I recently had some x-rays taken and learned the answer to something I have been wondering about for years: When you are being x-rayed you don't have to remove all your clothes unless there is metal in there somewhere. Nobody ever tells you these things if you don't ask.
By this time in my life I've had plenty of x-rays. When a mammogram (essentially an x-ray) showed I had breast cancer a couple of years ago they wanted more pictures. And more. And some just before each surgery. I had so many x-rays for the next three months that I think the top half of me practically glowed in the dark.
I also broke my arm when I was three and I must have been x-rayed but I don't remember. I'm sure my mom was with me. I do remember the next time I went for x-rays I was much more grown up.
When I was seventeen the doctor wanted x-rays of a spur I had on my hip to determine if it was time for a surgery he was considering. Being seventeen I was able to drive to the radiologist's office by myself. At seventeen you certainly don't need your mother or anyone to go with you to the doctor. Sheesh! Did they think I was a baby? And, besides, I was very mature for my age.
The office staff greeted me, the wait was not so long that I remember being nervous, and then I was ushered into a changing room and handed one of those hospital gowns. The kind that has two ties in the back. Victoria would be keeping no secrets in this thing.
It took me awhile. I knew there was nothing to be embarrassed about. These people were professionals.Trained medical professionals. They saw people without their clothes on all day long. It was their job. I would stop acting like a baby and get undressed. I hesitated some more when it came to removing my underwear, but, this was an x-ray of my hip, after all, and surely they would need to have access to it. I wrapped myself in the air-conditioned gown and stepped into the hall.
I was led down a passageway and magically across the continents into Antarctica where they had apparently left their x-ray machine. I could not see the refrigeration coils that led up to the metal table but they were obviously under there. The temperature of the table was approximately seventy degrees below zero. I resolved not to touch my tongue to it and hoped none of the other bare parts of my body would get stuck either.
A trained medical professional came into the room. I knew he was a trained medical professional because he was wearing a white coat. He was also absolutely gorgeous. His big blue eyes matched the color of the scrubs he wore under the white coat. His eyelashes would have made a llama jealous. He...wait!!! He was a medical professional and I was very nearly a frozen specimen he needed to x-ray.
He moved my legs to the Pretzel Position. "Now hold it, hold it. Don't breathe." Next he moved them to the Gordian Knot position. "Hold it, hold it. Don't breathe." The Upward Facing Frog position. He adjusted. He turned my legs. "Hold it, hold it. Don't breathe."
Finally, I was allowed to return to North America where I quickly dressed and left as fast as my frozen legs would take me. I was proud that I had faced the ordeal in a grown-up, mature manner.
As it happened, it was decided that I didn't need the surgery at that time but four years later, after I was an old married lady, the problem came up again and the doctor sent me for more x-rays. It was to a different lab, a different office with a different staff, except for one thing. The x-ray tech was the same guy. I recognized the llama-lashes.
The metal table was just as cold on my bare skin as it had been previously. I was wearing, sort of, another one of Victoria's cast-offs. The tech, in his white coat, greeted me professionally. He, of course, didn't remember me. After all, it had been four years, I had changed a lot, he had x-rayed hundreds, if not thousands since I last saw him and I didn't expect him to recall a patient from so long ago. I didn't mention our previous encounter
He moved to the end of the table--- not the end where my face was--- took one look, then stopped. "Haven't I x-rayed you before?" he asked.
I can't imagine how in the world he recognized me.
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