Having an ultrasound

Transcript

Claudia: Hi, I'm Claudia, and today I'm in the Department of Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine. I'm gonna be showing you what happens when you need an ultrasound scan and what it is.

When you come for a scan, you will need to check in with the front desk and then wait for the sonographer to call your name. The sonographer is the person who does the scan. Now, this is the exciting bit. But before we get started, the sonographer will ask you three questions.

Sonographer: What's your name, date of birth, and address?

Claudia: Make sure you get these right.

So what exactly is an ultrasound scan?

Sonographer: Well, basically an ultrasound scan uses sound waves to see the inside of your body. We use this ultrasound camera and some of my ultrasound gel. Basically, the sound comes out of the camera, it goes back into the camera, and then all that sound information is turned into a picture, which we display on our monitor.

Would it be all right if I scanned you and showed you your kidney?

Claudia: Yeah, sure.

Sonographer: Awesome. Let me just line everything up here. All right, there we go. So this here is your kidney. The black and white bits here are the main part of your kidney and the red and blue bits depict the blood flowing in and out of your kidney.

What do you think?

Claudia: Yeah, so cool. Thanks for that. I'm gonna wipe this gel off now.

There are lots of different body parts that can be scanned. After the scan, a doctor called a radiologist will write a report and the images will be kept for safekeeping. So if you ever need to have an ultrasound scan done, these are some key points to remember.

The scan uses sound waves to see your body. This scan is quick and painless, and you can always pack some toys to play with during the scan and maybe even score a treat afterwards.