"Radiology"

The rest of my ED experience is in my previous story, I feel Carl the radiographer was an anomaly in the system.

Carl (radiographer) calmed me almost immediately, talked me through every little bit before/ during/ after scan, explained thoroughly, prepared and calmed me. He put on my favourite music, talked me through breathing, offered me an eye mask, told me how many songs each part of the scan would take after realising I had no real sense of time (minutes/ seconds) when in extreme pain.

Offered to change volume of music or play a particular song for noisy part of scan.

I felt he offered more help and understanding therapeutically than the other emergency staff I saw combined, and I believe decreased my time in ED. Out of everyone I felt he took my disability and neurodiversity into consideration and did everything possible to make the scan less traumatic. By calming me and keeping me informed, and considering music as a calming tool, I believe he likely reduced the time the scan would have typically taken by 50% and hastened my discharge by alerting short-stay staff when radiology report was verified.