I read in article in a magazine recently, while at the hospital (where else?) about the increasing amounts of imaging being done - and how it affects cancer risk. Ok, everything affects cancer risk. Don't drink out of plastic bottles. Don't stand near a microwave. Don't use cell phones too long at one time. But this one is scary.
Medical imaging. An increasing amount of patients are being diagnosed with cancer - BECAUSE of medical tests that are being done on them. Tests for OTHER conditions. Conditions like my son's.
It's a vicious web:
The boy gets sick.
Doctors need a PRECISE diagnosis in order to medicate him
They order a CT/xray
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
He gets medicated
The medication runs out
The boy gets sick
They say they don't WANT to do imaging, but insurance requires it in order to prescribe medicine this powerful - and they really do need it to know exactly what they are dealing with. Because if you give this child the wrong medicine - he ends up in MUCH worse shape than when we started.
Each CT scan involves 10 to 20 millisieverts. Based on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, excess cancer risk was apparent after exposures of 50 to 150 millisieverts.
Our son has had 12 CTs (that we have records for). That equals 180 millisieverts, on average.
As if this poor child doesn't have enough on his mind. Please don't let him find a copy of this study. And please give me a drink.
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