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[Title] Alliance Medical
[Title] The CT Scan - more information
You'll be greeted at reception
and from there onwards you'll
be looked after by the staff
all the way through the procedure of the scan,
while you're having your scan,
and afterwards as well.
A CT Scan is a complicated X-Ray
where the X-Ray machine
spins around a gantry
all the way round the clock face
takes a picture
at every point on the clock face
and combines them to form a cross sectional image.
If you're coming for a CT Scan
you'll be taken into a room with a table
and a big doughnut thing
and you'll lie on the table,
and you'll go up
and into the middle of the doughnut thing
and then as the picture's taken
you actually move through the machine.
Going in the machine doesn't hurt at all.
A lot of people are a bit concerned
about going in the middle
of a doughnut-type machine,
it's very easy and it's very simple to do.
During the scans the radiographer will watch you
the whole time.
They'll be watching you from where they're sitting
they'll also have a camera
that looks at you from the other end of the scanner as well.
So they'll be aware of exactly what you're doing
during the scan.
The scan itself is broken up
into 3 or 4 minute chunks,
and at the break between those chunks
the radiographer will have a chance to talk to you
and you can talk to them.
If you're a diabetic and you're having a CT Scan,
you'll be asked in your pre-scan questionnaire
to indicate that you are diabetic.
It may be that you are required to
slightly adjust your diabetes medication
for a couple of days, if your scan
has a contrast injection with it.
But this is something you should talk
to the local centre about,
and the radiographers
who are looking after you
should give you very clear advice about.
If you have to have an injection,
some scans do require a contrast injection,
it's normally a small needle
in the back of the hand,
or in the elbow of the arm,
and then during the scan at some point
during the scan a
fluid will be introduced
which lights up on the scans.
And this fluid is called contrast.
And it helps us to get better pictures
It doesn't normally hurt
more than a small scratch or a blood test.
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