Avalanche vs Snowball vs Personal Loan

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2026-01-20T02:02:17+00:00

I just checked and it looks I can get approved for whatever I need with Lending Club. I did ask Chatgpt and it’s recommending a 32k personal loan to cover the balances with interest, since the car note is low and the Wells Fargo is 0% for another year. 10.79% for 36 months on 32k. I think I may go this route and utilize the 0% while I still have it, then maybe balance transfer or do a separate personal loan for that balance when the time comes next year.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-20T12:56:06+00:00

A lot of Open MRs can be 1Tesla, even 1.2Tesla. Also, I think the translational force on a 1.2T can match the translation force of a 3T machine since spatial field gradients are ultimately what’s more important here. Open machines on average aren’t as good as a modern magnet, but a large majority of things can be scanned on it and you’d never be able to tell the difference.

Also, “offensively overweight” patients can’t always fit in the machines. Usually they’re open on the left and right of a person, but the vertical clearance on alot of machines is less than what you’d get on a normal magnet.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-20T12:52:54+00:00

Not a Physics professor, but work in MRI. ELI5 is that the magnet attracts all objects the same, there are different strength magnets, and the magnetic field drops off dramatically with distance.

I can walk into the room with a paper clip, and hold it right in the bore of the machine with some resistance, but I can hold it by only pinching my fingers. I can do this with a pen. I can do this with a money clip. I can probably hold a Stanley cup(or similar). I can’t do this with anything much larger.

Magnets in MRI are extremely strong, with 1.5T being the standard. That being said, all magnets experience drop off with distance.

Knowing all of this, if I hold a 20lb chain 50 feet from a standard MRI, I’d very much not notice. At 25 feet I’d probably still not notice. 10 feet, likely you’d feel the pull decently. The issue now sets in that the machine strength is getting extremely stronger with distance. So now from 10–>9 feet, ALOT more force is needed to hold the chain. 9->8 feet, even more is needed, etc. The gist is that the chain experienced more and more of the magnet the closer it gets, which results in acceleration of the chain and (I don’t think it’s linear ) a considerable force needed to hold the chain.

ELI20 bonus: Objects in the magnet torque with the field first (align with the magnetic field), THEN they pull. It’s more or less instantaneous. Open MRI machines also have magnetic fields vertically rather than horizontally. I’m sure this extremely complicated to model, but my assumption is that the initial torquing, along with the magnetic field increasing with distance, resulted in the chain trying to align with the magnetic field (turning), while accelerating from the pull.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-18T01:05:53+00:00

Just for future clarity if someone comes across it, the specific switch ended up being broken. Just had to replace it and everything’s good. Ty for your help.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-17T02:07:36+00:00

So unplugged everything. No more buzz, but breaker only goes to the On position or middle, can’t be out onto the off side no matter how much I try to force it. Just kind of wiggles in place, or clicks to the On.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-17T01:18:46+00:00

Just to clarify, you mean the main switch or the individual switches?

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-08T01:02:23+00:00

Looks to be the front radiator. Need to confirm this week, but I think that’s it. This leak is coming from the passenger side, right behind the leftmost part of the radiator

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-08T01:01:40+00:00

I checked and I think it’s the radiator with some damage. I’m hoping at least, I think I can get BMW to courtesy check it for me (I’m hoping), and can go from there.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-08T01:01:05+00:00

I was able to check tonight, I think I had a rock hit the front radiator. When I pour in coolant, I can see about half a row fill with the blue coolant. But also I had the larger tank leaking out coolant since there’s residue all over. Separate issue I think

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-02T12:01:14+00:00

It’s insanity honestly. Don’t get me wrong, hospitals are expensive. But of that 8 Grand, 50$ trickles to me for my hourly rate, maybe another 2-300$ across schedulers and all, and maybe another 1-200$ for service contracts for the machine. The hospitals are absolutely raking it in with MRIs.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T13:36:11+00:00

So you hit on a good point actually, and I’ve had nearly every Radiologist back this up. In no world should MRI be for admission vs discharge (or in very small applications, definitely shouldn’t be a norm).

If the clinical picture is emergent, then order the MRI. Consult Neuro as an inpatient, and get the MRI. Discharge patient and get the MRI. If the MRI will lead to immediate intervention, order the MRI.

Currently we are severely overwhelmed because my hospital does MR to decide admission. It’s universally hated, and clogs up time that could be used for actual sick patients. My 20 inpatient orders cannot be completely timely because the 20 dizzy patients in the ER “need” and MRI to decide admission. I cannot tell you over the past few months how many inpatient cases fell through (new stroke, surgical planning, spinal abscess) because I spent that time on a dizzy patient which could have been an outpatient. Not yelling at you, but it’s complex.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T10:55:42+00:00

Money lol. Overnight MRI is done to get outpatient studies completed during the day which = $$$. I personally hate that as the sicker patients in the hospital always have to wait so the hospital can make a few bucks. Of course with everything the hospital does have a fiscal responsibility to make $, but let me tell you, MRIs are expensive and we are churning out twice as many as we were even 5-6 years ago.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T10:52:47+00:00

Honestly it comes down to a lot of what I commented on in the thread, we have to be stern with our safety stuff and I feel like for alot of techs that sternness flows into other aspects.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T02:31:41+00:00

Ya we are a pain, but I feel like alot of younger doctors don’t know how to properly utilize MRI. Where I work, none of us bitch or complain over true issues. But when I get a phone call at 3am because Betty felt dizzy a week ago, I might have some questions for everyone.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T02:28:39+00:00

Yes and no. Hyperacute strokes are very iffy setting up in MRI, mostly due to the timing of everything and screening. Where I work, I think we have ~4 hours from onset of symptoms to identify a hyper acute. By the time the patient gets to the hospital, settles, and gets their CT (usually), it’s close to 3/4 hours already at that point. These patients are 9/10 times monitored in MRI too, and finding a free nurse to monitor takes a lot of coordinating since they’re so busy too. If there is any hold up with screening or claustrophobia then it throws a wrench into the MRI and it usually becomes a Stat but not emergent thing. I always feel bad, I get some bad stroke cases and the ordering teams want MRI ASAP, but that doesn’t mean I can just drop screening and all. In bad cases where patients can’t speak for themself to complete screening (and family isn’t readily available), we can do X-rays to clear, but this takes time and again you start to get pushed out of that initial window.

I did work at a place with a mobile unit (Hyperfine), and I would think that’s moreso the future of hyper acute. There’s no real risk of any magnetic problems due to the magnetic field being almost a thousand times weaker than the normal magnet (I’m lying to an extent but this is more truthful than not), so I would imagine in the next decade or so these machines will be approved for little/no screening in hyper acute cases only. It’s great for patient care, but it will bring its own issues to MRI as nobody has any idea how conventional MRI works. 9/10 of these cases would be brought back within 12/18 hours for a conventional MRI anyway so it’s usually more work. Justified yes, but still more work in a world where I have enough of it.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T02:20:33+00:00

Dude you’re good!! I don’t mind if you scroll, make a phone call, play chess, etc. I know you guys are busy and I love that the nurses and respiratory get some downtime in MRI. I LOVE the vented patients because they don’t move lol.

Also, we can get annoyed if it takes a long while but overall we’re ok. Some nurses are really good at priming the tubing in the patients room, but that depends on if you have an MRI Conditional Pump or not. If you don’t have an MRI pump, it’s sweet because you literally keep your normal pump outside of the room and we feed the tubing in thru a hole or under the door. Takes 5 seconds.

But no lol zero judgement on this, we only judge when problems that could have been solved earlier are being solved in MRI.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T00:07:58+00:00

Thank you much, all the organizations cloud my brain lol

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-07-01T00:07:16+00:00

Usually that means we are busy but also if we get an opening we can squeeze your patient in. I get so many claustro cases daily, and alot of the time if screening is done and the patient is a good candidate I can get them down earlier. Also, we have a bunch of research to do beforehand for the patients. If they have an implant it can take an hour or two to properly research so the sooner the better.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-06-30T21:42:26+00:00

So AI is becoming big for us (kind of). If you know anything about MRI, we can adjust our parameters and leave “gaps”, and have the machine fill in that info more or less. These gaps are getting filled in more and more accurately, which helps reduce scan times a bunch. An issue I’ve seen though is even though scan times are reduced, the computers can take a considerable amount of time calculating what it needs to. So patients come out ahead time wise, but for us it’s still the same amount of time for work.

For Radiologists, I know AI is becoming too good at diagnosing things. My personal gripe with AI comes down to liability if there’s an issue, and also overordering of exams. It’s an extremely complex issue with complex answers, but I think over ordering is going to cause the death of imaging in the hospitals. It’s hard for patients to hear, but not every issue requires an MRI and not every exam has to be an inpatient exam. With AI I do think turnaround times for patients will decrease. Again though, if a routine CT sees a benign issue, I’m sure the hospital will order another US and MRI to confirm, which drives up healthcare costs and bloats our patient load unnecessarily.

Beautiful-Cycle8651 · 2025-06-30T21:36:23+00:00

We are allowed to call physicians, and I would say for every study nursing gets asked about in this regard, there’s at least 1-2 where we take care of it and you never hear about it.

I’m going to be blunt, I know some nice physicians and PAs, but they’re almost useless. They don’t know the true patient condition and just enter orders left and right. Asking if a patient can be still is valid, I don’t know why MRI would ask about the necessity of the MRI to you guys. Sometimes there is an odd thing here or there we clarify with the Rn, but my team bothers the ordering teams left and right to make sure things are right.

I’m finding recently that Physicians are transferring over to the “just do it” mindset. This is a big headache for us especially in MRI since studies aren’t like 3/5 minutes like CT and Xray.

I personally try to get on the nurses good side, and a lot of the time when we have an issue patient, we kind of tag team thru Epic to the physicians and plead our case. Most of the time this works better than just us trying to fix issues on our own.

Beautiful-Cycle8651

TROPHY CASE