I confess I am not a great fan of autobiographies that begin at the beginning and follow a temporal path up to the present day – not that the person might not have some interesting stories, facts and opinions strung on their necklace, but it just doesn’t appeal as a structure. On the other hand, in my last, extra year at school in Oxford, retaking an A-level and adding a couple more, I was allowed out of school on my recognisance and saw a fascinating Exhibition at the Modern Art Gallery. The Artist had laid out and photographed every single possession of a single person – for example, all the cutlery was laid out in one shot, all the shoes in another. This more thematic approach appeals more and although I am not arranging the objects which I have chosen to tell my story in chronological order, I hope that my writing will be sufficiently interesting to keep your interest Dear Reader, and that on the journey from A to Z, you will assemble an impression of my life and who I am…
I was amazed recently, when going for a chest X-ray, and asking if it would be possible to obtain one of my X-rays (for this post), to be told that all my films were available to me free of charge and returning the next day, I was given a CD with the lot! Bravo the NHS – free at the point of delivery and fully transparent in its health records (to the individual concerned). As I described in H for Health, I broke my hip in a car accident in 1999 and then in about 2013, I needed the hip replaced and that is the metal piece you can see on the left of the X-ray. Never say I don’t share anything intimate with you!
It is amazing, is it not, that the likes of Marie Curie and her husband, should have discovered radioactivity and developed it into such a tool for our benefit – and not without personal cost to their own health…
The other type of scan, which is conducted at the same hospital, is the ultrasound (not just for goggling at babies in utero) and I recently had one of those for a suspected small kidney stone. The results below are so blurry that I am amazed that anybody can determine anything. My stepson’s girlfriend is a stenographer – not as I thought, an old-fashioned word for a secretary, but a person who conducts and interprets Ultrasound scans, and she confirmed that an MRI scan would have been much better at detecting a stone but is also much more expensive… She herself suffered from the same problem, but was able to monitor herself at work – perks of the job!
Over the years I’ve had many, many x-rays, several ultrasounds, two MRIs and no CT scans. And I consider myself in good health. LOL!
Donna: Click for my 2025 A-Z Blog
And it’s so expensive over there Donna!!!
Andrew, this is the first time I didn’t see your name above mine on the A-Z page… I had to come see if you were here because that was so odd that you were not there, even when I went back this afternoon. Thanks for sharing the X-Rays and it’s really comical to me that the new hip bone kinda looks like a serrated knife. (ahhh the imagination of writers). Anyways, I’m glad you are here and maybe just didn’t get over to the page yet. Funny how we take people for granted. See ya tomorrow and I bet you will be first with Z post.
Cheers,
Barbie
I meant Y
I lost the run of myself and forgot to post this morning! I always think nobody reads the official blog but now I see it isn’t so. The wave of postings begin in India and Pakistan, then on through Europe and then America awakes…
Touched that you were worried about me Barbie…
We really should think more consciously of all the researchers who invented these processes. I do often marvel at the minds that invent and develop the equipment we see in the health facilities. We are fortunate in Australia not to go bankrupt when we’re ill thanks to our health system.
I did have to giggle at the typo “goggling babies in utero”.
Yes, I meant to put “ogling” but have ended up with a mashup of Googling and ogling but perhaps I will let it stand, Pauleen, thanks for visiting so often – I still have a lot of catching up to do…
X-rays really are amazing. Years ago, I worked on a collaborative project with several other artists that involved creating an artist book using a number of x-ray films we sewed together in pairs with inclusions inserted between. I’ve had a particular fondness for them ever since.
I would have loved to see that book, Deborah. Do you remember those ads for X-ray Specs that were supposed to let you see through things – it just popped into my mind…
I love that you had personal X-rays to share. I think I tried to turn mine into lampshades a long time ago. I wouldn’t have made the connection from Röntgen to Marie Curie if I hadn’t read this post.
No lampshade making these days, Maria – everything is digital! Not that one couldn’t make art using digital prints…