My job as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist

Yes, North Korea is trying to recruit me..........

That is one of the responses I give when I tell people what I do.
The first thing that comes to mind when I tell people this is

And the first they they ask is, "what in bejebous is that"?

Well, let me tell you

A nuclear medicine technologists is a healthcare worker in the imaging and treatment field that uses radioactive isotopes to image and treat ailments with advanced camera equipment such as gamma and PET.

Now, I am not currently certified as one yet, but I will be starting my internship shortly. This in a small field as you can imagine, but we do some really cool things. There are many different scans, isotopes and images we can perform, but the most common will do for this post.

Reasons you might need a Nuclear Medicine Test

• Heart study/cardiac issues
  

Now I don't expect people read this scan, but the radioactive isotopes we inject emit different rays of radiation that our cameras pick up and then transpose into the images you see above. We can see blood flow in the heart and if there are areas that aren't receiving flow, with or without stress.

• Lung study
  
  This image is terrific to see lung function. We can easily see damaged areas.

• Thyroid uptake model/ thyroid cancer treatment
  
  We can easily see thyroid uptake. Very common to confirm over or under active thyroid. Thyroid cancer is also one of the only treatments that nuclear medicine actually does. A majority of our work is imaging.

Is it dangerous?

Yes, and no. Of course radioactive materials are always hazardous and nuclear medicine techs must take special care when prepares doses, making the radioactive material, and handling patients, but the actually amount of radiation a patient receives is often less then a x-ray.

Sometimes we have to cook up radioactive eggs and feed it to patients for a digestive study

I prefer mine over hard

Many sites also create their own material for the most common isotope used. Technetium-99. They are created in little generators.

Other isoptpes are made in sites and then brought in daily. They are forged in machines like this

cyclotron. No idea how it works

The cameras

The most common camera in Nuclear Medicine is the Gamma Camera which picks up gamma rays (imagine that).

Sometimes it can get pretty tight for some of these scans, so claustrophobic beware. Granted, there are techniques us techs can use to minimize this if it is a fear you hold. Also, studies can last anywhere from 10 min to 2 hours. this gamma camera also has a CT machine attached to the back.

To do PET scans, which measure Beta emissions and are also the most radioactive scans in the field, we need these.

A PET CT machine like this will set a hospital back 2 million. Cutting edge PET/MRI machines cost 5-7Million

These machines can produce amazing images though

There is some really neat techniques, scans and uses emerging from this technique. It is only the beginning. It speaks to my interest that I get excited picturing the things to come in nuclear medicine.

My Journey

I didn't always want to do this. At one point I wanted to go to school to become a physician assistant. Although, once I understood more about the profession, it didn't really seem like a fit for me. Instead, I looked into other medical related programs at my school, and just so happened to stumble upon this. LaCrosse is the only school in two states to offer this program. Once I shadowed a couple times, I was sold. The people in nuclear medicine is great and I can really see myself enjoying the work.

I'm sure I will update this blog with my progress in the internship and other matters related to it.
Hopefully you at least learned a little about this profession!

Until next time steemians