Mar 18, 2023·edited Mar 18, 2023Liked by Ragen Chastain
I love this so much. Your advocacy made me tear up a bit. I can’t imagine having someone do that, and it’s really such a simple and basic thing!
Regarding contrast dosing: I needed a CT with contrast a few months ago, and the checkin tech asked my weight. I said I didn’t know, and they told me to guess. I took one of your lines and said we are not at the county fair. (That caught her off guard!) she said the system wouldn’t allow her to proceed without a number, and against my better judgement, I gave her a random number. (I really don’t know my weight. I could’ve been off by 10% or 50%.) she types in my number and then says she thinks they need it for the contrast dosing. I said if it’s a dosing issue, why am I being asked to GUESS? She says there’s basically two doses: for under and over 200lbs.
So here’s my thing: I don’t know if that’s true but if 200 is the cutoff (which seems very sloppy and probably inaccurate for children and adults who are far under and over the 200 lb line), why didn’t they just ask if I was over or under 200lbs?
First of all, thanks for the kind words and for using the county fair line, that made my day. That's really odd. I talked with a tech and they said that they needed an accurate weight. I'll try to dig into this a bit more to see if I can get to the bottom of it because that doesn't seem right. If weight matters, then that seems like a hell of a range.
Wow, I would really appreciate that! If it’s helpful to know: it was a pelvic CT, and I had to drink contrast before I got there, in addition to the IV contrast they pushed for some of the images while I was there.
I'm a Nurse Practitioner in Ontario, Canada. I am in a higher weight body and wow, the bias I receive from colleagues both about my self and advice I offer to patients is upsetting. I'm currently trying to advocate for 2 patients both declined their hernia surgery repair until they are below 250lbs and getting nowhere. I'm also struggling to access nuclear cardiac testing (pharmacological sestamibi stress test) for someone over 400 lbs. The hospital just declined and said patient too heavy for their table so send them elsewhere. Urgh! I'm so frustrated both for their experience and my own. Any information about nuclear testing equipment or procedures? It's brutal.
There is a paper that includes best practices for higher-weight people and nuclear medicine at the link below but I want to warn you that it is horrifically fatphobic. https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/39/1/40
I hope that helps, feel free to reach out directly (ragen@sizedforsuccess.com) if I can be of any help!
Hi Conner, I'm so sorry, there was a glitch and that piece got sent out in error. It will be sent out officially in the next couple of weeks. Apologies!
I love this so much. Your advocacy made me tear up a bit. I can’t imagine having someone do that, and it’s really such a simple and basic thing!
Regarding contrast dosing: I needed a CT with contrast a few months ago, and the checkin tech asked my weight. I said I didn’t know, and they told me to guess. I took one of your lines and said we are not at the county fair. (That caught her off guard!) she said the system wouldn’t allow her to proceed without a number, and against my better judgement, I gave her a random number. (I really don’t know my weight. I could’ve been off by 10% or 50%.) she types in my number and then says she thinks they need it for the contrast dosing. I said if it’s a dosing issue, why am I being asked to GUESS? She says there’s basically two doses: for under and over 200lbs.
So here’s my thing: I don’t know if that’s true but if 200 is the cutoff (which seems very sloppy and probably inaccurate for children and adults who are far under and over the 200 lb line), why didn’t they just ask if I was over or under 200lbs?
First of all, thanks for the kind words and for using the county fair line, that made my day. That's really odd. I talked with a tech and they said that they needed an accurate weight. I'll try to dig into this a bit more to see if I can get to the bottom of it because that doesn't seem right. If weight matters, then that seems like a hell of a range.
Wow, I would really appreciate that! If it’s helpful to know: it was a pelvic CT, and I had to drink contrast before I got there, in addition to the IV contrast they pushed for some of the images while I was there.
I'm a Nurse Practitioner in Ontario, Canada. I am in a higher weight body and wow, the bias I receive from colleagues both about my self and advice I offer to patients is upsetting. I'm currently trying to advocate for 2 patients both declined their hernia surgery repair until they are below 250lbs and getting nowhere. I'm also struggling to access nuclear cardiac testing (pharmacological sestamibi stress test) for someone over 400 lbs. The hospital just declined and said patient too heavy for their table so send them elsewhere. Urgh! I'm so frustrated both for their experience and my own. Any information about nuclear testing equipment or procedures? It's brutal.
Hi Danielle, Thank you so much for the advocacy you are doing.
I have a piece about fighting BMI-based denials here in case that helps: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/bmi-limits-healthcare-held-hostage
There is a paper that includes best practices for higher-weight people and nuclear medicine at the link below but I want to warn you that it is horrifically fatphobic. https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/39/1/40
I hope that helps, feel free to reach out directly (ragen@sizedforsuccess.com) if I can be of any help!
Hi, Ragen,
I'm trying to leave a comment on your apnea post but keep getting "page not found" -- any thoughts?
Thanks,
Conner
Hi Conner, I'm so sorry, there was a glitch and that piece got sent out in error. It will be sent out officially in the next couple of weeks. Apologies!
I wanted to send this to my cousin, an X-Ray tech. But The Share link goes to a different article.
I'm so sorry, I tried to replicate the problem but for some reason the share link works when I try it (in an incognito window.) I'll send a message to tech support, but in the meantime you can use the link: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/providing-x-rays-mris-and-ct-scans
Hope that helps, sorry again for the trouble!