Student of the Month

This is Levi Sorensen, our current student from Weber State. He is a CT tech at Tooele in his spare time. Right now he is enjoying a break from the nuclear scene and is home with his spouse Stephanie. One of the main reasons Levi comes down to UVRMC is to play Catan on the computer. Levi has been assigned to Mark, so any mistake he makes, Mark gets the blame for. Luckily, he makes few. He does like to play practical jokes on the techs and is pretty good at being on the receiving end of them.

This is Trina the Treadmill Tech, Tina for short. Her favorite question is "how long"? Her favorite quote is "Call Me". She gave us a nice box of Ribbon Candy for Christmas. We gave her a nice box of nothing! Sorry.:( She some day hopes to break the piggy bank and buy 4 wheelers. We can't understand why she just won't ask santa; maybe just maybe she has been a little too naughty.

This has got to be one of the finest scroll saw art pieces ever cut. This is one of Mark's many hidden talents.

Caught like Deer in the headlights!

This is Kurt. Sports and Hunting, reading Louis L'amour. "You Gotta have something to do!" When he gets too old to work, he wants to be stuffed and mounted in the Nuclear Department.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of Rad Tech Dale Baer, we in Nuclear are the benefits of a new microwave oven. We used to go to Tech Hall and cook our eggs for gastric emptying studies. Dale was quite vocal about the sensuous smell of the eggs (he said they stunk!). Thanks to his complaining, we got our own oven now and do not have to got to Tech Hall anymore. At least, this was our selective memory of the event. He may have a different version to tell. But be warned in advance, Dale is also a hunter and a fisherman and, as such, is prone to stretching the truth just a little bit.

From behid the L shield.

This is what the other side looks like!? Is it a cell block? No its an Lblock

Mark Reflects on all the fun times in Nuclear.

We all start off the day with a fresh milking from the "Generator".

The generator is convenient method of obtaining short lived
radionuclides. This happens to be a 99Mo/99mTc generator. The basis of operation for radionuclide gernerator is that relatively long lived parent nuclide continually produces through radioactive decay a shorter -lived daughter nuclide. The separation process or "milking," is referred to a elution.







Welcome to the Hot Lab.

December 19, 2006

On this date in history...something happened. Which is more than can be said for today in Nuclear. Oh, we had many exams and patients and there was snow outside, but it was all the same as things have been.
Tonight though is the nuc med department dinner with Dr and Millie Watts. It will be in Provo, at Ottavio's, a fine Italian restaurant. Stay tuned for more info regarding this event.

Mark by his favorite Nuclear Machine

Mark is seen here wearing the fashionable "Snoopy" scrubs which are hand-me-downs from Kevo. This is our Prism 2000 machine, which is situated in our room 12.

The Bobster Revisited

Many people commented on how stern and gruff Bob appeared in his last picture posted and that we had missed his fun side. So, here he is pretending to "work his buns off." What a crack-up this guy is!

December 11, 2006

This is Dr. Gary Watts. He has been the chief Nuclear Physician at our hospital for many a year. He is starting to hand the reins over to Dr. Daniel Rasband, but has not fully relinquished them. Dr. Watts is a great man, loves to golf and is a pleasure to have around.

Kevin is famous and in the papers!

Portable scanner doing double duty
By Jordan Burke
Deseret Morning News
AMERICAN FORK — A portable new machine used by Intermountain Healthcare hospitals is helping Utah cancer victims from Ogden to St. George get faster tests and better results.
Image
Jason Olson, Deseret Morning News
Kevin Schaeffer performs a PET/CT scan on a patient. The device is mainly used for cancer imaging.
The machine, a GE Lightspeed, combines CT scanner and PET scanner into one device. Though the instruments aren't new individually, the combination is a recent development. By including both scanners together, doctors can get better results.
Here's how the machine works: First, patients are placed on a movable bed that fits into the PET/CT scanner. The patient undergoes the CT scan, which takes 25 seconds. Then, without moving the patient from machine to another one, which could cause irregularities in scan images, the computer-operated bed slides into the PET scanner for imaging, which takes 25 minutes.
The machine does have other uses, but "cancer is far and away the No. 1 reason," said Daniel Rasband, a diagnostic radiologist at American Fork Hospital.
To get more precise readings for possible cancer growths, doctors inject patients with a radioactive substance called FDG. When scanned, the liquid lights up cancer cells, making it easier for doctors to diagnose correctly.
Currently, the machine can scan six to eight patients a day, depending on the tests.
As of yet, Intermountain Healthcare doesn't have a full-time scanner in Utah County. The one in use at American Fork Hospital comes in a custom-built trailer. It spends two days a week in American Fork, one day in St. George and two more days in Ogden, said Janet Frank, an Intermountain Healthcare spokeswoman.
Intermountain Health- care is considering building a machine for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, Rasband said.
The scanner is no small instrument. It costs about $3 million and weighs about 55,000 pounds.
"There's enough lead in this thing to drop it right through the parking garage," Rasband said.

Monday, December 4, 2006

We had a poor start to the week as Kevo did not make it to work. He called up at the ungodly hour of 6:15 in the morning to say that he was not feeling well. Then he launched into a ten minute soliloquy of the various ailments that had been affecting his body this weekend. I will spare you the retelling of such dire things, as anyone but those with a sufficiently strong gut could handle such stories without throwing up themselves. We think that he is faking and is just donig Christmas shopping, but since we are first on his list, we cannot complain too much.

December 1, 2006

Happy December!
Life is good in Nuclear Medicine. Kevo brought his digital camera to work yesterday, and we shall soon be posting new pictures of equipment and people who are near and dear to us.
We had a near-shutdown experience when the machine in room 12 ceased to function. Thanks to Kevin and Kurt, the K-Men, a breaker switch was reset and the machine was once again in working order.

Ward Paid us a visit

Ward Ireland was one of our favorite students in the Nuclear Medicine program. Life is just not as fun without Ward. Ward loves to play jokes on people. Ward's favorite joke is to put Splenda (not an official sponsor) in people's drinks. He also enjoys hiding Mark and Kevin's belongings; i.e., backpacks, books, recorders, car keys etc.
Wards loves to read Classic Motor Sports. He drives a muscle car. The license plate says "stud" or something cool like that. We Love Ward.

Thanksgiving pictures from Markus

These are two of my sons, Andrew (aka Bubba) in the white on the left and Jon playing football on Thanksgiving. You can see the beautiful weather that we are having.
The other picture is of our happy (?) family at dinner. That is me, Masrkus, at the head of the table. My parents-in-law are seated to my left and the flock of kids all belong to us.

Tuesday November 28, 2006

Mark here. We had a wonderful Turkey Day. We started it off by going to a local schoolyard and playing football with a bunch of neighborhood kids. There were two games going--one for the littler children and a game for the more rough and tumble crowd. After that, later in the afternoon, dinner was served. We were lucky to have my in-laws present and ate ham, candied yams, mashed potatoes, carrots, rolls, topping it off with homemade pumpkin pie and pecan pie. I made the latter. Hopefully I will have a few photos to post in a bit.

Markus and Kevo's topThanksgiving movies

1. Saving Private Ryan Some Pie
2. The Sixth Serving (Kevo's Favorite)
3. Grease-y
4. The Silence of the Yams (Marks Favorite)
5. The Inedibles
6. The Ususal Leftovers
7. The Right Stuffing
8. Beltloose
9. Thaw
10. How Stella Got Her Gravy Boat
11. Diet Hard
12. All The President's Menu
13. Good Night, and Pot Luck

Thanksgiving turkey eating contest won by woman

On the eve of Thanksgiving, a woman beat seven men at a turkey eating competition in New York City. Sonya Thomas was surprised at her win, saying she hadn't practiced for the competition. Reuters 16581/05 Keywords: eating competition, tradition, seasonal, ITN Source.

Wednesday November 22, 2006

It is the day before Thanksgiving. What are we thankful for? Nuclear! I was just thinking how sad all the people in the 1800's must have been, not having Nuclear in their lives. How could they nuke their turkeys, and their pot pies and other delicacies? How sad it must have been.


We really love turkeys. Turkeys are our favorite part of Thanksgiving. Do you know any turkeys?

What is Nuclear Medicine?

Nuclear is an imaging modality in Radiology, or Diagnostic Imaging. Other modalities include MRI, CAT Scan, Ultrasound (sonography) and general radiography (x-ray).
Nuclear machines can be also called Scintillation Cameras, Gamma Cameras, Functional Imaging Machines, or "that thing that looks like a CT scanner."
Here is a picture of what one looks like:



This is a Picker camera, about ten years old. It works fairly well still, although we would love to have a shiny new model (hint, hint).
The machine picks up where radiation is and forms a picture of it. It is like a giant Geiger Counter, but relies upon very tiny amounts of radioactivity.
Usually a shot is given of a radioisotope which has been bound to a particular chemical or substance used by the body part we want to image. For example, a phosphate for viewing the bones, a potassium analog to view the heart.

Official Sponsor

Nuclear Medicine has many famous celebrity sponsors. This is the first that we were able to use; stay tuned for many more!

This is Steve

Steve is our chief Nuclear Technologist, i.e., the Boss. He likes to ride his Harley and also goes fly fishing.

This is Bob

Bob is the hardest working member of our Nuclear crew. Mostly he is working hard on retiring in a couple more years.
When not working his buns off, Bob plays endless games of chess and drills us on the energy levels of different radioactive elements.
Bob is a one-man travelogue: if there is a place, he has been there. Except for the Virgin Valley and the Paradise Mine in Nevada, where he must go to mine some black opals.
Bob is the man!

The Proper pronunciation of "Nuclear"

Recently, there has been some confusion (mainly by un-named persons at the front desk) about how to pronounce "nuclear". It is not "new-clur" nor is it "nu-clr" it's "nü-klE-&r". Any other way is an insult to our vary way of life. So please when you are calling back patients over the stento, please say it right or don't say it at all.
Sincerly,
Your Friendly NucMed Techs