Glowing in the dark?

I've just been looking through my blog from the beginning back in November last year (which is actually listed under January, because that's when I transferred the content to Blogger) to try and calculate just how many X-rays I've had.

What I particularly noticed was what I wrote back at the start when I was keeping a private diary and the chest consultant told me the worst: "Adenocarcinoma of the lung - that is the verdict - but possibly also of the thyroid. It could have started in the thyroid and moved to the lung - or just be in the lung and not in the thyroid at all." Then when I saw the oncologist: "He explained that he thought the lung was primary – if it’s not then it’s curtains much sooner because the only thing they can do is take out the thyroid and hope the secondaries in the lung shrink – well I think that’s what he meant. So he’s going to treat the lung as primary."

You'd assume from that sort of diagnosis that as the thyroid was part of their consideration it would be taken into account all through the process. No, because the NHS specialists appear to work in unconnected silos, they sorted out the lung and then I've had to go right back down the chain to the GP and start all over again. This means a 60 day wait to see the ENT guy. I'm not particularly bothered because I take the view that even if I did have cancer in my thyroid, the chemo - if it hasn't completely knocked it on the head already - will have rendered the cancer activity minimal and sufficient that a wait will do absolutely no harm.

But that's not the point. We're back to the whole topic of holistic treatment and what's wrong with the NHS. This aspect certainly is.

Hence my search for radiation exposure details; I'm just wondering if anyone keeps tabs on patients' X-rays because I've had them in three different NHS locations so far. By my calculations that adds up to at least 5 (and maybe 7 but I can't remember exactly) ordinary chest X-rays, 5 CT scans and 2 PET scans within the past year. I'm just about to start consultation with another specialist working in another silo. That could well mean more X-rays. Should I be concerned? I'm not sure.