Just cancer???

This needs a follow up.

**** you :| why would you say that, he probably is already freaked out :| *sorry for bad English*

Maybe the tech saw a minion inside OP.

Very excited for this follow-up.

Hope it's not a nodule and if it is, hope it's not cancer.

that is a horrible thing to say. I am fairly certain that if it was you in this situation you wouldn't feel relieved thinking it's just cancer. Even if this was just meant as a "joke" it was in poor taste.

id preferto get this reply... if somethings wrong id like to think bad thoughts... then i get to be relieved that im wrong

He found your missing *****

How can you know that for certain?

There's nothing certain about what 2 said, 31. For all we know the tech could have seen a full-sized SUV inside OP. But I'm sure everyone would rather hear news from their doctor than some random behind-the-scenes worker, and I doubt a week or so would kill OP.

31- After a while, techs may develop the ability to tell when something may be wrong, but they don't have the medical education and training necessary to diagnose patients. Which is exactly why it would have been illegal for the tech to tell OP what he thinks is wrong. Just like as a nurse, I often have an idea of what is wrong with a patient, but it would be illegal for me to diagnose them because I don't have the necessary education and training. There is a reason why doctors have to go through years of education and training; but even they can be wrong. If doctors can be wrong, you can bet your ass that techs can be wrong. Imagine if the tech told a patient he has a tumor. When most people hear the word tumor, they automatically think they have cancer. Think about how he would feel. The fear he would feel thinking he has cancer and is going to die. Now imagine that his doctor tells him it's a benign tumor that can easily be removed laparoscopicly. Now tech has caused a patient extreme distress unnecessarily. All that being said, it was completely unprofessional of the tech to behave that way in front of OP, causing him to panic. OP should report it. There is no excuse for that kind of conduct, regardless of what the tech saw. If he can't learn to maintain his composure in front of patients, who may very well already be scared, then he shouldn't be working as a tech.

49 thank you for your response, I completely agree with you and appreciate you saying it. As you have correctly stated, over the years techs learn certain things based on what they have seen over and over, a circle in the lung is a circle in the lung the next time. But, as we who are in medicine know, medicine is a field of variability, with no two cases or patients the same - that circle could be a cancer, it could be a benign hamartoma, could be a consolidated focal pneumonia, etc. For one thing, techs absolutely do not look at a patients story, they simply take the radiographs that are ordered of them. It is suggested that over 80% of diagnoses are made based on a physician talking to and performing a physical exam on a patient. Without knowing what goes into this discussion, techs (and nurses, unless they are present for whatever reason) will have no idea about the clinical picture of the patient. I appreciate my nurses and techs more than anything, but I would instantly fire one if they tried to tell a patient about a diagnosis or prognosis.

55- No problem. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine. I have actually reported techs and fellow nurses because they were giving a diagnosis or prognosis.

Tech: hey it was nothing to worry about! Scan came in clean! Doctor: ahh shiiiit, actually you full with cancer...

rotflmfao

He thought he was alone, it's an honest mistake.

18- You can't really claim you are alone while actively scanning a patient. You may be separated depending on the type of the scan, but that doesn't mean you're alone. Alone means the patient is gone and out of sight and hearing range. The tech's conduct was absolutely unprofessional and he should be reprimanded so he hopefully learns that he needs to maintain his composure around patients, whether he thinks they can see him or not.

Very untrue.