
Join us for a compelling journey into the world of ultrasound technology with our expert guest, Truman Thompson. As an ultrasound specialist with over 30 years of experience, Truman takes us through his fascinating career from the early days of radiology to becoming a leader in non-invasive diagnostics. Discover how ultrasound has evolved from a fledgling technology to a cornerstone of modern healthcare, thanks to skilled sonographers and technological advancements. Truman's insights reveal the profound impact early screenings can have, especially in high-risk professions like firefighting, highlighting real-life stories of lives saved through timely interventions.
We also explore the crucial role of expert ultrasound technicians and top-notch equipment in ensuring accurate medical diagnostics. Much like choosing a skilled mechanic for your car, selecting a qualified ultrasound technician can make all the difference in medical evaluations. We delve into the qualifications and credentials that define a true professional in the field and discuss the importance of hospital-grade equipment and HIPAA-compliant systems. Truman's extensive experience offers a unique perspective on the investment and expertise required to deliver reliable and trustworthy ultrasound services.
Amidst these serious discussions, we find a moment of levity with a humorous anecdote about measuring a snake in inches, reminding us of the power of laughter even in the face of life's challenges. We express our heartfelt thanks to Truman for his invaluable contributions to the episode and encourage you to visit the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance's website for more resources and information. Don't miss this enlightening episode packed with expert insights, inspiring stories, and a touch of humor.
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WEBVTT
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this is all clear firefighter wellness, where we help you light your fire I'm travis happy to be here with us.
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on all clear, we've got a great guest today, a personal friend of mine.
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I've been wanting him for quite a few years now.
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There's some work that we've been doing together in my own apartment.
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We've also been doing SelectWell and a few other folks who work with the Kids Reliance.
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We've got Truman Thompson with us.
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How are you doing, mr Truman?
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I'm great.
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I'm great, travis, appreciate you having me here today.
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It's an honor to come and talk to you.
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It's always fun to get to talk to you when we see each other at conferences and our mutual friend Vaughn McAfee.
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He's the one that really introduced me to you and explained a lot of what you've got going on.
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But you are an ultrasound specialist.
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I'm not going to use the term ultrasound tech.
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I think you're a lot more than just that.
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So I wanted to give you the chance to talk to our audience and maybe introduce yourself.
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Tell us what you're up to and what we can learn from an ultrasound specialist.
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Okay, great, being a specialist in ultrasound, that is my chosen profession.
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I started out in radiology about, oh, 32 years ago, post-education, so actually I started my educational process about 35, 36 years ago and then ultrasound was a really fairly new thing, man, to the public.
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We'd heard of ultrasound and ultrasound and the use, of course, looking at babies and how cute.
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But it was at the infancy of ultrasound and uh, you know, as I was already in the radiological field performing x-ray and cat scan and those type of ionizing radiation types of exams, one of the radiologists came and said hey, let's talk about this ultrasound thing.
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And that time there were no ultrasound schools.
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To be an ultrasound person you had to have a sponsor who was a doctor that would vouch for you and say you're worth that time investment to learn ultrasound from the ground up.
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And actually we had a few discussions and we dreamed about how ultrasound would progress in the future.
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And he's told me, hey, if you get in on ultrasound you're going to be like on the grandfather of ultrasound in 30, 40 years.
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And he was right, because the earlier you get into a profession, obviously you start out at the ground floor level and knowledge is accumulative.
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You build knowledge over time, much like your own profession.
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If you're starting out as a newbie your knowledge is more limited.
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But as you progress through the ranks and over time your knowledge accumulates and you learn more and more in how to handle different situations.
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I started in ultrasound basically in 1994, progressed on and started my first full-time ultrasound job in 1998 with Healthcare Corporation of America and from there ultrasound has simply grew and grew.
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With that we want to keep in mind.
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Computers were far different 32 years ago.
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It wasn't the kind of high-tech computers we have now.
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Ultrasound machines have progressed also.
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They're just very specialized computers.
00:03:19.308 --> 00:03:26.043
So during the course of the past 30 years the ultrasound machines have progressed, the knowledge has progressed.
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Until now we see ultrasound in every hospital in America.
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Ultrasound is a leading-edge technology for early detection in many disease processes and that's because it does not use ionizing radiation.
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It uses a little cold gel and you lay on a table, but it's relatively harmless.
00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:53.394
Overall it has no harm factor and you can use it with any 115 volt electrical outlet.
00:03:53.394 --> 00:03:57.230
So you don't need a special electrical requirement like what MRI and CAT scan.
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You got to have some really specialized power sources for that.
00:04:01.010 --> 00:04:02.887
So ultrasound is quite portable.
00:04:02.887 --> 00:04:09.485
It's quite easy to use, but it is 100% dependent on the technologist that's operating it.
00:04:09.925 --> 00:04:15.445
Ultrasound is not one of those types of technologies where a machine does all the work.
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All the work is actually done by the sonographer.
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His knowledge base or her knowledge base is how you get a good result or a good study.
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If they don't have that knowledge base of what to look at, how to look at it, this looks funny.
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Let me interrogate that more.
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Let me change my angle, change my power, optimize my image.
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If they don't have that base knowledge and that acute knowledge of what to do talking to a person, gain some insight into their personal history in a very quick manner, in a matter of minutes, and understand what you should be seeing versus what you are seeing.
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Does that match up logically?
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And the ultrasound person is 100% in control of the ultrasound.
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The radiologist gets the pictures we give them.
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They're dependent on us to find that information.
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Do those pictures correctly, alter our machine in ways that will make the picture optimized and then present that to the radiologist in a way where the report is written and structured so that the radiologist can understand not only what I saw, how I saw it, what is it pertaining to so they can make that medical judgment that I need to tell the patient this.
00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:34.112
So I guess to encapsulate all that, you've got a huge amount of knowledge on this.
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You've learned a lot and you just taught me ultrasounds are not just for babies anymore.
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Basically, they are not.
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My first experience with an ultrasound is when my son was before he came along and my wife was getting the ultrasounds to check on his health and all that.
00:05:51.574 --> 00:05:59.274
And then I got introduced to this idea about, hey, as an adult, there's things that we can use an ultrasound on to determine as well.
00:05:59.274 --> 00:06:14.790
And I had my first ultrasound as an adult about three years ago when we were doing our department physicals and they found, when they imaged my heart that's all they were doing at the time they found a valve that was mildly leaky.
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I was told that, eh, you know what?
00:06:16.747 --> 00:06:18.947
That's pretty common, most people have it.
00:06:18.947 --> 00:06:22.247
You may never notice it and then move forward.
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And the following year that's when I met you, when SelectWell was helping set up our physicals, and boy, you did a thorough ultrasound, top to bottom, and I will share my story because I think it bears some importance.
00:06:38.627 --> 00:06:51.072
You found, when you imaged my heart again, you found yet a second valve that showed some, some deficiencies nothing life-threatening, but it was enough of something that you're like, hey, this is something you might need to look at.
00:06:51.072 --> 00:07:01.850
And then you gave me the information that I was able to take to my doctor that I've been going to for 25 plus years and Dr Roy Croft looked at it and said okay, it's a thing.
00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:12.562
You're not showing symptoms, it shouldn't impact your work, but we'll watch it.
00:07:12.562 --> 00:07:15.129
So through my meeting with you, truman, I was able to find out something about myself.
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I didn't know, and one of the things that our department, where I work professionally here in Concord, north Carolina, is the fact that we've incorporated that as a regular thing for specific firefighters as they get to a certain point, as they get old.
00:07:28.103 --> 00:07:31.175
I'll just leave it at that like I am Older.
00:07:31.521 --> 00:07:44.132
So when we talk about the value of the ultrasound I've made some notes here what are some of the areas of ultrasound that can be beneficial?
00:07:44.132 --> 00:07:45.706
What are some of the things you're looking for?
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I know you mentioned it's not just for babies anymore, but I know in my case you looked at our heart, but what other things are you looking for other than, just, say, a heart valve or something like that?
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What are some of the things you look for when you do an ultrasound, maybe specifically on firefighters?
00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:12.456
Specifically when we're doing firefighters and the 1582 type of ultrasound program, we're doing as you say, I do a top to bottom scan.
00:08:12.456 --> 00:08:32.855
We look at your thyroid and we're looking for thyroid nodules there, that evidence that you may have hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism and large thyroid or hyperthyroidism, enlarged thyroid, and we check all that soft tissue there, including the surrounding structures, because there are some firefighters that are like, oh wow, look at that lymph node over there, it doesn't look exactly right.
00:08:32.855 --> 00:08:33.796
And our neck?
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There's also hundreds of lymph nodes and I have found some lymph nodes in your area of North Carolina with some of your firefighters that have had to have them surgically removed because it was being by their medical professional.
00:08:46.567 --> 00:08:48.331
That lymph node may have some issues.
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We need to get that out of there and address that issue.
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So we start there in the neck.
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We also look at your carotid arteries and what we're looking for there is the carotid arteries.
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We're looking for plaque, atheromas, any kind of blockage or stenosis that could slow down or impede the flow of blood from the heart to the brain.
00:09:07.945 --> 00:09:10.552
Everything goes through the neck to get to the brain.
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If the blood can't get through, it doesn't go through and that would be the equivalent of having a plug in your fire hose.
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You got to get water out that other end.
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If there's something in there blocking it up, you're going to have a deficient strength flow.
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So we check that and then I move down to your heart.
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And with the heart it's also tied into the carotid.
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So your vascular system, your heart, is the pump.
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It's pumping blood to all parts of your body.
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However, even if the pump is working 100%, if your heart's 100% clean, 100% efficient, it needs those conduits to your body to also be efficient.
00:09:46.250 --> 00:09:51.432
And with that there are certain things in the vascular world, such as what we call Winn-Kessel effect.
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I'm checking the effect of blood passing through your arteries to see if it's moving in the normal fashion.
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As we age and all of us do age, unfortunately we start to lose some of that Winn-Kessel effect, and Winn-Kessel is the scientific name that's used for how blood passes through a certain point in an artery, and it has a certain way that it does that.
00:10:14.524 --> 00:10:42.245
That's why blood can go from here to your head and not destroy the brain tissue, because there's only this much room, but it's got to pump from here to your toes at a higher pressure, so the pressure is not the same throughout your entire body and we need to understand that on a vascular level, is the blood making the proper movements through your abdomen, through your legs, down to your toes to get that blood down to your pinky toe or your little toe?
00:10:42.245 --> 00:10:49.432
And also, is it moving appropriately to go a short distance to the brain without destroying the tissue in the brain?
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Because that's only eight or 10 inches above the heart, but high pressure would just give you a big stroke.
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So there are certain things in your body that determine how that blood flows.
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We look at the heart, I'm looking at the vessels there.
00:11:01.660 --> 00:11:10.764
I move down into your abdomen, I check the aorta, which is the main vessel coming down to your navel and then it splits to each leg and we're checking those.
00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:23.149
And this coming year because I want to be more into the vascular tune of a person we're also going to start to do some evaluations through the legs and not just stop at the lower waist.
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We're going to go ahead and continue that evaluation into your legs, checking the flow, checking for peripheral artery disease and, because that's tied in all of your arteries, tie into how well does your overall circulation work.
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It's okay to get the blood down to the toes, but it's also got to come back up to the heart.
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If the heart cannot receive blood back, it cannot pump it out again.
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So this is the circulatory system and for simple math we'll just say you got 100 drops of blood in your body.
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Obviously you have more than that, but we want to stick with a simple terminology If my heart pumps out 100 drops, it needs 100 drops back in order to pump it out again.
00:12:01.673 --> 00:12:14.456
So we want to make sure that circulatory system is working, not only going out but coming back to the heart and in the abdomen I also check the inferior vena cava, which is the conduit back into the right side of the heart.
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We want to make sure that flow coming back into the heart is appropriate and there's easy things I can do to check that inward flow into the heart to make sure that it matches the outflow from the heart.
00:12:25.860 --> 00:12:35.333
So when I go through this 1582 physical, as it relates to our vascular system, I check your heart, I check your aorta, I check your carotid artery.
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I'm going to now be checking the blood flow in the legs, checking that arteries down into the toe, and we're going to make sure the reverse circulation is pumping back into the heart in a normal fashion or if it's abnormal, we'll bring that up to first patients' attention.
00:12:50.914 --> 00:12:52.562
They'll discuss that with their doctor.
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Then we're going to stay in that abdominal space and look at the soft tissues in there, starting with the liver.
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We're going to check your liver for any signs of hepatic steatosis, which is a common factor in that today, because of our dietary habits here in America, hepatic steatosis is when we start to accumulate a fatty liver which can cause pain.
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The liver, if it gets more than 5% enlarged, causes pain and stretching in the liver capsule.
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So we check that to make sure.
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Is that liver becoming fat what we call fatty common term or is it normal?
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We look at the texture of the liver.
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Are there any masses, lesions, anything abnormal inside the liver?
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Check the blood flow into the liver, such as the portal vein.
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If you have an impedance of flow from the body through the liver, the blood is routed through the liver because that's part of your metabolistic system and we check that flow of blood in there to make sure it's flowing properly.
00:13:51.826 --> 00:13:54.327
We'll check your both kidneys.
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Check to see if there's any lesions.
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There are lesions.
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I have found here in Arizona a fireman we won't mention his name, although we have permission to do so.
00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:07.832
We found that on his kidney, which is a little tumor.
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We found it at two millimeters, which is very small.
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Two millimeters is a very small tumor.
00:14:13.427 --> 00:14:16.399
And this was a person who was basically a triathlete.
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:18.928
He runs, he jogs, he runs marathons.
00:14:18.928 --> 00:14:24.292
This is a very, extremely healthy young man who was in his I believe 38 when I met him.
00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:26.326
But we found that Uncle Sartoma.
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We found it in October.
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We got him sent out to a specialist, a cancer specialist.
00:14:31.770 --> 00:14:33.405
They worked him up immediately.
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By December they had excised that Uncle Sartoma and sent it off to be biopsied by the professionals and therefore he now I saw him this year, actually at a conference, and we met and we discussed how was he doing.
00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:55.791
He was very thankful because he had young kids and family, much like all of us, and now that thing's gone, he has peace of mind.
00:14:55.791 --> 00:15:02.429
He's going to see that is not going to be an issue in his life and, like I told him, you got rid of it, it's gone.
00:15:02.429 --> 00:15:06.289
Have a good laugh about it with your family and all that.
00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:07.826
Give it a name and laugh about it.
00:15:07.826 --> 00:15:10.649
But it was a small, two millimeter tumor.
00:15:10.649 --> 00:15:17.524
Early detection was the key thing there, because many times the oncologists tell them they're silent, they don't cause any problems.
00:15:17.605 --> 00:15:26.092
Until you have an issue they can become cancerous and then from there your outcome can be far different than just having a funny story to tell on the porch when you're older.
00:15:26.092 --> 00:15:31.692
So we want that early detection in all cases to be the rule.
00:15:31.692 --> 00:15:33.225
It's not always the rule.
00:15:33.225 --> 00:15:36.269
Sometimes I meet people that's beyond early detection.
00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:39.168
But the key here is early detection.
00:15:39.168 --> 00:15:40.985
That's what gives you choices.
00:15:40.985 --> 00:15:45.932
You get to make choices with your doctor for your family and decide what's best for your lifestyle.
00:15:45.932 --> 00:15:52.308
So after I check those kidneys and we check your left spleen, we check your spleen to make sure it's not enlarged.
00:15:52.308 --> 00:15:55.190
The spleen and liver are closely matched together.
00:15:55.190 --> 00:16:02.648
Typically, if you have a liver disease problem, you will have a spleen disease problem, and that's because they're closely linked.
00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:06.160
Your spleen provides blood immediately into your liver.
00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.707
Your spleen is part of your immune immune system.
00:16:09.707 --> 00:16:11.030
So it's very important.
00:16:11.030 --> 00:16:17.629
And then we check that spleen also for soft tissue damage, lesions, anything we can find.
00:16:17.629 --> 00:16:20.761
And then we're also going to move south of that.
00:16:20.761 --> 00:16:24.187
Going up the bottom, we're going to check if you're male.
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We're going to check your urinary bladder for any lesions.
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Prostate cancer.
00:16:28.975 --> 00:16:36.991
Last year I found a young lady who had no symptoms I'm sorry she's not a young lady, she's a middle-aged lady had no symptoms whatsoever.
00:16:36.991 --> 00:16:44.592
We found a very large bladder cancer on her and fortunately we were able to get that excised right away.
00:16:44.592 --> 00:16:45.981
We got her to see a specialist.
00:16:45.981 --> 00:16:52.263
She got that bladder cancer out at an early stage where they could take it out and still save her bladder.
00:16:52.263 --> 00:16:54.707
So that made it a lot better for her.
00:16:54.707 --> 00:16:59.065
Instead of losing her bladder and having a urostomy bag, she had a surgery.
00:16:59.065 --> 00:17:01.048
It was gotten taken care of.
00:17:01.048 --> 00:17:13.011
And then of course, she goes through the monitoring process to make sure she's okay after that, because with all cancers, your doctors, they're going to put you in a little bit of a monitoring program to check you afterwards.
00:17:13.011 --> 00:17:15.142
They're not just going to take care of and throw you away.
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They're going to monitor you and make sure everything stays good.
00:17:18.497 --> 00:17:21.124
So we check your bladder as a male and female.
00:17:21.124 --> 00:17:22.686
We check your prostate.
00:17:22.686 --> 00:17:26.843
Obviously, for males, we're looking for any nodules or enlargements.
00:17:26.843 --> 00:17:30.156
It's common for males, as we age our prostate gets a little larger.
00:17:30.156 --> 00:17:34.205
The typical prostate is about 25 cubic centimeters.
00:17:34.205 --> 00:17:38.922
But as we age it gets larger and that's just part of life for us as a male.
00:17:38.922 --> 00:17:42.352
But, however, we want to make sure that enlargement hasn't gotten too far.
00:17:42.352 --> 00:17:43.222
If it has.
00:17:43.222 --> 00:17:57.642
There again, early detection with that can lead to a lot of inhibiting problems such as urinary retention, other issues that can affect your urine and your bladder and your kidneys, because that's all one system and you go to your doctor.
00:17:57.642 --> 00:18:00.292
They have many wonderful treatments for that nowadays.
00:18:00.292 --> 00:18:04.345
And then for males, we're going to move a little further south and check your testicles.
00:18:04.345 --> 00:18:15.426
We're going to check for common things like hydro I'm sorry I can't speak today hydro to make sure there's no fluid in the testicles, which is a common male problem and that happens and it's a pretty benign finding.
00:18:15.426 --> 00:18:24.670
But we're looking to see if there's any testicular cancer, any tumors on the testicles, any tumors in the epididymis and anything abnormal in the testicles.
00:18:25.050 --> 00:18:25.770
For females.
00:18:25.770 --> 00:18:39.833
We're checking their bladder, we're checking their uterus and ovaries and we're doing a basic GYN study on females transabdominally to check the endometrial lining.
00:18:39.833 --> 00:18:51.013
That is one of the key things for ladies is to make sure the endometrial lining is homogenous, which means it's all one even layer and that it's of the normal thickness for your age and menstrual cycle.
00:18:51.013 --> 00:19:01.925
Having an endometrium that's too thick for your age and menstrual cycle line can be an indication of endometriosis or any kind of endometrial disease process.
00:19:01.925 --> 00:19:08.647
We check the cervix, make sure there's no lesions in the cervix and we check the ovaries as we can see them.
00:19:08.980 --> 00:19:14.428
Sometimes we can't see the ovaries trans-abdominal, but 90% of the time we can if a person's fasted properly.
00:19:14.428 --> 00:19:23.446
Most of these exams are very dependent on the patient fasting properly so that we can get rid of any overlying gas and fecal matter.
00:19:23.446 --> 00:19:34.391
We can see in there quite well with the ultrasound if the person's fasted really well and hydrated properly, and that's pretty much the focus of our 15-day tube physical.
00:19:34.391 --> 00:19:39.180
With that being said, if a person has something personal, they tell me about that.
00:19:39.180 --> 00:19:40.931
Hey, I have a history of this or that.
00:19:40.931 --> 00:19:42.519
I'll investigate that also.
00:19:42.941 --> 00:19:45.730
You just said a ton there.
00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:48.362
Yeah, it's quite a bit.
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:56.036
And I can't explain enough to our listeners how important every bit of what you said was.
00:19:56.036 --> 00:20:08.440
One of the big focuses that has been a drive of the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance for a long time is cancer and we've always known the things the respiratory.
00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.428
We know about, skin absorption, we know about all these things.
00:20:11.428 --> 00:20:22.609
But when you really start breaking down and looking at what the outcomes are, when you start talking about okay, yeah, we know how we're being exposed to it, but what's it actually doing to us?
00:20:22.609 --> 00:20:28.211
And when you start talking about the liver, you start talking about prostate, you start talking about all these things.
00:20:28.211 --> 00:20:35.476
You really start to understand how big the cancer problem is in firefighters in our industry.
00:20:41.005 --> 00:20:47.893
But when you're doing all of these exams and different things like that, I know you find a ton of things that, like you mentioned, some are way out man, you need to be looked at sooner than later.
00:20:47.893 --> 00:20:50.493
And then some I'm like, hey, let's just watch it.
00:20:50.493 --> 00:20:58.011
How important is it from information that you gain that you understand from your imaging?
00:20:58.011 --> 00:21:09.041
How important is it that be transmitted to the healthcare provider that firefighter may have, whether it be their family doctor or the doctor that the department uses?
00:21:09.041 --> 00:21:11.934
How important is it that information be transmitted?
00:21:13.247 --> 00:21:17.755
I think all of it is important and the reason I say that is what is the value of a human life?
00:21:17.755 --> 00:21:19.832
We tend to place a lot of value on that.
00:21:19.832 --> 00:21:23.255
What is the value of the quality of that human having a life?
00:21:23.255 --> 00:21:38.471
And as I say so when I do, yes, I am focused on cancer because of their implication of cancer in firefighters having a higher percentage of cancer incident versus the normal population, and some of the data.
00:21:38.471 --> 00:21:40.838
Of course, we all can talk about data.
00:21:40.838 --> 00:21:45.329
12 percent of cancer in america is about 150 um.
00:21:45.329 --> 00:21:47.816
So we know these statistical data, um.
00:21:47.816 --> 00:21:55.467
We also know that every now and then you're going to have that one like way out there person that I do babies, I do a neonatal, all sounds all the time.
00:21:55.887 --> 00:21:58.790
Yes, children do get cancer and they're not even adults.
00:21:58.790 --> 00:21:59.932
We know that.
00:21:59.932 --> 00:22:02.355
We see the commercials from St Joseph's.
00:22:02.355 --> 00:22:07.820
We know that children can get cancer, babies can get cancer, anyone can get cancer.
00:22:07.820 --> 00:22:22.450
But, however, when we look at the general population male to male, just the average guy, average female we know they're firefighters because of some of the things you guys come in contact with hazardous materials, such as the firefighting foam you use.
00:22:22.450 --> 00:22:24.673
That's a very known.
00:22:24.673 --> 00:22:26.056
It's a known cancer agent.
00:22:26.056 --> 00:22:28.266
It can help lead to cancer.
00:22:28.306 --> 00:22:37.746
So you guys and ladies are taking risk for us, the society, and you deserve to have the best possible outcome from your physicals.
00:22:37.746 --> 00:22:48.056
So knowing that high probability, higher probability of the average person versus Joe Blow on the street, is very important.
00:22:48.056 --> 00:22:56.258
We get that data, give it to you and your medical professional so that early detection becomes the norm, not late detection.
00:22:56.258 --> 00:23:07.151
So I consider, even though I'm focused on cancer, I consider the entire health of a person because, let's be honest, no one gets out of life alive.
00:23:07.151 --> 00:23:12.047
We all, as we get older, develop something, but most of us.
00:23:12.047 --> 00:23:18.329
That's why we have insurance, that's why we go to medical exams, because we want that early detection.
00:23:18.329 --> 00:23:22.528
We don't want to find out, travis, had you come a year earlier, we maybe could have helped you.
00:23:22.528 --> 00:23:24.173
That's the one thing you don't want to hear.
00:23:24.173 --> 00:23:29.076
You want to hear wow, we found this early, we're going to take care of it and you're going to be fine.
00:23:29.076 --> 00:23:31.711
That's the statement that you want to hear.
00:23:31.711 --> 00:23:35.721
So, with that being said, all of your health is important.
00:23:35.721 --> 00:23:50.593
Giving that information to our medical providers the fire department uses is just the first step, because that information is then going to be passed on to your personal provider or the specialist that you're going to go see afterwards, if that's necessary.
00:23:50.593 --> 00:23:56.294
Having that channel of communication also means that one from the ultrasound perspective.
00:23:56.294 --> 00:24:03.277
We did a thorough exam and the exam we do is going to be the same as what I do at the hospitals and at the specialist.
00:24:03.986 --> 00:24:05.372
I'm not going to take shortcuts.
00:24:05.372 --> 00:24:06.651
I don't believe in shortcuts.
00:24:06.651 --> 00:24:10.833
I'll never take a shortcut and sometimes that means I'm going to run over schedule.
00:24:10.833 --> 00:24:12.971
But it's important to your life.
00:24:12.971 --> 00:24:18.230
It's important to your wife, your children, your family, your fire department unit.
00:24:18.230 --> 00:24:28.425
You are an effective person when you are healthy for everyone involved and we're going to make sure that happens the people I part with SelectWell and other people I part with.
00:24:28.425 --> 00:24:30.269
That's their key focus.
00:24:30.269 --> 00:24:33.236
It is cancer detection, but overall health.
00:24:33.236 --> 00:24:35.224
That's why we check for more than just cancer.
00:24:35.224 --> 00:24:35.846
We're going to focus on cancer while, but overall health.
00:24:35.846 --> 00:24:36.115
That's why we check for more than just cancer.
00:24:36.115 --> 00:24:48.557
We're going to focus on cancer while checking your entire health altogether, and the fire department, of course, understands that, and they add in other things also that are semi-related to health as well as cancer.
00:24:48.557 --> 00:24:52.435
So how important is it that we get accurate detection?
00:24:52.435 --> 00:24:59.040
Give that information to you, let you pass it on to your provider, to your doctor, to your specialist.
00:24:59.040 --> 00:25:00.184
It's 100% important.
00:25:00.506 --> 00:25:01.872
All of that is very true.
00:25:01.872 --> 00:25:21.740
But I think you'll probably agree with me when I say this, and I'm speaking from my own experience on this one that kind of intangible factor that you can get is when you know that, okay, my heart's been checked, my liver's been checked, my prostate, whatever the case is.
00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:31.035
And when you go to your doctor in fact I know when I went to my doctor and presented the packet that I got that had all my blood work, the ultrasound he's my goodness.
00:25:31.035 --> 00:25:38.009
He said if everybody got this done, there would be a whole lot less problem and a whole lot less disease that we would see.
00:25:38.009 --> 00:25:59.372
And I do think in a lot of ways, when you work for certain departments, you are blessed that you have additional screening and that's one of the things that we reach out and try to do is encourage departments to look at more advanced and more comprehensive physical steps, such as chest x-rays and the ultrasound and things like that.
00:25:59.945 --> 00:26:06.590
But that intangible knowing, okay, there's an issue, I found it, let me go talk to my guy.
00:26:06.590 --> 00:26:10.154
And when the doctor looks at it he's like you're okay, let's watch it.
00:26:10.154 --> 00:26:14.594
Or if it's okay, you have an issue with your thyroid, let's go get it.
00:26:14.594 --> 00:26:16.518
Let's go get it looked at, let's get it fixed.
00:26:16.518 --> 00:26:27.800
When you have that in your back pocket, knowing that you have done everything within your power, it's easier to rest assured when you do your job and things like that.
00:26:27.800 --> 00:26:36.880
But so I know that you, like I said, I met you through SelectWell and I know you work with a lot of different folks across the country.
00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:58.262
But let's say there is a department, there's a training chief, there's a chief officer that's listening right now that's maybe responsible for doing the physicals for their department start including the ultrasound as part of their arsenal of tests and things that they're providing.
00:26:58.262 --> 00:27:12.178
What is a good source that people can find quality ultrasound technicians, ultrasound services, what's a good way that and what should they look for when they're asking questions to folks that maybe present those services?
00:27:12.884 --> 00:27:19.136
The first thing I should look for is someone who has the type of experience that can be well-rounded, but what is the focus of?
00:27:19.136 --> 00:27:25.140
We'll just say that person's focus on cancer or it's focused on cancer and well-being.
00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:29.034
So the first thing I should figure out is what do we want to focus on?
00:27:29.034 --> 00:27:31.082
Do we want to focus on all the body parts?
00:27:31.082 --> 00:27:37.557
Do we only want to focus on cancer and make sure the sonographer has experience in that level of ultrasound?
00:27:37.557 --> 00:27:40.252
There are a million ultrasound people in America.
00:27:40.252 --> 00:27:44.194
There are a million firefighters in America, but every person is not the same.
00:27:44.704 --> 00:27:49.376
It's much like going down to your local mechanic shop to get your car fixed.
00:27:49.376 --> 00:27:50.347
There's some that can.
00:27:50.347 --> 00:27:54.291
They can take a wrench and a lube job and make your car run like a F1.
00:27:54.291 --> 00:27:57.153
And there's some that maybe can't do that so well.
00:27:57.153 --> 00:28:02.585
It's important to understand the experience level of the person that you're going to have through the old salesman.
00:28:02.585 --> 00:28:04.394
So I want to start with some basic things.
00:28:04.394 --> 00:28:05.579
Are they registered?
00:28:05.579 --> 00:28:10.016
Okay, we have several different registry programs here in America.
00:28:10.016 --> 00:28:18.753
The Register of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers has been one of the most prevalent and widespread, and so, in other words, it's like a license to drive.
00:28:19.164 --> 00:28:23.335
Do you want unlicensed drivers driving around with your family on the road.
00:28:23.335 --> 00:28:24.217
You really don't.
00:28:24.217 --> 00:28:31.156
You want them to at least have a license, so that way you say someone's vetted them and said they have the basic skills.
00:28:31.156 --> 00:28:32.650
So you want that as well.
00:28:32.650 --> 00:28:38.713
This is your life, this is your family's future, betting on you being healthy to take care of your family.
00:28:38.713 --> 00:28:42.326
So you don't want an unlicensed person just doing your ultrasound.
00:28:42.326 --> 00:28:48.851
You don't want a person who at some point and I've had people say to me well, isn't there someone local here that can do this?
00:28:48.851 --> 00:28:50.955
There may be, you'll have to find them.
00:28:50.955 --> 00:28:53.630
Is there someone local that has my experience level?
00:28:53.630 --> 00:28:55.394
There may be, you'll have to find them.
00:28:55.394 --> 00:28:57.398
Is there someone local that has my experience level?
00:28:57.398 --> 00:28:58.240
There may be, you'll have to find them.
00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:00.727
Is there someone local that has my experience level that's at a comparable value as myself?
00:29:00.727 --> 00:29:02.590
There may be, you'll have to find them.
00:29:02.590 --> 00:29:11.708
So with all of this, you can't just say I'm going to pick a person out of the pod, have them do these ultrasounds and I'm going to feel good about it.
00:29:11.708 --> 00:29:14.232
That ultrasound person, are they registered?
00:29:14.232 --> 00:29:15.655
Registered would be step one.
00:29:15.655 --> 00:29:19.832
If that person's registered, then you want to say what are they registering in?
00:29:19.832 --> 00:29:22.425
Just like I have a seat driver's license.
00:29:22.425 --> 00:29:25.894
I can't jump an 18 wheel and drive it, but I can drive right.
00:29:25.894 --> 00:29:29.490
So you want to make sure that I'm registered to drive the thing that I'm driving.
00:29:29.490 --> 00:29:31.596
You don't want me in an 18th wheeler.
00:29:31.596 --> 00:29:34.228
It might turn out to be really bad for everybody else on the road.
00:29:34.228 --> 00:29:41.200
So you want to make sure that I have a license to drive the type of ultrasounds you want.
00:29:41.704 --> 00:29:42.988
So I have several.
00:29:42.988 --> 00:29:44.070
I have four.
00:29:44.070 --> 00:29:55.557
I'm registered in diagnostic medical sonography, for abdominal, for echo cardiographers, I have one for abdomens, I have one for heart, I have one for vascular technology.
00:29:55.557 --> 00:29:58.689
So I have three or four registries.
00:29:58.689 --> 00:30:02.056
And then I'm a registered technologist in radiology.
00:30:02.056 --> 00:30:10.244
With that being said, I have four registries over several different subspecialties and I've worked in every setting.
00:30:10.244 --> 00:30:15.457
There is hospital, outpatient surgical, neonatal, obgyn.
00:30:15.457 --> 00:30:22.005
I do vascular specialty for several large companies where I conduct their surgeries.
00:30:22.005 --> 00:30:25.315
I conduct their surgeries on arteries and veins.
00:30:25.315 --> 00:30:29.053
So I have a lot of experience and I even have some background in neuro.
00:30:29.053 --> 00:30:31.131
I used to work at a mental facility.
00:30:31.131 --> 00:30:31.833
It was fun.
00:30:31.833 --> 00:30:33.630
I was like, hey, you want to learn neuro?
00:30:33.630 --> 00:30:34.471
Of course I do.
00:30:34.471 --> 00:30:36.446
I'll learn anything, just give me a chance.
00:30:36.446 --> 00:30:39.954
So I have a very eclectic background in these things.
00:30:40.256 --> 00:30:43.190
So you want to make sure that ultrasound person A is registered.
00:30:43.190 --> 00:30:51.454
There's the basic registry, which is registry diagnostic medical sonography At least they need to have that at a minimum.
00:30:51.454 --> 00:31:10.371
And then from there, if you're concerned with vascular health, they need a RVT registering vascular technology because then they have a license to say I have been vetted, I know vascular medicine, I know vascular ultrasound and I should have the basic background to check those things out for you.
00:31:10.371 --> 00:31:14.669
So you want to make sure this person's registered and some registries.
00:31:14.669 --> 00:31:15.691
You want to make sure.
00:31:15.691 --> 00:31:18.577
Do they have some experience in what you're wanting to know?
00:31:18.577 --> 00:31:21.614
Do they have experience in finding cancer?
00:31:21.614 --> 00:31:23.931
Do they have experience in health backgrounds?
00:31:23.931 --> 00:31:29.896
How to talk to the person, find out their health background quickly and then apply that through the ultrasound.
00:31:29.896 --> 00:31:33.094
How are they going to record these images?
00:31:33.094 --> 00:31:40.541
Because taking a picture on my iPhone is not the same as if I had a nice Hollywood setup and I'm taking a picture there.
00:31:40.541 --> 00:31:42.833
There's different qualities to taking pictures.
00:31:42.833 --> 00:31:47.316
Now, with that being said, there are different ultrasound machines as well.
00:31:47.316 --> 00:31:55.480
So you want them to have a reasonably modern ultrasound machine that's connected to a PACS, which is a patient archival communication system.
00:31:56.005 --> 00:32:00.012
So when I come out to your place and I do these ultrasounds.
00:32:00.012 --> 00:32:02.878
I feed those images into a PAX.
00:32:02.878 --> 00:32:05.914
It is a hospital-based grade PAX system.
00:32:05.914 --> 00:32:12.077
Those images are not just something I've put on a thumb drive and stuck on my computer.
00:32:12.077 --> 00:32:20.432
They feed into a hospital-grade PAX system where it's HIPAA compliant, secure, and then from there I can construct a report.
00:32:20.432 --> 00:32:23.567
This report is the same as you would get at any hospital.
00:32:24.048 --> 00:32:35.990
All of this requires, of course, investing in these technologies so they can work for you, the patient, not doing something on a cheap basic level, where I come out and I shoot a bunch of pictures and they're on my thumb drive.
00:32:35.990 --> 00:32:37.095
I lose the thumb drive.
00:32:37.095 --> 00:32:38.691
How is that thumb drive secure?
00:32:38.691 --> 00:32:45.515
Do I drop it and some guy picks it up and says, oh, what's on this, and stick it in his computer and he's got all of you's images?
00:32:45.515 --> 00:32:47.050
No, you want to know.
00:32:47.070 --> 00:32:53.208
This is a HIPAA-compliant system, it is secure and I store that data for a minimum of seven years.
00:32:53.208 --> 00:33:01.373
So if I come out and do a physical this year for seven years, I can reference that longer if I need to and I can reference the images.
00:33:01.373 --> 00:33:11.059
I can reference the report and then the providers have the ability to log in and look at those images your provider, if I so desire, you so desire.
00:33:11.059 --> 00:33:13.480
More specifically, I can give them a password.
00:33:13.480 --> 00:33:15.623
They can log in, look at those images.
00:33:15.623 --> 00:33:25.798
If you happen to go to a specialty clinic or whatever, I can give them a password based on your permission set and I can let them look at them.
00:33:25.798 --> 00:33:32.115
So this is a completely shareable type of imaging system where anyone in the world can be given access.
00:33:32.115 --> 00:33:35.992
Log in just like you would log into your email anywhere in the world.
00:33:36.404 --> 00:33:40.032
Look at those images, say, oh, I see what we're talking about.
00:33:40.032 --> 00:33:42.618
Or oh, I see the report and I agree.
00:33:42.618 --> 00:33:43.205
I disagree.
00:33:43.205 --> 00:33:50.126
Whatever the provider needs to do, so it's important that A they're qualified to do what they're saying they're going to do.
00:33:50.126 --> 00:33:53.133
Two, are they licensed to do it?
00:33:53.133 --> 00:33:55.798
Three, how are they storing your images?
00:33:55.798 --> 00:34:02.453
What are they doing with the images now that they've made those images, and how can they share them with the next person?
00:34:02.453 --> 00:34:06.855
You need to see Because, god forbid, if we find something serious, you're going to need some follow-up.
00:34:08.170 --> 00:34:09.284
How are we going to scale that image?
00:34:09.284 --> 00:34:19.824
And I think you hit on a lot of stuff that is so important right now Data sensitivity, HIPAA, compliance, that stuff that I had never even thought about.
00:34:19.824 --> 00:34:24.456
I was just thinking about all right, here's a guy that knows how to do abdominal imaging.
00:34:24.456 --> 00:34:26.193
No, you need a lot more than that.
00:34:26.304 --> 00:34:28.751
You need to understand where it's going.
00:34:28.751 --> 00:34:30.976
How it's going, what's going to happen?
00:34:30.976 --> 00:34:41.791
So now, if we do locate folks that are qualified for firefighters in our industry in particular, like yourself, what if?
00:34:41.791 --> 00:34:54.858
I know budgets and money drive a lot of things in all industries, but if they do find a service that they're comfortable with, that's competent and able to do the imaging?
00:34:54.858 --> 00:35:07.775
If a department can only afford to maybe do a partial panel of imaging, what would you say are probably the top three things that a department should think about?
00:35:07.775 --> 00:35:20.233
If they can't afford or they can't work out being able to do a head-to-toe scan, what would be the top three things that you would recommend that a department talk to a ultrasound tech?
00:35:20.253 --> 00:35:21.875
about.
00:35:21.875 --> 00:35:25.608
I'll start with the first thing, which is not one of the three things you mentioned.
00:35:25.608 --> 00:35:30.226
Affordability many times hinges on the number of people we're going to look at.
00:35:30.226 --> 00:35:36.905
Clearly, if I'm coming to look at five people, there's not a lot of fat that can be cut because there's time involved.
00:35:36.905 --> 00:35:41.657
The more people that are scanned at one time, the cheaper the service can be.
00:35:41.657 --> 00:35:45.454
And the reason why is now you can fractionalize that cost to come there.
00:35:45.454 --> 00:35:50.777
If I have to come there and I'm doing 10 people, how much can I cut off the cost of it?
00:35:50.777 --> 00:35:53.467
But if I'm doing 100 people, I can start cutting some costs.
00:35:53.467 --> 00:35:58.275
Now, because it's fractionalized from 10 people to 100 people, the cost is spread out.
00:35:58.275 --> 00:36:09.309
With that being said, the more people this is just like Walmart the more people I do, the cheaper I can make per person.
00:36:09.329 --> 00:36:13.202
When you look at cost per person, it's easy to say okay, we need to make this worthwhile for all parties involved.
00:36:13.202 --> 00:36:19.237
We need to have some minimum involved so this can be economical for the department to pay for.
00:36:19.237 --> 00:36:22.653
Also, there are people who have HSAs.
00:36:22.653 --> 00:36:31.460
They have money in their health spending account where, if the department says, you know what, we can't pay for it all, but maybe we can pay for half and get you a discount.
00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:38.702
Are you willing to pay that other half with your HSA, which is money you've already of course we know how that works paid into the government?
00:36:38.702 --> 00:36:39.003
Blah, blah blah.
00:36:39.003 --> 00:36:47.532
It's there for healthcare reasons, so part of that cost can be absorbed by an individual's HSA or insurance in some cases also.
00:36:47.532 --> 00:36:56.706
So sometimes you can say okay, the department can pay for this segment If you'll pay this part as HSA, and then your insurance, your private insurance, can cover X.
00:36:56.706 --> 00:36:59.052
So there's ways to fractionalize that cost.
00:36:59.052 --> 00:37:03.572
It doesn't always have to be where the department's paying the whole 100%.
00:37:03.572 --> 00:37:05.577
There are ways to make that economical.
00:37:05.577 --> 00:37:09.711
Depending on how many people are being done, it can be done on an economical basis.
00:37:09.711 --> 00:37:16.576
So, with that being said, if you say to me how are the top three things you should do?
00:37:16.996 --> 00:37:24.166
Thyroid, and the reason I say that is because they're cancer-causing agents that firefighters come into contact with the heat.
00:37:24.166 --> 00:37:27.356
All the factors, thyroid is one.
00:37:27.356 --> 00:37:32.369
After that I'm going to say heart, one of the cardiologists I work with.
00:37:32.369 --> 00:37:36.719
He says the problem with first responders is they're addicted to adrenaline.
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:43.038
And the reason I say that you're sitting out there at your station everything's calm, you're just having a great time.
00:37:43.038 --> 00:37:44.590
The buzzer goes off.
00:37:44.590 --> 00:37:46.070
Now it's all hands on deck.
00:37:46.070 --> 00:37:48.733
You're getting hit with adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.
00:37:48.733 --> 00:37:56.213
You're running, you're going, your heart rate's elevated, you're hyped up, you get into that tunnel focus mode.
00:37:56.213 --> 00:38:04.115
Adrenaline is now controlling your body for a short period of time that's going to make your heart rate elevate, your blood pressure elevate.
00:38:04.115 --> 00:38:07.574
We all get what adrenaline does to you, but that's a killer on the body.
00:38:07.574 --> 00:38:13.797
Your body is not really designed to be under adrenaline stress for long periods of time like you guys and ladies are.
00:38:13.797 --> 00:38:16.668
They can affect your heart, they can affect your heart valves.
00:38:16.668 --> 00:38:23.432
With that, dietary things that we have in America affect your heart, affect your valves, affect your circulatory system.
00:38:23.432 --> 00:38:25.257
So thyroid heart.
00:38:25.257 --> 00:38:28.034
Next after that is, I'm going to say, your abdominal organs.
00:38:28.436 --> 00:38:37.228
As much as we like to focus on prostate cancer, if I have to pick between your abdominal organs and your prostate, I'm going to pick your abdominal organs.
00:38:37.228 --> 00:38:44.311
There's a higher, much, much higher rate of disease process in your liver and kidneys than there are prostate.
00:38:44.311 --> 00:38:47.382
Prostate is very important because people do.
00:38:47.382 --> 00:38:49.509
Obviously, my father died from prostate cancer.
00:38:49.509 --> 00:38:52.456
My father, grandfather died from prostate cancer.
00:38:52.456 --> 00:38:54.809
Prostate health is very important to me.
00:38:54.809 --> 00:38:56.775
I have all the markers for that.
00:38:56.775 --> 00:39:02.677
I get mine checked regularly because I have such a heavy family history of death and prostate cancer.
00:39:02.677 --> 00:39:03.909
So it's very important to me.
00:39:03.909 --> 00:39:10.077
But if I had to pick on myself between getting my prostate done or my liver, I'm going to get my liver.
00:39:10.077 --> 00:39:14.554
You know why your liver digests everything you eat for your entire life.
00:39:14.574 --> 00:39:21.789
It's your filter it's your filter and it's filtering every single thing you eat or drink.
00:39:21.789 --> 00:39:24.880
It is designed to be regenerative.
00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:27.947
The liver can take a lot of damage.
00:39:27.947 --> 00:39:29.030
It's designed to.
00:39:29.030 --> 00:39:31.885
It's one of the regenerative not telling your skin.
00:39:31.885 --> 00:39:33.213
Obviously, our skin regenerates.
00:39:33.213 --> 00:39:39.050
It sloughs off skin all the time, but your liver can regenerate as long as you don't damage it more than 70%.
00:39:39.050 --> 00:39:45.065
It's super, super important that liver is healthy, because when you have an unhealthy liver, your whole body is going to be unhealthy.
00:39:45.065 --> 00:39:50.099
If it's not working properly, you're going to develop a problem with your lifestyle.
00:39:50.099 --> 00:39:51.786
That's going to affect your lifestyle.
00:39:51.786 --> 00:39:57.347
I would say thyroid, heart, abdominal organs, which is your liver kidneys, gallbladder.
00:39:57.347 --> 00:39:59.125
I checked the biliary system.
00:39:59.125 --> 00:40:02.380
We make sure there's no biliary lesions or biliary problems.
00:40:02.822 --> 00:40:23.271
So those three things are the most important, in my opinion, from a sonographer's position that that is something that's huge to look at is what works for one department might not work for all, and it is important that you have a plan going into it and you don't just throw the dice and say we're gonna do these three organs and we're going to call it.
00:40:23.271 --> 00:40:31.833
Sometimes you have to look beyond that and sometimes, sadly, money does drive the decisions that have to be made when it comes to things like that.
00:40:31.833 --> 00:40:39.003
But it's good to know that even a few small exams can pay off in huge dividends and huge benefits can pay off in huge dividends and huge benefits.
00:40:39.003 --> 00:40:47.907
But in your time I know you've been working with firefighters for quite a few years here recently what would you say that you can talk about?
00:40:47.907 --> 00:40:58.494
I know HIPAA and things like that what would you say is probably the biggest save or the biggest thing that you found that has had a massive positive impact on a firefighter's life?
00:40:59.094 --> 00:41:03.135
As I mentioned earlier, we did find an onco-sartoma on a young man in Arizona.
00:41:03.135 --> 00:41:06.918
That was pivotal for him having a better outcome.
00:41:06.918 --> 00:41:22.608
So that was one Recently, this year, we found a young man, a very young man, actually had a stage for hydronephrosis in his left kidney, which the process of hydronephrosis in a kidney and what should be a 20-something-year-old man is.
00:41:22.608 --> 00:41:24.190
How did he get there?
00:41:24.190 --> 00:41:26.166
You have to always say how did he get there?
00:41:26.166 --> 00:41:28.304
Okay, things don't just happen.
00:41:28.304 --> 00:41:30.954
Yeah, age happens, we get older, we can't stop that.
00:41:30.954 --> 00:41:32.119
We get that part.
00:41:32.219 --> 00:41:38.893
But when you look at the disease process, why does a 28-year-old man have a stage 4 hydronephrosis in his left kidney?
00:41:38.893 --> 00:41:42.405
So man have a stage four hydronephrosis in his left kidney.
00:41:42.405 --> 00:41:45.456
So of course this person was immediately sent to hospital, followed up immediately with specialists and so forth and so on.
00:41:45.456 --> 00:41:49.688
Because the risk of that is this young man could lose his kidney conceivably.
00:41:49.688 --> 00:41:56.016
If it's something going on there, disease processes generally just don't appear out of thin air.
00:41:56.016 --> 00:41:58.001
Something is a causative agent.
00:41:58.001 --> 00:42:02.532
With that being said, I've had men in their 20s who have severe heart disease.
00:42:02.532 --> 00:42:12.510
That was why would a 28-year-old man and this is speaking of someone in Arizona, young man, very fit, very physically fit to look at him like.
00:42:12.510 --> 00:42:14.146
This guy is like a Grigodonus.
00:42:14.146 --> 00:42:19.463
Why would he have any heart issues and he's got this terrible heart situation going on?
00:42:19.463 --> 00:42:22.646
Of course we got him sent out to a cardiologist specialist, blah, blah, blah.
00:42:22.646 --> 00:42:28.271
But here we should not be seeing that in a 28-year-old man who is so physically fit.
00:42:28.992 --> 00:42:31.916
A lot of the firefighters, especially young ones, are very physically fit.
00:42:31.916 --> 00:42:32.856
They work out.
00:42:32.856 --> 00:42:36.061
You guys.
00:42:36.061 --> 00:42:37.708
Most firefighter departments have a workout program.
00:42:37.708 --> 00:42:39.679
They keep the guys fit because it's a very physical job.
00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:46.471
You're not just walking around, you guys are putting on a lot of equipment and running into fires and saving property and lives.
00:42:46.471 --> 00:42:49.186
So it's a very physically requiring job.
00:42:49.507 --> 00:42:51.251
So those are some that stick out to me.
00:42:51.251 --> 00:42:58.300
Like right now In the North Carolina area, like I said earlier, we've had some people that had some nodules in their neck.
00:42:58.300 --> 00:43:09.971
That was very concerning and over the course of the past year they had to have a surgical assay because it was their family history and it was very concerning to their provider enough that it needed to be surgically removed.
00:43:09.971 --> 00:43:12.168
So we do find things like that.
00:43:12.168 --> 00:43:13.782
I'm always.
00:43:13.782 --> 00:43:33.396
I don't ever want to find anything like that, but I'm glad I find it because that gives you the chance the patient that gives you the chance to decide what's best for your life and to make decisions earlier rather than later, and to make decisions in your health care, while you're able to have the time, the luxury of more time, to decide what's best for you.
00:43:33.820 --> 00:43:53.876
So those are some of the things that just jumped to mind right away, truman you truly do see the unseen when it comes to what's going on in our bodies with our processes and things like that, and I know today's been a pretty deep dive with some really technical stuff, but it's very important that firefighters hear this.
00:43:53.876 --> 00:44:04.097
I know some people might've snapped off the radio or not a radio turned off listening 15 minutes ago because God the radio or not a radio turned off listening 15 minutes ago.
00:44:04.117 --> 00:44:30.115
Because God this doesn't affect me, but genuinely, as we get older, even as humans, as we get older, the more knowledge we have about what processes are going on in our body, the more beneficial it can be for us and, like you say, it buys us time to be able to make decisions that will affect us long-term, because none of us are doing this just for ourselves, because I myself I've got a wife and a son at home and I do this for them.
00:44:30.115 --> 00:44:37.208
Likewise, I know you've got family that you do your job for, and if I can't do my job, I'm letting them down.
00:44:37.208 --> 00:44:45.503
Likewise, if I get sick and something happened to me, I'm not able to care for them and they'll be the ones that suffer.
00:44:45.503 --> 00:44:55.766
And it's very important the work you're doing and folks like yourself around the country that are making this effort to try to help us understand what our conditions are.
00:44:55.766 --> 00:45:04.472
And again, personally, I want to say thank you for helping me figure out what all is going on with me and that's helped me make changes and smarter decisions in how I live.
00:45:04.981 --> 00:45:07.599
I am by no means the Adonis that you were talking about.
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:08.461
What I do.
00:45:08.461 --> 00:45:15.141
I think I'm good for what I do, but I always want to be better and diagnostics like y'all's are what do that.
00:45:15.141 --> 00:45:26.047
But if folks want to find out more about you, truman, and the things that you do and maybe some other resources, how can folks learn about you or get in contact with you?
00:45:26.547 --> 00:45:33.210
They can always contact me directly and my cell phone number is 702-789-8096.
00:45:33.210 --> 00:45:35.771
They can also contact me by email.
00:45:35.771 --> 00:45:39.233
I'm always willing to work with any group of people at any time.
00:45:39.233 --> 00:45:42.914
I'm passionate about what I do, I love what I do and I've been doing it a very long time.
00:45:42.914 --> 00:45:49.757
And they can contact me by email at truman7atoutlookcom.
00:45:49.757 --> 00:45:56.639
That's truman7atoutlookcom, the number seven, not the word, and they're welcome.
00:45:56.639 --> 00:46:00.786
Want to make sure, cause there's two kinds of seven truman7atoutlookcom.
00:46:00.786 --> 00:46:03.043
I'm also always willing to work with.
00:46:03.063 --> 00:46:21.469
There's a lot of volunteers in your area, smaller departments, and many times I can piggyback those smaller departments onto bigger, what we call runs, bigger runs when I come through the area and I'm in that North Carolina area four or five times a year, and these are things we set up in advance.
00:46:21.469 --> 00:46:23.826
It's all done in advance, scheduled in advance.
00:46:23.826 --> 00:46:33.829
We know exactly how many people we're going to do, what days we're going to do them, who's coming at what time on what day, and those smaller departments that may be out there that say we don't have a big budget.
00:46:33.829 --> 00:46:36.382
I'll work with you, we'll get it done.
00:46:36.382 --> 00:46:39.849
I want everyone to receive the benefit of a healthy life.
00:46:39.849 --> 00:46:49.407
I want to be healthy, I want everyone to be healthy, and if I need a little thing I can do to make that happen, I'm always willing to do it, not only myself, but those I partner with.
00:46:49.407 --> 00:46:52.853
We are into helping other people.
00:46:52.853 --> 00:46:53.822
That's why we do this.
00:46:53.822 --> 00:47:03.188
So if there's a small department or a volunteer department that can reach out and contact me and say, hey, we don't have that big budget, that's fine, you don't have to have a big budget.
00:47:03.188 --> 00:47:06.213
Are you willing to just work with me and let me work with you?
00:47:06.213 --> 00:47:09.623
We can make these things happen.
00:47:09.643 --> 00:47:16.088
We can get you a strong physical program set up that involves ultrasound and I'm speaking strictly for ultrasound right now at this point.
00:47:16.088 --> 00:47:42.233
I can come in there, do your ultrasound, make it thorough, make it complete, have my provider or your provider overlook that information, give you best scenario indications for what's best for your health, and all of this I can do as long as you give me a room that's somewhat private, an electrical outlet to plug into and a table.
00:47:42.233 --> 00:47:43.739
Many times we'll just use a massage table that we have in the area.
00:47:43.739 --> 00:47:49.710
We'll bring that massage table, set it up with a little string, get you in, get your people behind there, scan them all.
00:47:49.710 --> 00:47:55.507
Typically, I tell people I can do a full body scan in 45 minutes an hour at the most.
00:47:55.568 --> 00:48:04.586
If we start running into some issues that we need to investigate further, and that's because I've set up a patented type of system where I can do this quickly and efficiently.
00:48:04.586 --> 00:48:32.842
It's normally not something that most sonar grids can do that much scanning in that short period of time but after doing it for years and years, refining the process much like anything, get it down to an efficient way to do the scan where, as long as everyone has done everything they need in advance, we can zoom those people through there and get them done quickly, easily and efficiently and get that information over to the appropriate provider to give them what is hopefully going to be a good bill of health.
00:48:32.842 --> 00:48:38.601
It's very comforting to know that you had things looked at and everything would be fine.
00:48:38.621 --> 00:48:46.110
Truman, thank you for that, and we will have your contact information available on our website so folks can reach out to you, learn more about you and what you're doing.
00:48:46.110 --> 00:48:48.789
And thank you for taking time to be with us today.
00:48:48.789 --> 00:48:57.222
But before you go, I don't know if you've listened to our podcast much, but I do have a question I wanted to ask you real quick before you go Do you know how to measure a snake?
00:48:57.822 --> 00:48:59.304
Well, let's see how to measure a snake.
00:48:59.304 --> 00:49:00.405
Well, let's see how to measure a snake.
00:49:00.425 --> 00:49:07.994
Yeah, how far he is yeah, that's true, but I learned today that you have to measure a snake in inches because they don't have feet.
00:49:07.994 --> 00:49:12.507
Oh my God, that is my terrible dad joke.
00:49:12.507 --> 00:49:28.262
I had a friend of mine, maddie Pless, and her sister, elizabeth, tell that to me today and I just wanted to share that and I thought it was funny.
00:49:28.262 --> 00:49:30.324
And everything is so serious these days.
00:49:30.324 --> 00:49:44.516
A little laughter goes a long way Again.
00:49:44.536 --> 00:49:47.117
Truman, thank you for taking time to be with user wellness.
00:49:47.117 --> 00:49:51.003
All clear is presented by the north carolina firefighter cancer alliance.
00:49:51.003 --> 00:49:54.391
You can find out more about us at all clear podcastcom.
00:49:54.391 --> 00:49:56.204
Leave us a message.
00:49:56.204 --> 00:49:57.931
We'd love to hear from you.
00:49:57.931 --> 00:49:59.699
If you like what you hear, tell someone.
00:49:59.699 --> 00:50:05.237
All opinions expressed on the podcast do not always reflect the opinions of the podcast.
00:50:05.237 --> 00:50:07.748
As always, light your fire within.
I have 32 years of radiological experience. 28 years of those who specializing in diagnostic medical ultrasound. I have sub specialties in Vascular Medicine, Neurology, Adult sonography and neonatal sonography. I also have history as a radiologic technologist with sub specialties in X ray, CAT scan and MRI. I am a registered ultrasound provider with the Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services. Specifically, I have been involved with 1582 physicals by providing ultrasound for the past five years. And perform in these 1582 physicals, I often am especially focused on finding any signs of early cancer. But, moreover I am looking for any evidence of pathology whatsoever. The field of ultrasound is very dependent on the skills of the Sonographer in order for accurate early disease detection. The ultrasound examination is only as thorough as the person who is performing that ultrasound. being that the ultrasound examination is one 100 percent dependent on the skills and ability of the ultrasound person, it is extremely vital that person be knowledgeable, experienced and able to accurately delve into the past medical history of the patient.
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