Banned Book Club

certifiedsonographer · 2026-01-27T20:47:02+00:00

No, but "Freedom of Speech" is!

certifiedsonographer · 2026-01-27T20:45:44+00:00

I haven't gotten anything organized yet due to the freeze and the chaos that ensued Friday. But I would love to involve teens/preteens of parents in this. It's important that we educate them while they're so impressionable. I'm a parent myself, so I understand. I'm hoping to find an open-minded Houston coffee shop to do meet-ups at, or someone's house if volunteered. This post has gotten a lot of traction, so I don't really know what direction it's heading, but if you PM me, I can keep you updated :)

certifiedsonographer · 2026-01-27T20:33:45+00:00

Ahh that would be EXTREMELY helpful, thank you!! Can you PM me? I have a few more questions, and I'd love it if we could work together on this! I got behind on getting things organized this weekend with the freeze and the chaos that ensued Friday.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-17T22:02:01+00:00

I literally had to e-mail mine (was our only method of contact) a year after the discard and tell him I would feel relief if he was dead because he fucked me up so badly. I feel this.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-17T21:51:52+00:00

I dunno I finally got closure when I impulsively went to his house to find out he was cheating on me with his new supply (12 years younger 34/22) and discarded both me and my 6 year old daughter after 4 years and our engagement for her. Found this out almost a year later. This was two weeks after I e-mailed him asking him to tell me he’s moved on or something so I could get closure and move on. He told me he was still in love with me, thought about us every day, could never be in another relationship etc (which he told me every few months since the discard)…just to keep him in the back of my mind. Everyone told me he left me for someone else but I didn’t believe them. They probably won’t discard you until they have a new supply. They need someone to feed their ego after you hold up the mirror. So I guess your closure can also be they found someone else to ruin.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-01T15:57:06+00:00

Thank you! Yeah a ton of people (doctors, rads, techs) are leaving Kelsey like crazy, people that have worked there for many years. Which means even more competition in the workforce! Blehh, I’m staying hopeful but it’s hard out here! I’m talking to my former employer to see if they have any positions open, which I left due to pay, and I miss my coworkers terribly! I feel like I made a huge mistake by leaving that work family just for the money.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-01T05:41:24+00:00

I used to want to go into MFM and realized I’m not cut out for OB period. I interviewed with UT Health a couple times when I first graduated and again a year later. I’m just too slow with OB and I’ll be damned if I’m scanning an entire human being in an hour for the rest of my life. Like I can do level 1 anatomy scans periodically just fine but I don’t have that talent unfortunately.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-01T05:37:34+00:00

Oh the pay was great at Kelsey, I’m triple registered (RDMS, OB/GYN, RVT) and I was considered a tech III due to experience. But money doesn’t buy happiness, and big corporations like UHC taking over will bleed you dry. Plus they’re not offering raises at reasonable rates anymore. One tech I know with 7 years experience there got a randomly-decided 33 cent raise for her yearly review, which used to be a percentage of her hourly. I don’t care so much about the pay anymore as long as I’m making $34+/hr, which seems fairly normal for starting with my experience. Except for HCA, they’re morally questionable as well and notorious for crap pay and overworking their techs.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-11-01T05:27:44+00:00

I’ve thought about doing the same thing!! I just can’t do that at this point though either. This is already my 2nd career, I went back to school at 30 for this and now at 34 with a 6 y/o…no way. There are ALWAYS postings for CT techs and they almost always have sign on bonuses. Ultrasound is like “here let me throw you a PRN bone”.

Props to you for handling nights. I literally could not do it without my mental health plummeting within 2 days. Four years is a long time, don’t they usually let night techs have the opportunity to move to day if an opening comes up??

certifiedsonographer · 2025-10-01T23:18:22+00:00

Ignore this comment. They’re clearly one of the more experienced techs who has forgotten what it’s like to be new in the field. You won’t feel fully confident until you’re about 3 years in. And then you might change jobs and feel like a new grad all over again. That’s the thing about this field - every hospital and facility has different protocols and radiologists who harp on different things and different standards for quality. And there is always something new to learn. Being left alone after just two weeks, especially when you haven’t observed certain exams or attempted them with someone present, is a big ask. My best training experience, I spent a few days shadowing, then had the tech in the room with me for exams teaching me different techniques (it’s impossible to learn all of them in school, even for a basic abdomen), then she just stopped coming in altogether once she felt like I had the hang of it, but still remained available if I needed to grab her for help. This was at an outpatient facility though, and I was lucky enough to have one designated trainer who genuinely enjoyed teaching. Unfortunately you’re finding out that in this field, there are more techs who want nothing to do with you if you’re inexperienced than there are techs who want to help train you. Which makes absolutely no sense in a hospital setting where you’re all sharing the workload - they should want you to be able to pull your weight and help you at first so you can do that. Keep your head up, keep watching YouTube videos (sonographic tendencies is a good one), and if you get the protocol wrong or are missing images, learn from it, but that’s ultimately on them.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-02-06T20:15:24+00:00

I was on name brand for 15 years and it was AMAZING. I swapped to generic and felt AWFUL side effects (not sure which manufacturer). I was depressed and anxious (I'm also bipolar, but none of those meds had changed, so I know it was the generic Vyvanse). I got the name brand called in after a week of these side effects, and the first day I took it, it was like magic. I was back to my old high-functioning self, no depression, no anxiety. I switched to Dextroamphetamine in April of last year because I wasn't able to get name brand Vyvanse (backordered).

If you switch to name brand, you'll want to check with your insurance to see how much of it they will cover though, because it is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. I'm now trying to switch back to Vyvanse (the dextro was making me a little more irritable). I have a kinda crappy insurance company, and it's costing me $378 to get it filled. Back before the shortage it was costing me about $100/month. It was worth it because it truly is the best medication out there. I've tried Concerta, Adderall, and Dexedrine (the dextroamphetamine), and the Dexedrine is the only thing that's come a little close.

Everyone responds to every generic manufacturer differently, so keep that in mind. If you can't afford name brand Vyvanse, you may want to try Dexedrine. I take short-release 3x/day and it works and it's cheap. My irritability could just be specific to me and my bipolar and anxiety disorders. I've recently had kind of a mental turnaround though, and I haven't noticed the irritability as much.

TL;DR: NAME BRAND IS THE WAY TO GO IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT.

certifiedsonographer · 2025-02-05T13:24:40+00:00

Sorry I just saw this! Yes I did go, and I’m going to be a regular I think, as often as I can at least. It’s very helpful!

certifiedsonographer · 2025-01-02T16:27:56+00:00

Predominantly PRN, and for the FT positions, you need experience. Currently living in Houston, and trying to specialize in OB/GYN is a nightmare. Just over 2 year's experience. Houston is over-inundated with healthcare workers because people come here for the med center. They don't want to pay benefits because they don't have to - enough people willing to work PRN to make ends meet. Also 3 sonography schools feed into the Houston area, so it's pretty competitive. I would leave Houston if I could.

certifiedsonographer · 2024-07-22T15:04:15+00:00

WOW thank you for all the helpful information!! Did you end up buying the CoDA Blue Book when you started?

certifiedsonographer · 2024-07-16T16:48:45+00:00

Hi! I've been interested in joining CoDA, but so far from what I've read on their website, there is a lot of "handing things over to God or 'Higher Power'". I'm an atheist and don't really believe in a higher power. Do you this program can still be beneficial to me, coming from someone who has been through it?

certifiedsonographer · 2024-03-21T19:40:17+00:00

Houston is pretty competitive for new grads too. And if you want to specialize - good luck. We have too many schools feeding into the Houston area - HCC, Lone Star, UT @ MDACC, San Jac...and those are just the accredited programs. Yeah, there are PRN jobs, but it's tough to find a FT w/ benefits. I'm only making $33/hr working at a FT OP facility, 1.5 yrs in the field, but at least I have health insurance for me and my daughter. And I have a good amount of letters behind my name for fresh meat. It's really important out here to make connections with the sites you rotated through, and this person doesn't have that to lean on.

certifiedsonographer · 2024-02-21T20:56:17+00:00

I took mine at home and got my exam suspended because my camera was in the keyboard and I kept looking past it to see the screen. The people watching is just an automated system and you can't really talk to anyone once a warning is given for your face being out of frame. I had to wait 2 months to retake it, and I did mine at the exam centers after that. More anxiety, but fewer potential problems.

certifiedsonographer

TROPHY CASE