391. X-Rays - Christina Sinclair: Salty Sam's Fun Blog for Children

August 12th, 2022

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 391

X-rays

Hello Everyone

Well, Bob did it again this week.

He took a big tumble out of the tree he was climbing and hurt his arm and his leg.

lt looked pretty painful so Auntie Alice called Captain Jack and he rushed round to her cottage and whisked Bob off to the Rocky Bay Cottage Hospital in his car.

Bob was moaning and groaning all the way and Bill couldn’t help thinking that he was laying it on a bit for the sympathy.

Emily wanted to dash home for her nurse’s uniform but Auntie Alice said there wasn’t time.

They all had to go to the hospital and wait in the queue for the X-ray department.

Luckily, the hospital is quite small and not very busy so they didn’t have to wait very long.

The children wondered why X-rays were called X-rays.

Auntie Alice explained that when they were first used, the people using them didn’t really understand what they were, so they didn’t know what proper name to give them and had to make one up. The name looks a bit mysterious – it is just an X.

X-rays weren’t invented, they were discovered.

Just like electricity was not invented because it is a naturally occurring phenomenon – you just have to see the lightning in the sky in a thunderstorm to see that!

X-rays were first discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895.

At first, their nature was not understood, but later it was realized that they were electromagnetic waves, like radio waves. You can’t see radio waves or see or hear them, but they exist. They can travel through solid objects and come into your home so that when you turn a radio on you can hear radio stations.

Soon after their discovery, X-rays were helping doctors with their diagnosis of broken bones, dental cavities (holes) and other illnesses like lung disease.

Before this, doctors could not see inside a body without operating.

X-rays pass easily through skin and flesh but reflect off bone.

Because of this, bones show up very easily in X-rays; and also any damage to the bones too of course.

Having too many X-rays in a year doesn’t do the body much good because of the radiation associated with them, so the men and women who operate these machines hide away from the X-ray machine in a little room and operate it from a remote control panel.

They should not be over exposed to all the X-rays coming out of the machine.

The patient is positioned in front of the machine, and is observed from behind a window by the medical staff.

ln the early 1970s, there was another advancement developed which helped doctors to look inside bodies.

This was CAT scans. CAT was an advanced X-ray system that takes a number of images and these build up into a three-dimensional picture.

A CAT machine surrounds the patient and transmits a signal to a computer that in turn creates a colour-coded picture that is projected onto a screen.

This image tells a doctor about diseases inside the body.

Later PET machines and ultra-sound machines were also invented which used different systems again to look inside a body.

Nowadays, we can also use MNR machines which also produce three-dimensional pictures on a screen.

This machine uses magnets to beam energy through the body rather than radiation. The electrical signals produced are interpreted by a computer.

This machine doesn’t just take pictures of bones, but soft tissue too.

Doctors are trained to know what all the sections of the picture represent and what problems the patient has got.

Some patients find the NMR machines very claustrophobic – that means they feel too closed in and trapped. And so now some NMR machines are much more open to make the patient feel less panicked when they are put inside them.

ln the end, once Bob’s X-rays were developed, the hospital found out that he did not have any broken bones and that he could just go home and nurse his own bruises.

So it was good news in the end.

Bill knew he would be alright.

lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.

Thank you!

And see you again next Fun Friday!

Love and kisses

Salty Sam

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www.christina-sinclair.com

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

Bill: Where do cows spend their Saturday nights?

Bob: l don’t know. Where do cows spend their Saturday nights?

Bill: At the mooooovies!

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

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Picture Gallery

Scanner in a hospital

The person is alone to go through the scanner

But they are still looked after by medical staff who have to stay behind screens

X-ray of a chest

You can see the ribs and shoulder bones and the spine at the back

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desk THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

Auntie Alice got a telephone call one evening last week from her friend Betty Clutterbuck.

Betty had just twisted her ankle and could walk on it.

Dr Lolly said that she would have to rest it for at least a couple of days.

Well, she was really worried about the Rocky Bay Tea Rooms.

How could she open up and serve all those summer visitors?

Auntie Alice said that she would step in of course for a couple of days.

She knew what prices to charge because they were all listed on the wall.

She went to bed early and set her alarm for early the next morning to go and start work in the tea rooms.

She would need to start baking bread and cakes early so they were nice and fresh.

I went to her cottage to child sit and make her deliveries for her.

We remembered to feed all her pets and also the chickens and doves. The children knew exactly what to do.

It didn’t take very long really.

Auntie Alice came home that night exhausted and collapsed into an armchair.

I had cooked supper – a lovely cauliflower cheese with fresh crusty bread.

I am very good at making cauliflower cheese.

Auntie Alice had brought home some left-over cake as well.

She really was very tired.

The trouble is she can’t say ‘no’ to anyone who needs help.

Mind you, most people are like that in Rocky Bay.

I am glad to say that Betty is up on her feet again and everything is back to normal in Auntie Alice’s cottage.

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Quick Quiz

Do you know the names of these bones?

s _ _ _ l
s _ _ _ _ _ _ r b _ _ _ e
k _ _ e c _ p
p _ _ _ _ s
c _ _ _ _ _ _ e
s _ _ _ e
c _ _ _ _ x

Lateral view of male torso showing spine.

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lt’s the Weekend!

HOW TO MAKE A SMALL PlRATE CREW

This is a very small crew of pirates.

The pirates are very small too!

FRONT (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and trouser colour dk yarn cast on 8 stitches

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to belt colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to top colour

Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch

Change to face colour

Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch

Change to cap colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn to pull through your stitches

BACK (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and trouser colour dk yarn cast on 8 stitches

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to belt colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to top colour

Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch

Change to skin colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to hair colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Change to cap colour

Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch

Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn to pull through your stitches

If you want to have a stripy jersey, knit 2 rows of each colour but don’t cut the yarn off each time – carry it up the side

LEGS (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and trouser colour dk yarn cast on 8 stitches

Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch

Change to shoe colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn to pull through your stitches

If you want to have short trousers or high pirate boots, knit 6 rows of trouser colour and then 2 rows of a different colour like skin or boot colour before you start knitting the 2 rows for the feet

ARMS (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and top colour dk yarn cast on 6 stitches

Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch

Change to skin colour

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn to pull through your stitches

If you want to have a stripy jersey, knit 2 rows of each colour but don’t cut the yarn off each time – carry it up the side

TO MAKE UP

Embroider a belt buckle onto the front of the belt
Bring two ends of cap coloured yarn out of the back of the base of the cap to make to little cap ties
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew together the side seams of the body pulling the stitches in at the top of the head to make a round top – use appropriate colours as you go
Turn body right sides out
Stuff the body
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew together the arm seams
Turn the arms the right way out tucking the ends of the yarn inside – this is all the stuffing the arms will need
Bind one end of pink yarn tightly around the wrists – poke it out of the base of the wrist before you turn the arms the right way out
Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew together the leg seams
Turn the legs the right way out tucking the ends of the yarn inside and put a little stuffing in the legs
Bind one end of black yarn tightly around the ankles – poke it out of the base of the ankle before you turn the arms the right way out
Bind some skin colour yarn tightly around the neck to create the head – make sure the ends are secured well at the back
Sew the legs and arms into place working from the back
Neaten all ends
Embroider a face onto the pirate before or after construction as you prefer
If you use sparkly dark yarn the eyes will sparkle too