Medical Technology

I know we're studying pedagogy and technology, but I thought I would talk just a little bit about my recent experience with medical technology.

I came back from Ecuador with some kind of ailment. After three weeks without improvement, I went to the Dr. She ordered the routine tests--blood, urine, sinus and chest x-ray to look for infection or pneumonia. Everything came back normal except for the sinus x-ray which showed some congestion. The Dr. wanted to know what that was so she ordered a CT scan of my sinuses. It was scheduled for last Tuesday.

A couple days after seeing that Dr., I received a call from the specialist in infectious disease I had seen before my trip to Ecuador to consult about immunizations and prevention. He had reviewed my chart and wanted to see me. I scheduled that appointment for Tuesday since I was already going to be near his office for the sinus CT. Why make two trips to town when you can do it in one?

He was quite concerned because I had had a fever for a month. He said that shouldn't be happening and wanted to do a work-up for "fever of unknown origin." At that point, I had not had a fever for a day and a half so I thought maybe I should wait and see if I was getting better. He said that was an option, but thought it would be better to check it out since it could be a sign of something serious. I agreed and was promptly escorted to the lab where for the next 20 minutes I was poked and prodded and forced to donate a liter of blood that was separated into maybe 15 different vials and 4 different bottles for cultures. I won't go into a description of the paraphernalia that they gave me for "homework."

The most interesting test, though, was the CT. He wanted to see all my insides. That CT Scan is really some kind of technology! You lie on a bed, they shoot some “contrast” solution into your veins that you can feel coursing through your system with an interesting feeling of warmth, and they take pictures. It is so amazing to me that they can look right inside your body and see everything that is going on. When I went back on Thursday I was able to see my insides, there on the computer monitor. It boggled my mind.

Problem is, they could see something in my lungs that didn’t belong there, but even with all that technology, they couldn’t tell what it is. So now they are talking about more tests with more technology. I will talk to the Pulmonologist tomorrow to find out about that option. Personally, I think I’ve seen enough medical technology for right now. Since I’m feeling a lot better and believe I’m getting well, I think I’ll forego the next bit of tests and stick to technology I can use in the classroom.