since.

I've had some ongoing back-of-the-neck pain that my oncologist (my primary care doctor) wanted to check out, so he ordered cervical spine x-rays. The machine was obviously zeroed in on basically the same area where I had radiation 15 years ago. The technician seemed to be having problems with the machine and after a couple of shots she moved me to a different one to complete the process. Within a few hours, the lining of my mouth (tongue, gums, back of the throat) was in pain, similar to what I had felt a couple of weeks into radiation. I called my doctor in a panic, and he assured me that the conventional x-ray machines would not generate enough radiation to cause any damage, but frankly I'm at a loss to understand why I had that kind of sudden reaction.

The pain has been subsiding gradually each day, but you can be sure I'm watching that area very closely again.

Cathy

The FDA considers unneccessary exposure to x-rays to be an MDR reportable event (Medical Device Report). They consider it to be an injury issue. The same goes for when scans are lost and studies need to be repeated. "Timer" components are considered "critical devices" on x-ray equipment and their failures are investigated seriously as well. Institutions, health care professionals, manufacturers and private citizens can file an FDA form 3500 to Medwatch. See: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/problem.html

It is a little absurd considering all of the ionizing radiation we have received in treatment. Are you actually "injured" from an x-ray or scan study gone awry - probably not.

I must admit I had to laugh when the dentist placed the little lead apron over me a week after I had completed therapeutic radiation in a foot thick concrete, lead lined room (to protect the rad techs).

Diagnostic x-ray energy potentials are very tiny compared to therapeutic. Can this potential cause pain? - I would seriously look for another cause.

The risk is that every x-ray exposure adds to your lifetime exposure total, as x-ray exposure is cumulative.

I have been on the path to implants, and this involves quite a number of panoramic x-rays of the jaw -- the same jaw that had 7 weeks of rad. Has anyone spoken with a dentist about post-tx dental x-rays being a risk? The Expen$ive $peciali$t doing the implants didn't have a clue when I asked him, which shows that the most expensive is not always the best...

I should also mention that when the government typically considers a "maximum exposure" amount they typically devide the actual number (that would cause death for instance) by 10 to have a reasonable margin of safety.

Joanna, dental r-rays are the weakest x-ray potential you can be exposed to.

In the last five years a new dental x-ray system which uses computer imaging and a in the mouth sensor instead of actual film has been on the market, and my dentist and many others have switched to it. You receive 1/10th the amount of radiation (which was low anyway) and the doctor can email your x-rays to another doctor instantly. Dental images are much lower exposure than CT scans which we all get as a matter of course for years after treatment.

Thank you, gentlemen, for straightening me out. I don't worry about much, but I got this into my head and it wouldn't go away. I hoped my pursuit of teeth was not exposing me to unacceptable risk, and it appears that is not the case.

I got a call today from the Director of Radiology. She got the email I sent to my oncology nurse this morning and wanted to assure me that the machine only had a computer problem in recording the image. She further elaborated that the image not recording indicated there was no exposure or there would have been an image. The problem was the process that rotates and loads the x-ray tubes.

I told her the tech should have come out and explained to me what was broken and tell me there was no risk and all would have been fine versus the mumbling behind the curtain thing that happened.

I also saw the doctor that was in the hallway just before my last round of chemo discussing with the pharmacist whether the dose would be fatal or not, given my current health (at the time). He remembered me, too, and I was fighting back the urge to ask him if he could recall the "hall talk" as well as I can. I am amazed how little I do remember from that period but how well that conversation in particular sticks in my permanent memory bank. I am glad, too, that he calculated correctly!

Ed

Ah, yet another reason to wear your Walkman during treatment. My oncologist and first ENT did no talking behind my back. The ENT was mad at me, told me to get my affairs in order, I had a very advanced cancer. The oncologist gave me a page with the statistical probabilities based on the staging with the 38% 5 year survival rate highlighted. No sugarcoating here. At least I couldn't hear worse news anywhere else ;-)
I actually made up my own sound track for chemo and radiation (they had a decent sound system in the radiation cell - it would be hard to wear a Walkman with headphones, not to mention the radiation probably would not be good for it)). I figured it was better than listening to all of those damn voices in my head.

I should also mention that today I read that there is some concern about the amount of radiation people receive getting a multislice CT for instance.

They are really worried about this whole body scanning business that is being touted on the TV. MRI's are by far and away the safest scans as no x-rays are involved.