Nurse In The Callfloor

8.9 magnitude Quake, 30 ft. Tsunami, then the Radiation Scare. What's next? Is it the end of the World? Those are the questions in my mind right now and I'm quite sure it's in yours as well. With those things everywhere on T.V., internet,  newspaper and other media hysteria showing catastrophe, you can't help but think negative. People become paranoid and hysterical. But before you even think of going too far, here's the news. Just in case you didn't know, Ann Coulter, an American conservative, social and political commentor said that radiation is actually good. The theory is that Radiation, as some level much higher than the minimums set by the US government - radiation is good for you. This does protect against cancer by activating cell's natural defense mechanism.

In a nurse's point of view, we've always been educated that too much radiation is harmful. Everyone thinks it is. Back in college, I had a fair share of experience about radiation scare. We were on duty in one hospital in Tagum City that time. From emergency department together with my partner, we escorted a TB patient (which we are not aware of) to his room in a wheelchair. We reached the area and the nurse on duty pointed the room and we headed off. The door was half shut and it was dim. The only thing that gave light to the cozy dark room was a noticeable purple light emitted by an elongated object in about one meter in length from the ground. Then, I opened the door and placed the patient in his bed. I left my partner outside to provide enough space to wheel the patient in. The room was messy and there was a heavy table at the middle, the culprit why it took a while to finally situate the patient. After that, I was sweating hard. That’s the time i realized that heat was spawned from the purple light. Before i could investigate further, the patient caught my attention and said, out of kindness that he was fine now (it means it’s time for me to go) though it was obvious that he was irritated with the room condition. So we left the area and headed back to emergency room. I thought i saw my partner flashing a puckish grin at my sweaty reddish face. Before i could clean up my self, the supervisor nurse came into the scene  with my clinical instructor beside her. She started reprimanding. There i realized that the room i stayed in for more than 30 minutes underwent a radiation treatment. The small elongated object was the UV (ultraviolet) Light used to kill bacteria. The supervisor had a lot to say but when she started talking about radiation, I was dumbfounded. I got really scared that i didn’t realize that the supervisor was already done with her sermon and went back to her office, doing her incidental report. My heartbeat got angrier when Rad-tech beside me started opening his mouth and talked about the bad effects of radiation. He narrated about radiation killing the cells and about cancer. He added that symptoms might not be felt immediately however long term effects in the future may be severe. Good thing one patient asked for his X-ray scan and the radio technologist went out before i’d eventually faint.  My other teammates went in and started to story-tell and provided comfort. One of them said it’s not my fault. The nurse on duty did not put door tag or warning notes but i was not really paying attention. I was more worried for myself. Then all of the sudden, i thought of the patient. The guilt started to get into me so I hurriedly went back to the patient’s room. It’s clean now and obviously UV Light was no longer there. I was about to get inside to apologize but opted to stop so as not to wake him up from deep sleep. The man deserved a good rest and sleep and i don’t have to explain why. The next day, we went home to Davao. I ran some blood test. Everything was fine except for my Lymphocytes.  The count went down from the normal range. One week after, i had my blood tested again and fortunately, all was normal. From there, i kept everything to my self but still apprehensive to what’s going to happen – the long term effects that yet to come like what the rad-tech said.  Only God knows.

                Now, here we have Ann Coulter, saying radiation is actually good. It was supported by some studies conducted in attempts to prove it real. Among the search for the truth made was in Canada finding that tuberculosis patients subjected to multiple chest X-rays had much lower rates of breast cancer than the general population. In 1983, a series of apartment buildings in Taiwan were accidentally constructed with massive amounts of cobalt 60, a radioactive substance. After 16 years, the buildings' 10,000 occupants developed only five cases of cancer. The cancer rate for the same age group in the general Taiwanese population over that time period predicted 170 cancers. Amazingly, even the Soviet-engineered disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 can be directly blamed for the deaths of no more than the 31 people inside the plant who died in the explosion. Although news reports generally claimed a few thousand people died as a result of Chernobyl -- far fewer than the tens of thousands initially predicted -- that hasn't been confirmed by studies. There’s a lot more! (visit www.anncoulter.com)

Somehow, it made me feel relieved. Same should go with everybody else.  We’re experiencing a great ordeal now with these overblown crises. Weather is indeed  beyond our control which makes it worse. I think it would be somehow beneficial to cut some slack out of it and give ourselves a little break. Let us remind ourselves to stay calm and not to panic. I’m not suggesting everyone to be lax. Instead, be aware and not ignore. When the time comes and things we fear will actually happen (knock on woods), you’re well prepared. After all, being mentally prepared is a key to successful survival.