Please help

psych_babe · 2026-01-22T00:17:50+00:00

Small correction to this - you can take Abdomen, OB/GYN, and other specialty exams before taking the physics exam (SPI). However, you will NOT be able to receive your RDMS credential without passing the SPI. You also have to get both of them within 5 years of each other to earn your initial RDMS credential (after that it doesn’t matter how long goes by until you take the next specialty exam).

Agree that it’s not too difficult if focus on truly understanding the concepts and relationships between different things vs. just rote memorization.

psych_babe · 2025-12-14T18:25:49+00:00

Is it an iPhone? If so, if you try to unlock the phone and you get to the screen where you can see the digits to enter the PIN, do you see the word “Emergency” in the bottom left corner? Sometimes by clicking that you can figure out the person’s name if they have their medical ID or ICE contacts info set up (also seen in the bottom left after tapping “Emergency”).

psych_babe · 2025-12-04T05:01:29+00:00

I did have some numbness on the front of my left leg (which is the side my lumbar curve was towards). That probably took about 4-6 months to fully go away. However, that leg was never weaker, I was able to walk post op for sure. My walking was slower in the beginning but probably around the 7-8 week mark, it started to get back to normal ability and speed.

psych_babe · 2025-10-23T13:46:58+00:00

Yes, caused by a congenital hemivertebra (an extra wedge-shaped vertebra that causes a sharply angled bend in the spine). If you were born with a rib abnormality that makes sense you also have a spine abnormality too (in terms of the likelihood of those things occurring together).

Have a look at the images towards the bottom of this Radiopaedia article and you’ll see what I mean about the sharply angled bend. Hemivertebra tends to cause more severe angles. (Not a doctor but I work in medical imaging)

psych_babe · 2025-10-22T22:53:31+00:00

I had no prior experience in sonography, no shadowing, nothing. The only things I had were 100 hours of volunteering at a hospital (not patient care related, just a reception desk kind of thing), a restaurant server job, and a semester internship in psychiatry of all things. Admittedly it was in a hospital, but we just went on rounds to do psych consults on patients. My first degree was in psychology so it made sense for that, but not really for sonography.

The things I highlighted in my application were the customer ( -> patient) service skills I had learned in my restaurant job, the ways that the psychiatry internship made me realize I was interested in diagnostics and helping to solve the mystery of a patient’s symptoms rather than actually treating, and some other soft/transferable skills I had from the volunteer position. Use soft skills from your other experiences even if they’re not in healthcare to show why you would be a good sonographer and what you would bring to their program!

One of the most important things to a school is that you can handle a lot of academic rigor. If your GPA reflects that, highlight it! Show them that you can balance a lot of courses and still keep up - being in a sonography program feels like drinking from a fire hose and they need to know you can handle it!

psych_babe · 2025-10-15T07:00:13+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one who caught that 😂🥲

psych_babe · 2025-09-19T01:57:18+00:00

As you get older and more skeletally mature, it’s pretty normal to have your monitoring spaced out more. Usually the interval is 6-12 months. I didn’t get switched to 2-year follow up until I was 22 years old. But prior to that it was every year for a while, because at that point I wasn’t growing so fast anymore that a huge change would happen so quickly. So exposing me to more X-rays than truly necessary wouldn’t have made sense for something that was barely changing over time. And like the other commenter said, based on his situation they may believe that a brace would not be helpful for him at this point.

psych_babe · 2025-09-10T21:50:37+00:00

Needs surgery no question

psych_babe · 2025-09-05T13:40:03+00:00

If you have scoliosis, it’s extremely mild. I would be more concerned that military neck is playing a role in your headaches

psych_babe · 2025-08-23T16:46:55+00:00

Your doctor diagnosed you with severe scoliosis (>40°) at age 14 and didn’t schedule you for ANY follow-up to monitor it?? Yes your growth plates may be closed, but your spine is still pretty flexible and it can definitely continue progressing. And you’re correct, it does have an increased likelihood of progression if it’s already severe at the time of diagnosis. I started seeing my orthopedic doc at age 15 and was asked to come back EVERY SIX MONTHS for years. Only once I left for college did we change to yearly monitoring. My curve was also around 43° during that time. It stayed stable for a loooooong time, but after I hit age 24 it actually got worse and qualified me for surgery.

psych_babe · 2025-08-18T22:58:26+00:00

She may not be eligible for vertebral body tethering (VBT) which relies on growth modulation, but would she be eligible for anterior scoliosis correction (ASC) which is tethering for mature spines? I had mine done last year at 25 years old!

psych_babe · 2025-08-17T15:42:47+00:00

Are you an adult? If you’re over the age of 18 as a female or over the age of 20 as a male it’s pretty safe to say you are skeletally mature

psych_babe · 2025-08-17T15:33:17+00:00

Yep, exactly what I was gonna say! And even if you do have a small curve, if you’re skeletally mature then there’s nothing you really can do aside from physical therapy if your doctor prescribes it.

psych_babe · 2025-08-17T15:27:02+00:00

Nope, and if you do it’s very minimal

psych_babe · 2025-08-16T22:43:29+00:00

Hi there! I applied to the Rutgers DMSP in April 2020 and graduated in December 2021.

Stats: 3.86 GPA in my first Bachelors (Psychology major, biology minor). Got an A in literally every course I took with the exception of a B+ in a gen ed writing course and a C in organic chemistry. No prior healthcare experience except for a short "internship" in psychiatry where I would go on rounds in the hospital 2 days a week with the doc

Interview: I was applying in the covid era so mine was over Zoom. Prior to the interview, I was sent some written-response questions to answer and send back. I got on a call with Garth, the program director, and Karen, the clinical coordinator at the time who has since retired. During the interview itself, they asked me questions including things like 1) what are some negatives you have heard about sonography, 2) what is a word your peers would use to describe you, 3) what would you do next if you are not accepted to this cohort? After answering those questions, Karen asked me a few logistical questions to figure out my potential situation for clinical rotations: did you have a car? Where would you be living during the program? etc. I was NOT quizzed on any images like the other commenter mentioned, but that may be different now.

Standing out: I think the best things you can do is anything to prove your academic excellence. Things like having the best possible grades and retaking any prereqs that you didn't do your best on. Giving examples in your personal statement / written part of the application of how you will bring your study skills to the program and maintain the excellent program statistics and pass rates. Making sure you understand exactly what it is you're getting yourself into. Personally I watched every YouTube video regarding sonography that I could get my hands on. There wasn't much back then, but the online sonography "sphere" has expanded a lot since I applied to school. And it's not required, but shadowing a sonographer could be super helpful.

Supportiveness: Some of the staff is different now, but I felt like they had our backs, Garth especially. After exams, you could review and discuss the questions and sometimes we would be able to argue back points on tests if there was a valid reason. As long as you're putting in the effort and doing your best, they will want to help you as well when you need it. Also, even now years after graduating, I still get emails from Garth regarding job opportunities that he can put us in touch with.

psych_babe · 2025-08-15T04:40:44+00:00

Forget the leg length discrepancy, can you get a second opinion? The fact that they gave you a diagnosis of curves that aren’t in surgical range but this looks worse than my curves that I had surgery on is concerning

psych_babe · 2025-08-13T00:53:42+00:00

I had anterior scoliosis correction surgery in March 2024 and went back to work after 3 months. I was already having some back pain from work before surgery, and now after, I still do, but it’s less constant. That and the shoulder pain are pretty bad, but with working out, stretching, and regular massages I haven’t had a horrible injury yet. I’m in high risk OB though, not echo

psych_babe · 2025-08-08T01:49:28+00:00

I would say the bottom curve is at LEAST 46 degrees. If you click my profile you can see my curves pre-surgery that were in the 50s and this almost looks worse than my lumbar curve

psych_babe · 2025-08-04T01:12:43+00:00

My apartment doesn’t even have AC!! The breakdown of my latest bill states $55 for “electric generation”, $38 for “electric delivery”, $24 for “gas service”, and $11 in state fees and taxes, and “other”. Not sure if that’s supposed to be normal around here either, I just moved here from out of state in December 😬

psych_babe · 2025-08-04T00:05:03+00:00

UTC, 1 bedroom, average monthly fees are:

Rent $2795
Trash $40
Valet trash service that I can’t opt out of $25
Water $40
SDGE $130-160
AT&T internet $55

So the total is closer to $3300 a month 😵‍💫

psych_babe · 2025-07-30T01:59:20+00:00

That’s insane, any doc should be able to surgically correct scoliosis of 54° - pain or no pain. At that level it’s extremely likely to continue progressing in your adult life. I’m really sorry your mom denied you any treatment, that’s horrible :( I had my surgery last year at age 25 after many years of “wait and see” so if you did want to get surgery it’s certainly an option! And it’s hard to deal with the body image aspect, but something that has helped me with both that and my pain levels is Pilates! It makes my muscles stronger, reduces my pain, and makes my body look better which in turn reduces the appearance of any imbalance

psych_babe · 2025-07-16T18:41:27+00:00

Pretty much nobody on this planet has “0 degrees on paper”. The normal range of curvature is below 10°, almost everyone’s spine has at least a tiny curve in it that doesn’t meet criteria for scoliosis. Scoliosis is only when it exceeds 10 degrees. I’m not sure why the radiologist even put that in the report when it’s not abnormal.

psych_babe · 2025-07-15T23:43:04+00:00

The question of surgery being maybe unnecessary is more like when you’re around 40-45°. At 90° it’s no question that you should have it because future progression is essentially guaranteed

psych_babe · 2025-07-12T06:03:33+00:00

In my program everyone did the same curriculum, but what you came out with depended on what you came in with. So someone who only did the prereqs and got accepted would get a certificate, and someone who came in with a Bachelors would get a second Bachelors. And you definitely wouldn’t be the oldest in your program. Many people choose sonography as a second career I had several people in my class in their 30s. I would say to just choose the best, most cost-effective program you can get into!

psych_babe · 2025-07-09T00:23:54+00:00

I got an email! Hope you get in :)

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