Speaker 1: 0:03

Good day everyone, and thank you so much for joining again in another episode of Speaking with Sandra L, where it's all about the patient experience. Why is the patient experience important? Well, it's important because we are the key factors in the healthcare system, are the key factors in the healthcare system and many times we, as patients, we don't see ourselves as having the power. We don't see ourselves as doing that, but we are in fact. We do in fact hold that power. We do in fact hold that power, and so it's important for us to know that and it's important for us to recognize that. What I am going to do today is I'm going to start in a moment. I was trying to wait to see what was going on with LinkedIn. For some reason, it's showing me LinkedIn is having an issue. So we're going to proceed ahead because I'm not going to hold this up and, since this is a podcast, my lovely people on LinkedIn will see this. If they're not seeing it live now, they will, in fact, see this at a later date, but it will come up.

Speaker 1: 1:16

So today's episode, we have speaking with us Sharae Reid. Sharae Reid and I'm so grateful to her because every time, choms has reached out from the beginning and said we're doing this or we're doing that. She's like count me in, I want to be counted in, and so I count her in, and she always comes through for us, and we need her to come through for us because she has some information that we all need to hear. Now I happen to be looking, scrolling one day through my emails, and I saw where there was an incident that happened with the MRI that she's going to get into in a little while that we all need, and this will not be her first time telling us this as patients, because she's come on our shows and she's said this plenty of times before.

Speaker 1: 2:09

However, some people get it and some people don't get it, and when they don't get it, it hurts us as patients, because then our patient experience is horrible. Oh, I'm not doing an MRI, I hate that MRI, I'm this, that and the other. It's horrible. Oh, I'm not doing an MRI, I hate that MRI, I'm this, that and the other. And that's because you're not really preparing yourselves for the MRI experience before it happens. So when things happen ass happened in the story that we're going to go over in a minute or two to this young man that didn't listen. Well, he didn't have Sandra L and he didn't have a patient experience podcast to forewarn him, but those of you who are listening, you now have the information. You will be having the information that you need to have when it comes down to what you can do taking the MRI to actually have the most optimal, best healthcare experience ever with an MRI, and no longer will you have anxiety or freeze up, but you'll be able to know.

Speaker 1: 3:10

In addition to those things that we'll be talking, those stories that we'll be talking about, we're also going to share some what's going on now. And there's something else that I've read about recently and I keep seeing it in the news and I'm like, okay, well, I have a perfect expert coming on my show, so we're going to discuss that. So I'm not even going to look at this, but I am going to ask her about it Without further ado. I'm going to go ahead and introduce Sharae Reid, I'm going to let her introduce herself and then we'll get into the question and answer section. Sharae, tell us all about you.

Speaker 2: 3:45

Thank you so much, sandra. I'm always grateful to be a part of your patient demographic that come on and join your show, and to you and your organization, thank you. I appreciate you. As Sandra said, my name is Sheree Reed. I am the patient care strategist.

Speaker 2: 4:08

I have been in the healthcare field close to 25 years now, and specifically in the radiology field close to 20 years, and I've been an MRI technologist for over 15 years and, seeing it all from the extremely happy let's get this done. I'm not going to be phased by an MRI machine or exam to the extremely frightful crying. There's no way I'm getting in there patient. So the demographic is vast. So you have to be able to speak to each of those patients where they are, speak to each of those patients where they are, and you have to be able to calm them down enough to get through the exam successfully and get the doctors what they need in order to diagnose them properly. So, yeah, it's been a journey and I continue on it and the joy I get from patient experience and what I do to provide great quality patient care for my patients I've done for many, many years and it's an absolute joy of mine.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Thank you so much, and so my next question to you is this and you just gave us a little bit about it what initially drew you to the field of MRI technology? I mean, you could have been an x-ray tech, you could have been a CT scan. You're just like no, no, no, I don't want none of that. I want to concentrate on MRIs. So what made you concentrate on MRIs?

Speaker 2: 6:01

Well, to be honest, I actually started as an x-ray tech. I went to school and got my associates in radiology as an x-ray tech and I did that for, I want to say, about 10, 12 years and then I decided I wanted to go back to school and get my MRI certification. And I chose MRI because, out of all the other modalities whether it be CAT scan, ultrasonography, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, memo, mammography, memo mammography MRI was the only modality that you can look at an image and know exactly what you're looking at. And for me, going into something new, I that was important to me because, you know, I checked that ultrasound and I'm like I don't know what I'm looking at. I have no idea what this black and white image is and unless it's a baby, I am lost in ultrasound. So I chose MRI specifically just because everything shows up so well. You can see hair follicles, hair follicles on your skin in MRI. That's how great MRI is and I was excited about that.

Speaker 2: 7:39

And the time that you can take with each patient. See, with CT it's very quick. The x-ray or image happens very quickly. X-ray the same Mammography. There's a little more time in it but it's not as closely interactive as I'd like, even though it's intrusive, but none of the other modalities, in my opinion, have the ability to sit with your patient long enough to have a true connection, and it's a way to show your quality service to your patients, because they're going to need you. If they're not in pain, they're in emotional distress. If they're not in emotional distress, they understand the importance of the exam to the point where this could save my life. So they are very grateful and even when they're upset and angry, they're still grateful. They're still grateful, and that is one area. Mri is one area where you can actually showcase your skills in quality patient care.

Speaker 1: 8:58

So that's why I chose MRI. Thank you so much for that. And I actually have to chuckle a little because I'll never forget. I was in a car accident a couple of years back and I went you know, of course they send you to the emergency room and I went in the emergency room and I had an MRI done lawsuit involved and I had an MRI done. So the attorney that I went to for the accident, he was like well, what did you have done? I said I had an x-ray. I went and I had an x-ray taken and told him the story about the x-ray being taken and he was like, okay, so you actually didn't have anything done then, right. And I was like, no, I had an x-ray. So he sent me to the MRI people and they did it and they came back and they was like no, I don't even know why. They told you that wasn't there. You actually have a hairline fracture. So when you just said that a minute ago like you can actually literally see what's on the X-ray you know what's on the MRI versus what's on the X-ray I told them. I was like you know what? That's why they did that, because you could actually literally see with the eye you could see what's actually going on there. So I mean, versus them sending me home and saying, oh, there's nothing there, we don't see anything, but this is doing the x-ray. I really did need to have an MRI done. So thank you so much for explaining that to me and for those of you that don't know that if you have an MRI done and that MRI after the MRI is done and they're telling you, no, no, no, no, there's nothing wrong, and you're going through life and you're like, okay, yeah, there is really something wrong with me. I don't really know what's wrong with it. Ask your provider to send you to an MRI facility, to send you to an MRI facility.

Speaker 1: 10:48

I myself I encourage offsite MRI facilities because of the cost. So if you go to an offsite MRI center meaning one where it's not affiliated with the hospital you're not walking through the hospital door. You're going to an offsite facility. Your insurance company will pay more on it because the price is lower. You're not getting a professional fee and a technical fee.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Whenever you go into the hospital for anything, you're automatically walking in with two bills, a minimum of two bills going out that door when, if you go to an off-site facility, you're only having that one bill. And I just had this conversation the other day with someone that says every time I go to the, she was getting labs. And she said every time I go, I get a bill of $500. And I'm like where are you going for your labs? And she told me where she was going and I was like well, the reason why you're getting this high bill every time you have labs is because you're going into a hospital and whenever you enter a hospital, you're automatically assessed to these, automatically.

Speaker 1: 11:56

It doesn't matter, say you go in there, you need labs, they find something else wrong with you. Well, the bill just keeps going up and up and up and up and up. She said I didn't know that. How was I supposed to know that? I said, yeah, many patients don't know it, which is why we started the podcast and which is why we do the work that we do to make sure that patients understand what they are doing and how they're doing it and how it impacts financially, how it impacts them. So that's just my little tidbit when it comes down to where to go.

Speaker 2: 12:28

And can I add to that? So it's important you bring up a great point about what you're being charged for. Now, if your ailment is one that requires you to go to a hospital, make sure you do your due diligence in checking out which facility kind of specialize in your issue. Outpatient facilities may not have a MRI capability to do, let's say, cardiac, and you may have to go to a hospital for that. Or some facilities may not specialize in livers and a hospital may.

Speaker 2: 13:23

So I've had it where, just because I've worked in both outpatient facilities and hospital, I've had providers send their patients to us in the hospital after they have had their exam at an outpatient facility, only because they didn't have the specialization of that exam. So one of the hospitals I last worked at in downtown Fort Worth had a specialty in livers and he wanted his patients to be seen at our facility just because of the specialization. So just make sure that you do your due diligence to see if this is a serious ailment and I need specialization treatments etc. Find out what facility be it outpatient or not, if they do plenty of those. If you're having a kidney issue, how many kidney exams are you all doing here, Just so you know you won't have to go later because the results from that facility isn't good enough and he or she just sends you to another facility that specialize in it that you know does a better job. So I just wanted to add that.

Speaker 1: 14:51

And I thank you so much for adding that, because this is where it's important for patients to know about Sandra L, about Tom's Foundation. Is this that's part of a patient's responsibility? About Tom's foundation? Is this that's part of a patient's responsibility? We have responsibilities when it comes to our healthcare as well. So part of your responsibility of being a patient and being an engaged patient and educated patient and empowered patient is looking at your benefits that you have or calling the insurance company because you're paying them. Your insurance is paying for you to have access to your insurance company's customer service reps. Why are we paying for things and we're not using them? So call your insurance company if it's not an emergent and it's an urgent but not an emergent and you have some time call your insurance company and have them do their job that they're getting paid for. Where can I go? My doctor is sending me. He needs to have this. Where can I go?

Speaker 1: 16:00

One you have proof that you spoke to somebody. Please notate when you called them, who you spoke to when you called, so that they could pull a record if they need to pull a record. The other thing is you call the insurance company and say, hey, I went here and you're charging me a higher fee, but I went here because my doctor sent me here, because the other places in town outpatient facilities or other hospitals they didn't have the equipment, the correct equipment, to treat me. That is part of your patient responsibility. God didn't give us this to be quiet. He gave it to us for us to speak up, for us to ask questions and for us to be in control and self-advocate for ourselves. If you have a problem self-advocating, reach out. You do have help. I get tired of hearing but no one was here to tell me and I didn't have help.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Call, pick up the phone and call Choms and ask us you know doctors saying this what should I do If you're not sure? Can you help me? Us Doctors saying this what should I do If you're not sure? Can you help me? If you're not sure? There's all types of advocates that will help you do the same thing. Pick up the phone and call, but don't sit there and say okay, well, I didn't know, because I didn't know is an excuse when you have every right and you have all the resources that you need to have to actually know what you should and shouldn't do and what you can and cannot do so. Stop you know, stop it. Stop saying I didn't know that. Yeah, that's a. That's a point that drives me. Now I want to ask you can you share an example of a patient who followed instructions and had a good patient experience, and then one that did not do what they were supposed to do and the experience did not go well?

Speaker 2: 17:50

Yes, oh, plenty of those. So well, okay, the first example of a patient following directions to a T. So I like to use examples with cardiac scanning, just because it can be very complex and there's not a lot of technologists, mri technologists, mri and then texts that can actually scan cardiacs. Hearts are a small group and to come across a facility that scan hearts is another challenge. So when we have a patient that has a cardiac exam, there's preparation that has to happen a lot of the time. So, depending on the type of cardiac scan, the preparation can very well be no caffeine within 24 hours of your exam. Caffeine will speed up your heart rate and cause your exam to dress, what to wear when coming in and how to prepare for their cardiac exam and the time that it was going to take. So for this particular exam, there was no caffeine and the patient had to be aware that this exam could take up to two hours. So the doctor and good thing we had this phone call prior, because the doctor told them oh, this exam will take you 30 minutes, you'll be in and out 30 minutes. So it is time consuming for the technologists to have to make these phone calls, pre-procedure phone calls ahead of time. But it's also very necessary in a lot of instances where you have patients show up thinking their exam, you know, is only 30 minutes and it could be two hours.

Speaker 2: 20:29

So we had a nice little conversation before he showed up. He showed up no caffeine, ready to go and I told him okay, I need you to go use the restroom. He's like, I don't have to go, I need you to go use the restroom because this exam could take up to two hours. We don't want to get in the middle of your exam and then you have to get up and we have to start over. So he of course okay, let me go try. And of course he did tinkle a bit and came back and because he followed exam so or instructions so well with the breathing instructions.

Speaker 2: 21:06

So for some cardiac exam the breath hold is different, just depending on the technologies or what the radiologist wants. But the breath hold could be a little challenging. A lot of the exams the tech will say taking a breath and hold it. Well, for the cardiac exams, for the most optimal image, we say taking a breath, blow it out and then hold your breath. So it's a little harder. So try holding your breath for 20 seconds after you've breathed your air out, so you have no air on reserve in your lungs.

Speaker 2: 21:47

You just breathe that out, and then you got to try to hold that for 20 seconds. It's a little harder, so I coached him through it. We, you know, practiced a couple of times prior to getting started and he did magnificent and his exam was an hour An hour. It could have took up to two hours depending on how hard he was or how hard of a time he was having with the breath holds or him moving all around and we having to go reposition him, but he followed instructions to the T and was done in half the time and was done in half the time. So that's the importance of listening to your technologist, because there's a reason behind the madness. So, if you're able to do it, please listen and take heed, because it could save you the time and it could save you the uncomfortability of being on that hard table. Now, on the opposite side of that, a patient who did not listen to that same instructions for a cardiac exam and not only did they drink their coffee that morning, their caffeinated coffee that morning speed up their heart rate. So that was an issue during the exam. They didn't follow the instructions of go use the restroom prior to getting on the table and they had to use the restroom right after I injected the contrast.

Speaker 2: 23:21

Now let me explain how the contrast works. Works An MRI and this of course will vary from facility to facility, but most contrast agents the hospital facility will say you cannot re-inject that patient within 24 hours. Some radiologists will take over and say you know, I don't see enough contrast in. You can give more contrast and put my name on it. Or you know they can't get contrast again until another 24 hours, and that's usually the rule of thumb, right? You cannot re-inject. Your dosage is based on your weight. So how much you weigh determines the kilograms you're able to get, or the milliliters that you're able to get for the contrast. Well, after the injection of the contrast, contrast goes all over your body. So it does not just go to the area that we're scanning, it goes all over your body and it gets absorbed and you pee it out. Basically, so it's not kept in your body. But once you inject you can't go backwards, you can't start over because the contrast is already there.

Speaker 2: 24:48

So after the injection there is a timing of images. That has to happen right after injection and if you miss that time you've missed what the doctor needs to see within the heart muscle to let them know what he's looking at or what he's looking for. To let him know what he's looking at or what he's looking for. So, patient, squeeze the ball. I have to use the restroom. I'm like, well, I just inject the contrast. Can you help hold out for at least another 15 minutes so we can get the most important images done? That way we can give the doctor something to look at.

Speaker 2: 25:25

And a lot of doctors, if it's not a whole exam, they won't read it at all at. And a lot of doctors, if it's not a whole exam, they won't read it at all. So he couldn't wait. He had to get up and go and he had to reschedule. So we had already done an hour on the table of scanning just for him to push the button in the middle of and say, no, I have to go and have to start all over. You have to call scheduling again. You have to get back on the schedule. You have to, you know, do your screening form again.

Speaker 2: 25:59

All of that over, because he did not want to listen. To go, try to use the restroom before we get you on this table, because it could take up to two hours. So it's important. It's important to listen and, like I said, it's a method to the madness. So listen to your technologists and ask questions, because a lot of technologists get busy and forget to say hey, go, try to use the restroom before we get you on this table. Or make sure you let us know if you have any uncomfortable feeling before we get you on the table and then, 15 minutes into it, you need to reposition, messing up the image. We try to get you as comfortable as possible right in the beginning. That way you don't have to feel the need or urge to move and mess up the image.

Speaker 1: 26:53

Thank you so much for that. And once again it draws attention to patients' responsibilities. You are responsible and you just heard her. You're responsible for calling. You know when the doctor gives you a sheet of paper and says here's a lab, here's an MRI order, I want you to have an MRI. You're responsible for making sure that your patient experience is good and you could do that by calling the MRI facility that is going to do the MRI. Because she just told you that doctors a lot of times do not know that an MRI could take up to two hours. They don't even know MRI could take up to two hours. They don't even know it could take up to an hour. They're just giving you a sheet and you're following the doctor's order.

Speaker 1: 27:35

Stop having that white coat syndrome. And that white coat syndrome comes in when we go to the doctor and we say well, the doctor has white coat and he's an authority, so he should know better than I should know. I say this all the time. Healthcare is no longer truly a healthcare process. It's a business process. There's money attached to contracts, contracts attached to time. So a lot of times, while our doctors we love our doctors we want you to talk to your doctors and actually have those conversations. But we need you to stop having that white coat syndrome where you're like, well, the doctor said no, what do you say? It's your body. Your doctor doesn't control your body. If you have a question or concern, raise it with the doctor. But do your part in making sure your patient experience is good is beautiful by saying now you know to ask okay, well, let me go call them and see what I need to do before I have this done, so that you're not getting there and then getting frustrated your patient experience is horrible. You're blaming it on MRI people, but it's really not their fault. You have the information, now that you know, to call your MRI facility, say what do I need to do? You also have the information that you need to say well, let me check with my insurance company to see what MRI facility I can go to. And then, when they tell me what MRI facility I can go to, you're going to then ask prayerfully. You're going to then ask well, do they specialize in whatever kind of MRI that you want to have before you go, have it done. So we actually already, in less than 20 minutes, we've actually already picked up on two very valid points that need to occur when we go to the facility to have an MRI done.

Speaker 1: 29:30

I do want to bring up another incident that I read about recently. She talked about this in one of her last episodes that she's done with us. There was an article in the news that stated that a wife was having an MRI done. The husband was in the waiting room. She asked them to go get the husband. The husband comes into the room but when he comes on into the room he has some metal chains on him that actually, because they were metal and because it was an MRI machine, the MRI machine was attached to that metal. That husband lost his life because he was in that room with jewelry on that he shouldn't have had on. Now, did he know he shouldn't have had it? I don't know the only person's very important that you know why it is that they tell you when you have an MRI, not to have that kind of jewelry on or what you should and shouldn't be wearing. So, sherry, can you cover that a little bit for us please?

Speaker 2: 30:40

Of course, of course. Now, this was a very recent story, recent story, and so the initial story, the initial story, was that he did have a necklace on. The wife did call him and he went in there, got stuck to the magnet and after reading this initial story, I said there's no way, there's no way. A necklace, there's no way, now it will pull. But to get stuck to the magnet to the point of choking you out and ultimately losing your life, it's no way. But after stories and things are still coming out because, like I said, this is recent, after a few more stories came out about it, it wasn't just a normal necklace, okay, it was a weight training chain. So a lot of, a lot of people who train weightlifting, train train, uh, training in the gym, et cetera, um, or ankle weights, um, it's a chain used for weight training. So it's a big, thick chain and he had to have had it wrapped up in, you know, like a black cloth, just like the ankle weights. It's not just showing metal, it's cloth around the metal or the sandbag or whatever the weight is, it's something around it. So that made more sense and it makes perfect sense. Okay, the bigger the metal piece, the more attracted it is to the magnet, which is why a magnet an MRI machine can pull a car can pull a car. Okay, so we now know that it was a weight training chain that was pulled in. So, although this was an outpatient MRI facility, this incident happened in a trailer, which is basically a trailer that has an MRI machine on it. So they may have had issues with one of their magnets that's inside the facility. So they paid for a trailer to come on site to still keep up with the patient load mode. Okay, so on the trailer, the technologist allowed the husband to come in to help his wife, and this happened in New Jersey. Okay, this story is in New Jersey and from what I read, the husband had been able to help his wife multiple times before and initially I had read an article said that you know he had a chain on in a you know in another exam that she had. Well, I don't know if he must not have gotten as close as he did this time or what, but when you allow patients' family members into zone three zone three is just outside of the room that the scanner is in you have had to do a screening form on that patient's family member as well. Even though they're not getting and having the exam, they're close to the magnet, just like that patient is, so they're needing to fill out the MRI screening form as well. It is our responsibility as technologists to ensure that whomever is in whether it be a nurse or a patient's family member helping out with that patient, it is our responsibility to check, check and recheck the patients and their family members and the nurses and the staff that's going to come into zone four, where the magnet is. It is our responsibility to make sure they have nothing that is metallic on their person and that can be attracted to the magnet. Our responsibility can be attracted to the magnet our responsibility. So initially they were saying that.

Speaker 2: 35:33

You know there were people speculating that he must not have listened to the technologist. He just went in there after hearing his wife call out for help to help get her off the table and we actually saw a video. So there is a video and I have that video. It's a little disturbing. You can't really make out exactly. It's not an up-close video. It's a video of the doorway and you can see the patient laying there on the table. You can see the husband go in to assist her to get up off the table. You can even see the technologist go in after the patient's family member. So the technologist goes to one side of the table, the patient's family member, the husband, go on the other side of the table and he's helping her up. The technologist is not helping, so the husband is helping her up. Well, he has his back to the scanner, and you can see all of this. He has his back to the scanner. Well, as he's trying to pull her up into an upright position, he gets too close to the scanner, which pulls the chain. It pulls the chain, pulling him smack up into the scanner, pulls him, starts pulling him in the scanner and at this time, of course, you can see him struggling. You can see the wife trying to pull on her husband to get him off of the scanner and the technologist looks like that. They are lost for words as to what to do next.

Speaker 2: 37:22

Now, any professional in this instance and I'm not throwing dirt on any technologists we have a very hard job and there's a lot of patients who will not listen to us to save their lives, but you are the last stop when it comes to your department. You are. I have had people cuss me out. I have had people threaten me. I'm coming in there. No, you're not. No, you're not Because they don't understand that you can actually be seriously injured or lose your life. And it does not seem that the technologist was even trying to prevent the patient's family or the husband from coming into the scan room. It doesn't seem that they vetted him to make sure he was able to go into the MRI room. None of it seems that way.

Speaker 2: 38:24

Per a video that is out there. Per a video that is out there. So the technologist is standing there and then, of course, they just cut the video off. I don't know if the guy, from what I read, the guy passed out at the scanner but he didn't die until a couple of days later. I want to say couple of days later.

Speaker 2: 38:56

I want to say but the protocol, when someone is in danger whether you bring a wrong wheelchair in and it's stuck between the patient, or the patient is stuck between the wheelchair and the scanner, or the nurses, or you are there is a quench button in the MRI control room that that technologist could have ran to hit the quench button, it lets off cryogens in the air. It demagnetizes the magnet. It's a process, but it slowly starts demagnetizing the magnet. It's thousands of dollars to get that magnet back, ramped up and performing as it's supposed to, which I know is why a lot of technologists are scared to have to hit that button. But when we're talking about life and death and you're probably scared you're going to lose your job or whatever, but you're talking about life and death go hit the button.

Speaker 2: 39:59

We can talk about what happened, why it happened later, but go hit the button to save this individual's life. They didn't do it. Now, apparently, that patient was stuck to the magnet and I want to say they struggled with trying to get him off of the magnet for at least 30 minutes, from what I read. Way too long to be struggling with a magnet, a huge magnet that you're not going to win. If you've ever looked up YouTube videos on magnets and them testing different things like putting a chair up there or putting some scissors and watching the magnet pull it into the magnet when it's something like a chair, four guys try to pull a chair off of the magnet and cannot do it. Four men can't do it. So for them to try to struggle with this man I'll even say over 10 minutes is too long Trying to get him off of the magnet. It was not happening, so that man tragically lost his life. And again there is still information coming out about that story. It was unfortunate. I just don't see how it happened to the point of I'm not even going to run and quench the magnet.

Speaker 2: 41:45

Now there is a lot of lax. There is a lot of comfortability. That comes with our profession. People get in it, they cross-train in it. There's now MRI schools where you don't have to go get a degree. The training that is needed is not there anymore. Everything is like this. It's like you said earlier, sandra the hospital, the healthcare field, is a business and MRIs are now faster. They're putting more patients on the schedule and it's almost being treated like CT and x-ray, where they're in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out.

Speaker 2: 42:33

And laziness is starting to creep in with some of the technologists and they're not doing their due diligence. They just ask the patients do you have any metal on? No, and a lot of people will forget what they have on their person. And if I'm your technologist, you are going to see me almost pat you down. If I suspect that there's anything on your person. They'll just sit there and kind of look and go no, I don't have anything. And I'll say, are you sure, as I'm touching areas where I suspect you may have something, and they're oh, I have this that can't go in there. So it's a lot of patients that just don't remember having some, which is why it's important to be okay with changing into a gown or the paper cloth, shorts and shirt that they give you at some facilities. You have to be okay with changing out of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 43:40

I had a woman argue me down about a sports bra and it not having a metal. I had to go get a small metal detector to let her know that the clamps on her sports bra was metal. She just argued me no, it's plastic, it's plastic. It's plastic. No, ma'am, that needs to come off, it's metal. I had to go get the metal detector to prove. She was like oh my gosh, it is metal. Now we've wasted 10 minutes going back and forth and you could have just snatched the sports bra off and we could have this, you know, done. So it's very important to be prepared to come out of all of your clothing.

Speaker 2: 44:17

Let your technologist know of anything that you may have on your person. Um, if you're going to help a family member out, uh, to get through an exam, and a lot of times you just won't be able to get the MRI, and some patients are, you know, they really want the exam to happen that day. So I've had to have a woman reschedule and she came in through the ER. She had hair extensions with the metal clips all over her head and she was there to get a brain MRI. There was no way, no way. So she had her mom go to the beauty store to buy the tool that unclamped all of these hair little pieces all throughout her hair so she could have an MRI. So she could have an MRI. It's important that you share with your technologist what you may have on your person before going into zone three.

Speaker 1: 45:17

So Thank you so much for that and thank you for clarifying exactly what happened. You know, when you said 30 minutes, you know what you said. The machine is called quench. I actually took a really deep breath because I'm like, within that 30 minutes, no one that listen to the show or that I speak to on a regular basis that need to know that if you're helping someone that you love in an MRI, you know, take an MRI or be in the MRI room, just make sure that you're just as down. You're just as down, you ain't got nothing on you the same as that patient does, because that's the last thing we want to happen is that, as a caregiver, your own health is put in jeopardy because you're not listening or you didn't know. So if you're listening to this and you have someone in your family that you're caregiving for, you know of a caregiver, please remind them that if they're going in to help that person with an MRI, make sure that they know that it's important for them to be just as disrobed as far as jewelry and hair extensions and bras and all that other stuff as it is the patient that they're helping. Thanks so much for that, Sherry. And then my last question is this?

Speaker 1: 46:50

Recently I've been reading a lot about how MRIs now are doing full body scanning. Is that on the rise? How effective is that? We're actually catching it? And they're saying they're doing this to catch different health conditions and different health diseases.

Speaker 2: 47:13

So is there what's behind that story. So that's relatively new and I have seen a lot of celebrities take advantage of that and, from what I understand, I've been reading a couple of different articles about it and on some of the facilities that offer whole body scans and I want to say that the cost for a typical whole body scan is around two grand. In seeing if there's any issues that you may have, without being so intrusive, I guess it can be effective. In seeing if there, if you have maybe a tumor somewhere or if you have cysts somewhere or if there's any issues probably within your spine. But some of those exams and they probably go up in cost, depending on what all the focus is with this whole body scan, because they are doing a basic scan from head to toe. It's not detailed but it's a basic scan from head to toe just to see if there's anything going on within what they're scanning and to give you say, hey, you need to go now, book an appointment to see about what's going on with your liver because there may be an issue there or you know you have a disc bulging in your back and that's probably the pain you're having, or you know it can give you basic information which can be a good start for a lot of people. Some people just want to know, you know, might there be any issues ahead of time? But a lot of times your body will let you know before having to go get a whole body scan. If you're paying attention to your body, your body a lot of times will let you know.

Speaker 2: 49:26

Now it may not in the instance of possible cancer sneaking up and depending on if this basic whole body scanning also consists of getting contrast, then you still may not know if this is just the whole body scan minus the contrast. Contrast agents is needed for people who had surgery or looking to get surgery abscesses, excuse me, and the doctor is looking for cancer. So how the contrast work. If you have a tumor anywhere in your body and you have an MRI, you take before images without contrast and then you go inject the contrast and the contrast will be drawn to that tumor. It lights up very well.

Speaker 2: 50:25

So something that you may have missed without the contrast is your basic MRI scan. You are able to see the tumor very well with the contrast agent and, depending on if you know these whole body scans consist of adding contrast agents, you may or may not know still that you know you may have an issue of a tumor, whether it be benign or malignant, problem or not a problem, but you may. You may still not know. So I would suggest getting your labs drawn as the most important. I would suggest you know for a preventative thing. I think it's popular now, just because you know, everybody's saying, oh, I can go get my whole body scanned and see what you know, what could be wrong with me. It's popular in that sense of you know being able to do it all at once. But it's basic, it's basic.

Speaker 1: 51:27

So just be aware that you still may not know after getting this exam done thank you so much for that, and that certainly makes a lot of sense, and that's why I asked you that question is because you're hearing more and more about it. So you take the fact that it's a basic scan. You take the fact that what you just said about we now have MRI tests that are not really looking at this as a career Not as a career, but looking at it and saying I have someone's life in my hands. They're doing it for money and that's just what it is. It's a money thing. They could care less about you.

Speaker 1: 52:13

I mean, that's just a lot of what's going on right now in healthcare and we can stop it by being educated, empowered and engaged. Patients asking those questions, making sure that we're safe when we go in to take an MRI, making sure that the people hey, if you say you know what, okay, well, I just need a basic MRI, so I'm just going to do this whole body thing Make sure the person that you're doing is trained on how to do a whole body scan. It's just not, you know, just doing it just because they need a paycheck, because it's your life. I don't know about you guys, but I'll tell you what I tell everybody when the good Lord touches me on my shoulder and says Sandra, your place is ready, don't be trying to bring me back. Because I'm not trying to come back. I'm doing everything I can do now so that, when I leave here, I'm leaving here with a legacy and I'm leaving here by providing information that other people would know about. So, yeah, no, I'm not trying to come back 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Speaker 2: 53:11

I'm not trying to do all that which is why I do what I do now.

Speaker 1: 53:15

So, without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and close this session up, but I do want to remind everyone be kind always. It doesn't cost a penny for you to be kind. You never know what the person on the other end of your conversation that you're talking to or dealing with you never know what they might be going and you being kind might be just that touch and just that break that they need to. Either you know one say okay, well, yeah, I am kind of rude to this person and I'm not sure why or for them to say you know what, yeah, this is my day. I'm going to continue to make my day by pushing it and paying it forward. As I tell everyone, each one, reach one, teach one. I don't care what it is, if you know it, teach it and reach out to others so that they can teach it to others. So, without further ado I keep saying without further ado.

Speaker 1: 54:16

This is my second time saying this, but I do want to remind everyone of the extraordinary event that is coming up on October 25th in Chicago Illinois. October 25th in Chicago Illinois, we have 10 speakers that will be speaking on different unseen and unheard of health disease conditions that are in our community that we know very little or nothing about. The little yellow school bus that comes down the street is not stopping in our communities to let us know about these diseases. So, chalms, many Helps. Along with this illustrious event, panelists and speakers will be actually coming to share some information. If you'd like information, more information about this event, please do reach out to sandra at chomsfoundationcom that's C-H-L-M-S foundationcom and also keep your eye out on our flyers that we will be passing out in our post. That will be not passing out will be we'd be posting up on social media. Thanks everyone, so much for listening and please, please, please, remember to be kind always.