I feel x-rays are a great tool used to diagnose and monitor your health and injuries. A couple of thanksgivings ago, my oldest son was riding a horse and he ended up being bucked off. He says he was trotting along and all of the sudden the horse started to gallop and nothing he did to include pulling back on the reigns would slow the horse. He was startled as the horse jumped over and log and he went tumbling off. He hit the ground and rolled into a tree. He came in the house complaining about the pain in his arm. Everything looked normal to use with a little swelling. Nothing of concern so I thought. When he began to cry made me think otherwise. We rushed him to the ER. The doctor took a look and the first thing he says was, “We need an x-ray, stat, and pain meds!” The x-ray showed that he broke his lower arm below the elbow. The surgeon opened up his arm and found that it was broken in pieces. The x-ray didn’t completely show the pieces because of the density of the bone but it was enough to warrant surgery. Five screws later and $30,000 less, he has healed completely. In my opinion, x-rays can help prevent an unnecessary surgery or procedure. After reading the 5 Myths About X-rays, I feel even safer about the procedure.

I am a true believer that x-rays are a medical necessity. We can literally list reasons after reason to why they are necessary. From locating and discovering broken bones to surgical reason. X-rays have become invaluable in the field of medicine. With that being said, I think there are some unnecessary reasons that does not call for x-rays to be conducted. One of those reasons was talked about in the article and that is those for medical checkups. Back in the mid to late 90’s I use to have to get a chest x-ray every year as part of my yearly exam. This was due to me having encounter TB and having a positive skin test. It was said that the only way to determine my health from this point was to have annual chest x-rays. It was later determined that if I had no signs or symptoms that there was no need to continue these annual x-rays. After reading the article, “5 Myths About X-rays and why We Need Them,” I learned that I was exposing myself to five years’ worth of what we normally consume in background radiation which is around 10mSv. As some will say that x-rays are no longer necessary and has become a thing of the past, I say that they will never go away as they have become a vital part for medical professional such as doctors and surgeons to use in their medical practice. This non-invasive procedure allows them to diagnosis patients quickly without having to open them up and exposing them to unnecessary medical procedures.

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