WEBVTT - How CT Scanners Work and A TechStuff Update 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.879 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Heydarreon Welcome 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.000 to Tech Stuff, I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:21.680 executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the Tech Are You? So? 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.720 Over the holiday weekend on December thirtieth, twenty twenty three, 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.000 I had the occasion to get my very first CT scan. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.320 This was because I was experiencing a medical emergency. More 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.120 on that later, because it's actually going to impact this 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:44.159 show a bit, and I'm still struggling under a a 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.479 few nasty effects today, so it's a little bit of 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:53.000 a chore to do this and stay coherent. But this 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.400 is first and foremost a tech podcast, not a Jonathan's 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.920 All Messed Up podcast, and by golly, I owe you 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.000 episode about something technical. So I thought, Hey, I've never 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.400 had a CT scan before. How about I do an 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.000 episode on CT scanners. Now. I have talked a bit 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.280 about related medical technologies on the show, like X ray 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:18.600 machines and MRI machines, and I've talked about tomography with 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.240 regard to three D printing. That's what the T in 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.320 CT stands for, stands for tomography. The C in case 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.920 you're curious, stands for computed so CT is computed tomography. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.480 But unless you work with that kind of technology, knowing 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:37.000 that probably doesn't help you out very much. To understand 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.360 CT scans, we need to have a quick reminder about 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.360 X rays. Now. I've talked a decent amount about X 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.560 rays not that long ago, because I did an episode 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.720 about how in the early twentieth century shoe shops used 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.600 cabinets containing X ray lamps essentially, and then some viewfinders 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.160 that would let customers see their own feet while their 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.440 feet are still inside their shoesies. Well, there are plenty 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.000 of reasons to suspect this was perhaps an unwise marketing campaign. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.960 After all, it did have the potential to seriously harm 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.280 customers and more likely shoe store staff. The trend actually 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.519 stuck around for an alarmingly long time. Anyway, there's a 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.720 whole episode about this from November. It is titled AI 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.320 and Radioactive Shoes Salesman if you want to learn more 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:29.520 about that. Also, I don't think I did this on purpose, 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:34.320 but the episode that published about those shoe salesmen went 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.160 out on November eighth, twenty twenty three, and we traced 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.880 the discovery of X rays back to November eighth, eighteen 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:44.000 ninety five. So I recorded a podcast about X rays 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.200 one hundred and twenty eight years to the day after 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.080 their discovery. I don't remember doing that on purpose, so 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.960 I'm pretty sure it was just pure luck. We have 0:02:54.000 --> 0:03:00.080 a nineteenth century smarty pants named Wilhelm Conrad Rintgen to 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.519 thank for X rays. Well, not exactly, because X rays 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.600 are a type of electromagnetic radiation and they exist whether 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.679 or not. Rentgen figured it out, and surely someone else 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.440 would have susted out if he hadn't. There were other 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.359 people who were kind of looking around the area at 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.440 the time. But the point is Rentgen did it, and so, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.040 gosh darn it, he deserves the credit for it. So 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.160 Rentgin was experimenting with what was called a Crook's tube, 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.360 a glass bulb inside which there were a pair of 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.520 electrodes that could be run at high voltage, essentially a 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:35.080 cathode ray tube, and it also was filled with more 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.040 or less a vacuum. So he had covered up this 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.200 tube with some heavy black cardboard. But then he saw 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.720 that there was a sheet of platino barium in his 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.520 lab that was several feet away, like nine feet away, 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.800 and it was glowing while the tube was active, but 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.760 there was no visible light passing from the tube because 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.200 the cardboard was covering it up. So this got into wondering, 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.560 how could this tube illuminate something if the light was 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.760 being blocked by cardboard. Clearly, some form of energy was 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.600 passing directly through the cardboard as if it weren't there, 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.520 just as visible light can pass through a pane of glass. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.000 It wasn't long before he found out that this energy 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:18.960 could pass through human tissue as well. In fact, it 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.680 was the very same day his wife famously held her 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.920 hand up and he was able to take a photograph, 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.359 an X ray photograph of her hand. So if you 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.440 were to hold up your hand between the tube and 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.479 the sheet of platino barium, then you would cast a 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.279 shadow that would show the skeletal structure of your hand, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.039 and you would have sort of a hazy area that 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.760 would be other tissue in your hand. It didn't take 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.800 long at all before various doctors, engineers, and scientists purposefully 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.320 began to build devices to take X ray images projected 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:58.039 again onto special film, not necessarily a sheet of platino barium, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.640 and this would let them get a little and see 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.280 stuff like bones and other kinds of tissue that normally 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.240 you know are on the inside of a person. As 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.159 it turns out, X rays have much shorter wavelengths and 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:17.279 much higher frequencies than visible light. So if you're looking 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.239 at the electromagnetic spectrum and you go from the types 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.680 of radiation that have the smallest wavelengths and you work 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.880 your way up, it starts at gamma radiation, then X ray, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.160 then ultraviolet, then visible light, then infrared, then microwave, than 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:35.800 radio from smallest to longest wavelengths, and X rays are 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.679 a type of ionizing radiation, along with some other forms 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:44.560 of radiation, like gamma radiation is also ionizing. Alpha and 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.200 beta particles are ionizing. There are a few others. So 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.200 ionizing radiation is radiation that has the energy required to 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:56.039 strip electrons away from atoms right that can ionize an 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:02.279 atom by removing electrons. This also can potential damage living cells. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.760 So most X ray radiation passes through a human body, 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:09.800 but some of it can end up getting absorbed and 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:14.880 potentially it can cause harm, potentially serious harm, and this 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.680 potential increases with increased exposure. This is why radiologists set 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.440 up a machine to take X rays and then they 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.200 leave the room before they start snapping photos of your inerts. 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:29.039 By the way, we can contrast this with non ionizing radiation. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.560 That is radiation that lacks the energy needed to strip 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.359 electrons away from atoms. So your plain old radio waves, 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.120 you know, the stuff that we use to communicate on 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:44.560 cell phones and Wi Fi routers and radio and television 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.960 broadcast TV, that's non ionizing radiation. Those big transmitter towers 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.000 might look intimidating, but they do not have the same 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:57.160 effect as ionizing radiation sources do. So when you hear 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.640 people talk about the potential dangers for things like cell 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.359 phone signals, you do need to know that the energy 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.160 of those signals is orders of magnitude lower than what 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.440 you would find with ionizing radiation like X ray and 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.160 gamma rays. That's not to say that it's a guarantee 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.480 that it's perfectly safe, just that based on that one 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.960 particular vector, you are not seeing an effect. Right. It's 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:24.880 not like if you sit too close to the TV 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.960 you get cancer or something, at least not directly from 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.400 sitting close to the television. All right, So we have 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.640 the basics with the X ray. You've got a tube 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.760 similar to a cathode ray tube, and it emits X 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.320 rays when you pass a high voltage current through the 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.720 filament inside the tube. It's kind of like a light bulb, 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.200 but instead of giving off visible light or say ultraviolet 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.640 light with a UV light, it gives off X rays. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.320 So the cathode focuses these X rays so that you 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.120 can actually direct them properly. And then with an X 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.520 ray machine on the opposite side from where the X 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.480 ray tube is, you have a detector. Now, once upon 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.440 a time, the detector was a sheet of film, right 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.760 like it was contained within something else, and you would 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.840 just take a photo and the X rays would go 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.200 through the person and hit the film behind them, and 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.720 then you develop that film and you've got your image 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:21.880 of the X ray. But now a lot of X 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.760 ray machines have digital detectors. They have a sensor on 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.400 the other side that picks up those X rays, so 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.000 you're not actually capturing stuff to film, you're capturing it digitally. 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.640 And then once that's gone through, once the X rays 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.160 have passed through and they've hit either the film or 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.280 the sensor, then you have a radiologist and doctors who 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.960 can look at and interpret the results. They can look 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.000 at the image and determine what's going on inside. Now, 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.120 the reason that I'm talking about X rays instead of 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.839 CT scanners is that a CT scan is a specialized 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.400 kind of X ray. A CT scanner is an X 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.679 ray machine. Now you've likely seen one of these, either 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.920 in person or in media. Typically it looks like you 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.040 have like a little kind of white wall, like it's 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:15.400 a machine where part of the machine is a vertical 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.120 barrier kind of like a wall, and the center of 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.959 it is a large hole large enough for a person 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.920 to be passed through the middle of that hole, and 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:28.200 extending out from it is a motorized bed if you're 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.240 feeling generous. I thought of it just as like a 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.360 table or platform, because there was nothing bed like about it. 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.160 When I was on it. I laid down on this 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.160 platform in my case, and a technician positioned me so 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.239 that my head was at the right spot at the 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.079 beginning of the hole in the center of this vertical barrier. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.240 So it's like I was slowly being fed into a 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.240 doughnut hole as the process was going on. But this 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.680 hole is a housing for an X ray tube and detector, 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.160 and the reason for its shape. The reason why you 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.960 have this round hole that you're being passed through is 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.360 that the ct scan is taking a series of X 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.959 ray images in a circle around you. It snaps a shot, 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.000 and then the mechanism rotates inside the vertical barrier. It 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.760 snaps another shot, and it does this very very very fast. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.840 If you could see through the machine, like the machine 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.480 can see through you, you'd see that an X ray 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.600 tube might start at a location such as directly overhead. Right, 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.160 you're looking straight up, you can see the X ray tube, 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.280 and then after it takes a picture, it moves slightly. 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.320 Let's say it moves clockwise from your perspective, and so 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.560 it's moving down the perimeter of the hole. From your perspective. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.680 You're keeping your eyes straight up, and eventually you would 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:42.280 see the detector directly above you as it rotated one 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.360 hundred and eighty degrees. So it does this a bunch 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.720 of times until it has essentially gone around you, and 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.040 then what results is a series of X ray images 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.040 of part of your body. So in my case, it 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.960 was monogan, and you get it from various angles. The 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.400 CT scan generates a series of two dimensional quote unquote 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.160 slices of whatever it's imaging, and these slices can range 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.120 between one to ten millimeters thick. The actual thickness depends 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.439 upon the specific machine in use. More than that, after 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.560 gathering a full slice image, the machine can move the 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.480 motorized platform forward a bit, a little further into the 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.480 machine and the process can repeat. And this way the 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.840 engineers can collect the number of slices needed for whatever 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.160 is going on, Like if they're trying to image an 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.680 entire organ, then they will keep doing this until they've 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.360 hit all the slices that make up that organ. Now 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.120 the images are pretty darn cool. You can look at 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.160 each slice individually. That's useful if you suspect there could 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.480 be something concerning in there, like a mass that shouldn't 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.480 be there, for example, or you can stack them together 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.720 and then collectively, with these stacked slices, you can create 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.559 a three D image of whatever it was you were scanning. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.120 So that means there's a hospital here in Atlanta that 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.560 has a three D scan of my brain. And no, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.559 I didn't think to ask if I could have a copy. 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:05.800 In fact, I don't. I don't know if I actually 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.400 want to see it. That might freak me out to 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.320 see my own brain. All right. Anyway, now you have 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.600 a basic idea of how a CT scanner works. We're 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.199 gonna take a quick break. When we come back, I'm 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.920 gonna answer a few other questions relating to CT scanners, 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.280 some interesting facts and trivia. But before we do that, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:35.640 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.960 so we talked a bit about computed tomography, But what 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.840 the heck does tomography mean? So tomography is using some 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.240 form of penetrating energy or wave to section a three 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.760 dimensional object, which is pretty much what we talked about 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.400 with the imaging process just now. But there are different 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.600 types of tomography. It's not all X rays. Uh. For example, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.960 I once recorded an episode about how using a particular 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:07.160 kind of photosensitive resin and a machine that used tomography, 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.120 you could three D print objects. So in this case, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.760 it's not about taking photos of a three dimensional object. Rather, 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:18.800 it's about directing light at precise angles and positions so 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.640 that this photosensitive resin solidifies when the light hits it, 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.360 and you can get a very precise three D printed 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.200 object from this. So a computer controlled light source zapp's 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.400 the resin over and over again, and then you end 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.280 up with a three D printed object. It's pretty darn cool, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.040 is not like your desktop three D printer type thing. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.199 There are lots of other applications for tomography as well, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.719 but I think most folks who have heard the term 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.440 think of the medical device. So who the heck came 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.600 up with this? Well, that credit goes to an engineer 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.120 named Godfrey Houndsfield, and he actually didn't work in medical 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.760 tech at all. Rather, he was employed by Electric and 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:06.280 Musical Industries aka EMI. You know the record label, the 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.160 same company that produced records for the Beatles, because of 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.000 course that's who did it. But I'm not giving Housefield 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.240 enough credit. It sounds like he was sitting there working 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.360 on like turntables and cassette players. That was not the case. 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.200 Before he worked for EMI. Houndsfield had worked on radar 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.800 technology for the Royal Air Force, and while at EMI, 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.040 he wasn't trying to make sure I want to hold 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.480 your hand played at just the right speed on a turntable. 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:38.400 He was developing guided weapons systems for EMI. That, my friend, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:42.840 is what you call a diversified portfolio. So the story 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.320 goes that back in the nineteen sixties, Houndsfield was on 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.760 vacation when he got into a conversation with the doctor, 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.840 and the doctor explained that it was really hard to 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.480 get a good X ray image of the human brain. 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.880 Images were limited to two dimensions, and often the quality 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.480 was pretty low and grainy. So Houndsfield goes on his 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.840 merry way, but he keeps thinking back to this issue. 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.560 Could there be a way to create a device that 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.960 could produce better X ray images of structures like the brain? 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.520 He essentially identified all the elements that would be needed 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.320 in order to accomplish that goal. There would need to 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.160 be some way to either rotate the patient, which frankly 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.000 didn't seem very practical, or rotate the X ray apparatus, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.600 which seemed more achievable. There would also have to be 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.120 a computer system programmed to assemble individual images together to 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.440 create a three D image. These were non trivial challenges 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.920 and it took him a long time, working with lots 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.600 of other very smart people to make it happen, but 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:44.960 he partnered with various neuroexperts. In nineteen seventy one, he 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.040 and his team were able to build and test a 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.880 CT scanner and produce the first CT scans of a 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.920 human brain. Houndsfield actually received a Nobel Prize in Medicine 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.720 for his contributions, and countless people have benefited from the 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:02.080 technology since its first introduction. A CT scan can help 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.400 doctors identify potential health threats like blood clots and tumors 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.240 if you're scanning the brain. Obviously other stuff too. Anyway, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.000 that's just a quick overview of how CT scans work. 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.000 And I apologize that this is a short episode, but 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.640 I am a bit limited when it comes to researching, writing, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.240 and recording at the moment. And that brings me to 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.600 why I had to have a CT scan on December thirtieth, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.800 twenty twenty three. So I've had migraine headaches on and 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.280 off for a few years, but usually I just get 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.680 a couple each year, like maybe like three or four, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.120 maybe five or six on a really bad year. But 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.720 late last year I started getting them more frequently and 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.920 I was generally feeling pretty bad. And on December thirtieth, 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.400 I was feeling really bad. And normally I would just 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.560 kind of try and sit things out because I'm not 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.200 good about going to the doctor, but something felt so 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.160 wrong that I've changed my mind, so my partner and 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.280 I actually headed off to the urgent care center, so 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.440 they're the urgent care center. They took my blood pressure 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.120 and it was off the charts, not literally, I mean 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.040 literally it was in the neighborhood of two sixty five 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.760 over one thirty. But if you're familiar with blood pressure, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.080 you know that is crazy high. They urged me that 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.480 I should go to an emergency room. They explained I 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.120 could be at risk of a stroke. So off we 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.760 rushed to the closest hospital and I check in and 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.800 before long I'm brought into the CT scanner room and 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.000 that's where I got my brain's pictured. I also was 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.560 given an EKG for the first time, and if I 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:36.920 ever were to consider shaving my chest, it would be 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.160 because I'd be told I'd need to do another EKG, 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.840 because y'all you could call me patches. Now, let's put 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.760 it that way. It is not kind to the chest here. Anyway, 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.760 the doctors looked after me. They told me that the 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.600 EKG and the CT scans looked pretty good. There was 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:53.840 nothing there to be of immediate concern. I was not 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.640 having a stroke, but my high blood pressure is absolutely 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.080 a problem. And they gave me a mic grain cocktail, which, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:02.800 despite the name, did not make me feel like I 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.240 was in The Great Gatsby or anything like that, and 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.200 they gave me some meds to bring my blood pressure 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.639 down a bit. Now I'm currently on a blood pressure 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.080 medication while I wait to see my doctor, which I'm 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.080 gonna do in literally a couple of days. My hope 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.800 is that my doctor and I can find a medication 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.119 and a dosage that will help bring my blood pressure 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.400 down to normal levels, because right now, the medication they 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.320 have me on it's still having me deal with abnormal 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.120 levels of blood pressure, and I'm still having really bad 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:35.480 migrain headaches. I can't even lie down because if I 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.480 put any pressure on my head, if my head hits 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.040 a pillow or anything like that, the pain becomes intolerable. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.439 It just it adds to the pressure. So I haven't 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:48.200 really slept much for the last few days. Anyway, this 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.320 isn't a poor Me episode. I'm telling you all this 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.320 for a few reasons. One is that one of the 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.880 many things I need to do in order to deal 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.800 with my blood pressure is I have to adjust my 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.560 stress levels, and to that end, I have arranged to 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.240 reduce my publication schedule for tech stuff a little bit, 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.440 so I had been publishing five times a week seven 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.400 times a week toward the end of twenty twenty three, 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.240 but I'm going to switch back to three times a week, 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.719 which longtime listeners will know that's what I used to do, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.159 but I'm going back to that. And my thought is 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.479 that if I can get things in a good rhythm, 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.439 I want to do two standard Tech Stuff episodes and 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.320 then on Fridays maybe do a news round up episode. 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.359 I also still have a ton of classic episode intros 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.000 and outros recorded and ready to go, so my hope 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.679 is to actually reserve those for days when either my 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.920 health isn't cooperating and I simply cannot record, or if 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.000 maybe I'm on vacation or something. So I hope you 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.440 all understand for at least a month or two, we're 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.159 going to have a lighter schedule than normal. And the 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.280 other reason I'm telling you all all this is because 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.600 I'm one of those folks who very reluctantly goes to 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.639 the doctor. I have no good reason for this. I 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:57.879 got a lot of really bad reasons, but none of 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.560 them are good. They range from en Zo to being 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.000 used to a time when my partner and I could 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.040 not easily make our way to the doctor. So we 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.760 did without. But the point is, I have these resources 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.040 available to me now, and it's dumb for me not 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.280 to take advantage of them. And I realized lots of 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.560 people aren't fortunate to be in a position where they 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.080 can easily seek medical care, and it's insulting that I 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.879 took it for granted when I did so. Had I 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.080 been going to a doctor regularly, I might have caught 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.439 the blood pressure problem ages ago. I could already be 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:30.879 treating it. Maybe I would have prevented the trip to 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.200 the er, as well as the terrible migraines that I'm 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.280 fighting now. So this is really just me urging all 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.520 of y'all out there. I love you guys. Okay, if 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.399 you have access to doctors but you're not really taking 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.960 advantage of it, please consider getting out of that rut. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.359 I know it's hard because I've been there. I was 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.680 in that same rut for years and it was actually 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.240 a matter of great shame to me. It was hard 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.440 to even think about. I knew rationally that I needed 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.080 to be going to a doctor, and yet I wasn't 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.040 doing it. And so I'm paying for that now. And 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.600 I realize that not everyone has that kind of access, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.479 and that stinks. I'm fully in support of making healthcare 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.840 accessible and affordable to everyone. It's not just the right 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.440 thing to do for the individual person, it also ends 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.200 up being right for society. Because healthy people are more productive, 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.200 then they place less of a demand on society's resources. 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.520 So healthcare is an investment that actually does pay off 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.080 for everybody, not just the patient. But enough of my soapboxing, 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.639 so there may be some inconsistency with publication in the 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.400 near future. My plan is to publish on Mondays, Wednesdays, 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.600 and Fridays, but there may be days where I slip earlier. Today, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.040 for example, I couldn't even imagine sitting at my desk 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.840 and writing or recording this episode. I was in way 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.920 too much pain. But my hope is that once my 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.280 doctor and I dial in the meds I need, and 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.359 I start making some lifestyle changes that help support those meds, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.080 I'll be back to normal, or as close to normal 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.840 as I get anyway. In the meantime, thank you all 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.600 so much for listening. I hope you have an amazing 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.439 new year, and I promise that I'll talk to you 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:21.000 again really soon. Tech stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:25.960 more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:32.000 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.