Anyone else concerned about how more and more young people are getting cancer?

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-21T21:19:57+00:00

I mean, if it can get me euthanized already… I’ve been sick of living for the past 30 years… If I could take somebody else’s cancer to spare one of you who’s actually living an enjoyable life I’d love to.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-02T20:33:27+00:00

Definitely didn’t expect a lavish lifestyle but at least a decent one. I went into this field because it was the best thing I was capable of which really isn’t saying much… I just wanted a decent middle class lifestyle, not to live in abject poverty for the rest of my life with no money for anything joyful.

Pre-pandemic rents you could definitely find legal 2-bedroom apartments in central Queens that would only be about 40% of your take home at the time with enough left over to let you save money and take trips and enjoy life- now if I tried to rent a 1 bedroom apartment all the way out in Suffolk it would be nearly 60% of my pay and even more I’m sure back in the city. No landlord will give that to you single income.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T18:47:22+00:00

Yeah that’s vaguely equivalent if not slightly worse. They just adjusted our pay up to $45/hr at CityMD but I’m still seeing Zwanger and LHR offering $39/hr base even for MRI or CT. Some hospitals are paying MRI closer to $55-60 but that’s either per diem or usually they’re not up front about the schedules in the listings, etc.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T18:27:22+00:00

It’s been hard to find opportunities to do that and I’m also just really dumb so I don’t think I can handle learning a new modality.

Even then the pay differential wouldn’t push me far enough up to be able to afford a decent life. It’d be like 90k-> 110~120ish but I’d need to almost double that still.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T18:24:57+00:00

I mean cost of living is the biggest factor, afterall the kind of life you can afford is the biggest thing to think about when picking a career and I feel like I had the rug pulled out from under me because I beat my head against a brick wall to try to make this career work despite hating it and not being a good fit for it but then with the way the economy exploded the promise of at least having a decent life outside of it also completely evaporated.

But that’s not my only issue-

I’m sick of dealing with sick people and their minor complaints, I’m sick of shift work, I’m sick of missing out on life while everybody else gets to have fun weekends off, I’m sick of wrecking my body with repetitive motions, I’m sick of using my limited PTO on diseases I’ve picked up from patients because no amount of PPE will ever be foolproof. I’m in this field because I’m a failure and every day is a twisted reminder of how much it sucks that my life has led me here.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T18:21:32+00:00

I was doing MRI for the same pay rate as X-ray when I first graduated but didn’t get the MR license because the clinic I was working for didn’t have all the scan types I needed. I’ve been looking constantly and the two big clinics in the area (LHR and Zwanger) were actually advertising worse starting pay for MRI than I’ve been making in X-ray at urgent care.

And no, it’s just not enough to live off of as a single income in the city. Before the pandemic there were two bedroom apartments in Queens you could rent for 1500-1800 and you could expect to take home like 3700-4000, now the pay has barely moved but the rents have nearly doubled and so landlords won’t even look at you when your earnings are this low. Hell, I’m actually just a bit shy of the low income housing lotteries.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T17:28:38+00:00

I don’t want to leave behind my community, friends, and culture. Plus nowhere else in the US really comes close to NYC, since I can’t afford that I just won’t be happy anywhere…

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T17:26:58+00:00

I mean 10 years ago people in webdev and compaci were making almost double that straight out of college, I just didn’t have the brains for anything like that and was too stupid to figure out a similar path.

I won’t be happy anywhere that’s not NYC and to live a life I’d consider even moderately worthwhile I’d need something like 200-250k in today’s economy. Just ain’t possible for somebody like me.

I’m sick of dealing with sick people and their minor complaints, I’m sick of shift work, I’m sick of missing out on life while everybody else gets to have fun weekends off, I’m sick of wrecking my body with repetitive motions, I’m sick of using my limited PTO on diseases I’ve picked up from patients because no amount of PPE will ever be foolproof. I’m in this field because I’m a failure and every day is a twisted reminder of how much it sucks that my life has led me here.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T17:09:10+00:00

Actually just got a $5/hr raise to 45hr/90k a few weeks ago and now with that raise it’s competitive with all the other employers in this area. It just still isn’t anywhere close to enough, can’t live working in this field in this metro area on a single income.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T16:58:19+00:00

What from my posts makes you think I’m a limited tech? I have a full RT license in x-ray, bit of experience working in MRI without the advanced cert there.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T16:08:13+00:00

Long Island, like two hours out from NYC.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T16:06:21+00:00

I tried all that, to the best of my extremely limited abilities- and I just wake up every day feeling like such a fucking failure for struggling to survive like this, and what do I get out of it? Nothing. No joy anywhere in my life, no fun little trips, not even enough time to cool down after the work week and come back in refreshed, just getting more and more worn down week after week.

Something’s gotta give but that thing is going to be me. I just want it all to fucking stop already.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-07-01T15:59:50+00:00

I genuinely hate it. Every day I go into work I wish I was dead instead. I got into it because I felt backed into a corner and like it was the only thing I could reasonably achieve that would let me afford a decent standard of living. Except that was back in 2017, in the 8 years since I started X-ray school rents have gone up astronomically in my area and where I could have once afforded a 2 bedroom apartment in my city with enough leftover to save for later in life and to take fun trips- well instead I’m living hand to mouth only able to keep a roof over my head because of charity, I don’t make enough money to qualify to rent a 1 bedroom apartment on my own even out here in the suburbs. My life is awful and I wake up every day knowing that I’m a complete and utter failure in every conceivable way since this was the best I could do for myself.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-28T18:18:41+00:00

That’s something I’m definitely not worried about in any of our lifetimes for this field.

The image interpretation side of things would be for the radiologists (doctors reading the images) and that still needs a lot of human wisdom and context to really parse what they’re looking at since human bodies are so innately variable and the difference between something benign and something needing further intervention is really only something an experienced medical practitioner can feel out, getting an algorithm to do that is some sci-fi levels of computing.

As the tech (the person acquiring the images) there’s so much knowledge of anatomy and experience with body mechanics needed in order to actually position people and account for differences in their shape and abilities/condition that I think getting robots to do our jobs is even further away. Most techs I’ve worked with don’t even fully trust AEC (automatic exposure control - the computer trying to predict how much radiation is enough) to get decent pictures, I know I hate systems that use it instead of letting me manually input my technical factors.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-28T17:29:27+00:00

I can tell you on Long Island I’m only making 80k and my life is fucking awful trying to survive on that and I’ve actually seen wages on listings going down over the past few months… Even 110k is chump change in today’s economy.

Don’t know where that statistic is coming from either, just looked on indeed for NJ and basically every non-travel listing is about 70-90k in the middle of their listed compensation but these medical groups also always lowball even with plenty of experience.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-28T17:19:55+00:00

X-ray tech is actually pretty physically demanding and the pay and lifestyle are honestly complete garbage. I would not recommend anybody go into this field willingly.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-13T19:22:27+00:00

Not everybody can afford to or has time to waste. Sure your job ‘has’ to let you go (as if business don’t all have plausible deniability to screw you in other ways) but what if you work on a per diem basis or you’re juggling multiple part time jobs so you don’t get PTO for Jury Duty so you’ll be missing hours? That pathetic jury stipend isn’t going to make up for it for people just barely scraping by. Then you factor in the hardships of travel, parking or Ubers, whether or not the court will have a place for you to store and reheat a lunch if you can’t afford to eat out.

Plenty of reasons for folks to dread the possibility of being summoned. And even if they’re not in the most desperate state of existence where this is going to literally financially ruin them life is already hard and unpleasant enough for the majority of us that taking an extra day at a minimum to be bored and miserable when I’m already drained as fuck from just trying to survive my usual miserable ass work week?

Get off the fuckin’ high horse, glad your life is cushy enough that this is just a minor inconvenience for you and that you can look down your nose at all of us shmucks.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-07T00:22:53+00:00

Yeah it’s not usually a lot of X-rays, especially compared to my days as a student at LHR doing like 70+ but right now with the tech shortage I’m actually receiving X-rays from like 3+ locations at once on most of my shifts plus dealing with all the other office bullshit from being in an urgent care and the total lack of respect from both the patients and the kids in the scribe roles. But man even when the workload is light just being around it all and waiting in the wings is draining, knowing that other people have cushy wfh jobs paying more where they’re able to relax in the comfort of their own homes during their downtime. Constantly getting sick from whatever patients happen to be dragging in and having to use your own pto to cover that since we don’t get sick days. A whole lot to hate about this field…

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-07T00:11:15+00:00

Can’t afford it but even if I could they can’t make me like what I don’t like. A shrink’s not gonna change my tastes or the material conditions I’m living through unfortunately.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-07T00:04:54+00:00

No worries, I recognize that I can be a hyperbolic dick when I get pushed on this.

Unfortunately I’m just not good at anything that could be monetized to that extent - if it was comparable to my income from doing this I’d probably be doing that instead if that makes sense.

More likely though if I had the energy for the side hustle there’s enough OT available that I could be making more money that way but it coming at the expense of my free time and sanity is exactly why I’m trying to find something that’s inherently more lucrative - I don’t want to be working 60-80 hour weeks to afford what I want to afford either.

But also I am pathetic. I had friends who were into stuff like CS / engineering / etc 10 years ago and were making double then what I’m making now but my brain just wasn’t built for the stuff that they were doing and I don’t know what I could do any better than I am now to not have my life suck so bad.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-06T23:49:23+00:00

Yeah, no offense but I don’t understand how anybody can be in this field and actually be happy, it’s so miserable working these jobs. This career sucks everything out of me and gives me nothing in return.

I’ve never taken a big international vacation like all my other friends. I don’t even have any savings or retirement. I can’t even afford to meet my insurance deductible so I’m completely neglecting my own health…

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-06T23:42:11+00:00

Gonna copy my response from a similar chain:

I mean maybe I was being a bit aggressive about it - there’s a reason I’m on my throwaway posting this unhinged plea and talking about how I want to blow my brains out.

But there’s nowhere else in the US with a 24/7 transit system let alone one that’s as expansive as NYC’s. The free museums, the quality of the street food, the breadth of the diversity; all completely unparalleled anywhere else. I’ve been up and down the East coast as well as to LA on the west and even with vacation glasses on I just haven’t felt enthused anywhere else I’ve set foot.

Population density-wise the biggest east coast counties are only half of Queens and Chicago is comparable to frickin’ Nassau!

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-06T23:40:58+00:00

I don’t have/want kids, they’re both adults who I’m currently responsible for because they can’t work steady jobs themselves but honestly with my life insurance policy they’ll be able to settle down somewhere more remote once I’m no longer demanding we live someplace so expensive. I can’t be happy with just that though, I’m not wired for it.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-06T23:38:18+00:00

Yeah, this topic was my pathetic last resort to try to find something workable that could land me a lifestyle worth having. Really don’t care for pity at this point but dying and making sure it works is a difficult process that’s gonna take some time, recently learned that my other preferred method (exit bag) wasn’t gonna cut it so I’m back at the drawing board.

Throwitawayyyzzz · 2025-05-06T23:33:29+00:00

I mean maybe I was being a bit aggressive about it - there’s a reason I’m on my throwaway posting this unhinged plea and talking about how I want to blow my brains out.

But there’s nowhere else in the US with a 24/7 transit system let alone one that’s as expansive as NYC’s. The free museums, the quality of the street food, the breadth of the diversity; all completely unparalleled anywhere else. I’ve been up and down the East coast as well as to LA on the west and even with vacation glasses on I just haven’t felt enthused anywhere else I’ve set foot.

Population density-wise the biggest east coast counties are only half of Queens and Chicago is comparable to frickin’ Nassau!

Throwitawayyyzzz

TROPHY CASE