rants from an x-ray tech part II

to: patient
from: regina

--how come it takes you seven hours to take your jeans off and put a gown on? i mean, are you wearing button flys? on that note, whyyyyyy do people ever wear button fly pants? they're so inefficient. anyhow, if you would just learn to take your pants on/off faster, you would be saving so much time in your every day life, y'know. you'd have more time for random things. things such as not be in a radiology changing room for seven hours.

--so while positioning you, i move you forward with my hands just a little bit (like an inch), say "hold really still" and let go. you tend to sway back all out of place and then i have to do it again. we play this game for about three rounds before you get that "hold still" means to indeed hold still. during this time the words "why must you defy me" play in my mind over and over until finally we've come to the agreement that you are going to actually hold still this time.

--this interaction has occurred too many times in my short (so far) career as an x-ray tech.

me: hi! i'm Regina, i'll be taking your x-rays.
patient: hi! i'm, [insert name] i'll be your patient today. hahaha!!!

i can't imagine how many more times i'm going to hear this. or how many times you've already said this to your nurse, dentist, doctor, physical therapist, etc. aren't you tired of saying it? we're i'm tired of hearing it. sure, it was sort of cute the first time someone said it but how often do you think it's going to be the first time hearing it for the person you're saying it to? slim to none i'll bet.

--i'm sorry if when i read your name, George Blah Blah Blah, i pronounced it j-or-j blah blah blah like the normal way most people say that name. it's not really my fault that you spell your name the typical way but like it to be pronounced j-or-jay. when in a condescending tone as if i'm stupid because i can't read or something, you say "you said that wrong, it's actually j-or-jay blah blah blah," i pretty much want nothing more than to say to you "you know we're never going to meet again in life, right? there will never ever be a time when i'm going to see you and be like 'oh, hey j-or-jay, remember when i used to call you j-or-j? boy, was i stupid for thinking your name was ordinary.'"

also, to the person who has more than three consecutive consonants in your last name, your name is barely readable so don't be mad at me when i say it wrong mmmkay? who in your history decided to throw a bunch of random letters together?


to hear me be a complaining brat just a little bit more, click here:
rants from an x-ray tech part I

San Diego with the Divas

"the Divas?" you ask? who are the Divas? well, let me tell you! the Divas consist of myself, Jerilyn and Lia (in the pictures) and Ciara. we all went through x-ray school together and from the first day of school we hit it off. it was just oh so very easy to hang out with these girls. we spent four solid 8 hour days together each week during our first year in school. that's a lot of time to get to know each other. within our first week of school  all four of us were called in to the teachers office for talking/laughing too much during class and from that point on i knew we were going to be more than just classmates. even though we called ourselves "the Divas," i would never consider any of us to have diva-esque qualities. every single day i've spent with these girls have been hysterical. we are so stupid and silly. from weekend trips to San Diego and Santa Cruz to just sitting on a couch, every. single. time. we are together it's so. much. fun! we've seen each other through serious triumphs and tragedies and have an irreplaceable bond. though i probably see these girls maaaaybe three times a year nowadays, it's never awkward and it feels like we haven't skipped a beat. 

it's been five years since our last trip to San Diego, after we graduated from x-ray school and we were due for another round. during the day we chilled hard. i'm talking naps in cabanas and movies in our hotel room. the first night was our dress up night in the Gaslamp district and the second night was supposed to be bars in the Pacific Beach area but it turned out to be more clubby than that. especially considering hiphop isn't quite as easy to find in SD. there was a lot of "oots oots" music going on and i am so not down with that. but fun times were had nonetheless. 

dinner at Monello before heading to Stingaree

dessert at Extraordinary Desserts

coconut cake goodness

at Johnny V's, and later to PB Bar & Grill

love, LOVE these girls! 

had an amazing weekend with these two! let's not wait another five years for the next trip!

the ghost of SF Kaiser 's Radiology Dept

after i sent this pic via text........

me: who is that? what a dork!

friend: that's you

me: no way, i'm not that stupid.

friend: lol

me: yeah that was fun. scared my boss.

so creepy!

also, we're super appropriate at work.

rants from an x-ray tech

from: regina
to: patients

-it's super bizarre when i ask you how you're doing and you give me no response. i ask you if you are able to stand and you stare at me blankly as if we're from different planets. i do your whole exam thinking that you speak another language and the only way to communicate with you is through a brief game of charades, and then when we're done all of a sudden you say "thank you so much," in perfect english. what. in. the. f*ck?

- when i ask you to turn and face the wall to your right, i do indeed mean you RIGHT! then when i turn you around towards the correct wall and say "this wall, not that wall," and you respond with "but you said my right," i curse your parents for not teaching you fundamentals.

-when i ask you to lie down on the table, i'm not sure why you insist on being diagonal. nowhere in the history of anywhere do people mean "be weird" when they ask you to lie down for an exam. oh, and when you ask me where your head goes, it's probably going to be the side where the pillow is, dontchathink?

-you're here for a chest x-ray because you're sick and coughing up a lung, right? do you live and die by the phrase "misery loves company" or what? cover your mouth when you're coughing in my face, you jerk!

-if i tell you that you need to hold "reeeeaaaallly still" for a few minutes for a CT scan of your head, why do you think it's okay to lift your head up out of the holder and say "now?"

-on that same note, when i ask you to "take in a deep breath," and you pause for a moment then say "okay tell me when," i've likely already taken your subpar x-ray. are you ready to take a second one?

129:365 so. many. x-rays.

129:365 so. many. x-rays.
for each x-ray exam we do, there's a requisition that comes with it. this is my stack after only three hours of work yesterday. that's a LOT of damn x-rays. needless to say, i was beat.

yet another happy hour with these awesome folks...

this is just going to be a photo overload, so unless you are in these photos or are taking a particular liking to someone in these photos, i would probably just skip this post. 

here, once again, are the people i spend a ton of my time with.....my coworkers  friends. as long as a couple of these people are working with me, the day goes by so very quickly. i respect these people and at the same time we talk soooo much shit about each other (to their faces, of course), it's fantastic! 

yeah, we go to bars in our scrubs...and what? 

fade to lightness....haha!!

just getting started

Lana made it out from Vallejo!

haha. i dig my face in this one. i should probably walk around like that for the majority of my being.

haha!!

OG Super Crew. clearly, Tan is confused...and Lana and Edgar are being ridiculous sharing the symbol with both of their hands...

the "hello my friend" friends!!

HAHA!! Lorraine, calling Nick out for not taking a shot. so of course he took it....

Adrian!!! 

my future roomie, Natasha. we are going to be hilarious roommates!

whoops, this is out of order bc we all still look sober. 

oh, damn.

taking photos while taking photos

all faded. especially Adrian. 

this sort of sums up every time we go out. just love....and a funny, angry type Lorraine. haha jk!! what is she yelling at exactly?

sooo a black guy comes in for an x-ray....

as x-ray techs we encounter all sorts of different things that make for good stories. some of them gross. some of them cool. some of them quite unique. but my favorite stories are the funny ones. this is one of my all time favorite stories thus far.

sooo a black guy comes in for an x-ray.....

me: hello Sir, i'm Regina, i'll be taking your chest x-ray.

him: hello Regina, i'll be your patient today.  

[i know i just started, but can i just stop for a moment to say that it's NOT funny when people say that? we've heard that same line plenty of times prior to you, so please withhold from allowing those words to exit your mouth when talking to a healthcare provider. i mean, you could tell my giggle was fake, right?]

we walk into the exam room

me: do you have a t-shirt on underneath that button up shirt?

him: [with tons of attitude] ummm, no! 

at this point i'm not sure why he gave me so much attitude and i'm confused but carry on politely.

me: okay, please take off your button up shirt and then put your chest up against that board.

while he does this i'm at the control panel looking down and doing paperwork. i have everything pre-set so i can see that he's in place and i am ready to take the x-ray. also, it seems that he's taken off everything from his waist, up. i take the xray and notice that on the image he's got a necklace on. i look over at him and he doesn't seem to have anything glimmering from his neck region. super confused, i walk into the room....

me: oh! sir, you've got a necklace on, i'm going to need you to take that off, please.

trying to figure out what just happened, i approach him and as i'm getting closer i realize he has a brown turtle neck shirt on! get outta here! are you kidding me??? the necklace was under the turtleneck.  had he been wearing a white, pink or yellow turtleneck, i would have been able to tell the moment i saw him that he'd had a shirt on underneath his button up! 

moral of the story: don't wear colors that exactly match your skin tone!