Blog 45 Stories While Becoming An Ultrasonographer

( Being chosen to learn Ultrasound)

(Understanding how ultrasound scans work)

To see inside peoples bodies intrigued me. (especially looking at pregnant women’s babies!) After seeing my first one, I was totally convinced that what was inside was a real human at day one of conception. I found heartbeats and movements as early as three weeks.I scanned many twins, a set of triplets, and a conjoined twin in which I still have part of the scan. Unfortunately, I also found many miscarriages, and anomalies to the baby, which would always touch my heart.

Ultrasound is a quick and cheaper way to verify problems in people’s abdomen, pelvis, babies’ brains, heart echoes, thyroids, vascular obstructions, and more. It is usually used as a first study to diagnose patients before doing more expensive studies. It simply uses sound waves to rebound off of the solid anatomy of a patient. It can diagnose easy things such as gallbladder stones and sludge, kidney cysts and stones, ovarian cysts , endometriosis, possible tumors, fatty tissues, and can quickly measure organs. It can do much more now, but I did it for only fifteen years, and usually while doing nuclear medicine.

(Funny Ultrasound Stories While in the Navy)

It only took about three weeks to learn enough to do studies on my own. And, as most women know, to do obstectric ultrasound, you had to have a full bladder. The urine acted as a “window” to see the uterus, ovaries, babies, and more in this technique. This could be the hardest part of the study because a woman’s pain tolerance varied in holding the bladder for so long.

I had many occasions when the patient could not hold their bladder long enough. So much that they would also get nauseated. Once, I had stepped out of the room to develop my films, which was down the hall in Nuclear Medicine. This patient told me she was hurting bad, so I promised to hurry. She did not tell me that she might throw up. My trash can was beside the curtain. As I came back, I heard splattering on the floor. I sped up to get to her.

When I pulled open the curtain and stepped in, I landed directly into a huge puddle of throw-up and urine. My uniform shoes were slippery and I began the slip and slide dance. Finally, I fell into the middle of the pool. Luckily, I kept an extra uniform in my locker. She apologized and still had enough urine in her bladder for the doctor to do his follow-up.

Another time, I had a patient that began getting sick, also. She told me that she could make it to the doctor’s follow-up! So, I developed my film and stood in line to show the doctors. I was right next to the restroom, then suddenly my patient stuck her head through the curtain and in a very petite and soft spoken voice said,” Corpsman, I think I am going to throw-up!!” So I opened the bathroom door, and said,”Quick! Come to the bathroom!” And, so she repeated it, and I said, “Come to the bathroom!” again. All at once, she made a quick dash up the hall! When she got to me, she looked me in my face, and “BLAH!”, she threw-up all over me! I stood there in shock, while everyone laughed and the patient went into the bathroom!

(How Hungry Would YOU have to be to do this?)

While I was still training, I had a morbidly obese patient who was in the hospital with vaginal bleeding. I had to do a pregnancy study. I tried everything I knew what to do, but I could not get pictures. I gave up and asked the doctor if he would come do it with me to hit two birds with one stone. When we came back into the room, the doctor pulled back her sheet while explaining that I needed to go under the flap of fat skin that was at her pelvis. He asked the patient to use her hand to pull up the extra flap and when she did, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich fell out. The odor was horrendous.

When asked why it was there, the lady said that they were not feeding her enough and so she kept a sandwich hid to eat later. This outraged the doctor and he placed the probe back into the cleanser and demanded that she get sent back to the hospital floor and not to send here again until she had been given a bath. I was so embarrassed for both of us. When she returned, she still had too much fat to get good pictures. The doctor simply got a 1000 milliliter IV bag to create a fluid the sound waves could go through and he was able to complete the study, and it taught me a different way to create a clear barrier that the sound waves could go through.

(A “TIME” I did not Keep my Promise)

One of my friends in Nuclear Medicine was pregnant and she asked me to do a study on her after hours when her husband could be there for it. I told them to bring a video and I would tape it for them. (unofficially) When they came for the study, she was beginning to get embarrassed about me doing the study,( but she really wanted me to be the one to do it.) I assured her that at no time do I expose her and that she will see that it was very easy. I asked her to remove her pants and panties, place a sheet over herself, then tell me to come in.

When I went back into the room I talked with her explaining that I would place a towel across her chest and let her tuck it under her bra. I then took the sheet and folded it down to her pubic hairline all the while again telling her that this was all I was going to need and all I would see. But, somehow my watch got hung on the sheet. I pulled away from her and , as you are predicting, the sheet came with me and there she was , naked from the chest down. Wow! What embarrassment. I quickly put it over her again and removed my watch. While apologizing, I looked back at her husband, (who was also my friend) and we both started quietly laughing. I never wore a watch again while doing a patient. Today, I never were a watch!

(Blog 46 More stories of my naval ultrasound days)