Scared of my radiation exposure.

[jamz55]

Hello, i've been exposed to a chest CT angio with a DLP corresponding to a value of 273 mGy.cm and a CTDI vol of about 6 mGy - this discovered a pulmonary embolism that has been treated at the time.

I also underwent a pelvic vein embolization procedure guided by xray fluoroscopy that lasted 6 min (DLP 4000.mgy.cm) which was a total of 17 mGy on the report.

On top of that I had head CT with and without contrast (basically 2 head CTs in the same day...) done a few days later with a DLP of 1880 mGy.cm and a CTDI vol of about 86 mGy. Those tests were completely unnecessary and just thinking about it makes me unable to sleep at night. Worst of all these tests were done a few days from each other (the chest CT and the brain CT)

All these tests were done so close from one another (first the fluoroscopy then two months later the 3 ct scans over a period of 4 days). I was 22 years old at the time and fear for my future health.
I am 24 years old now.

It is also worth noting I probably had about 3 regular chest xrays and several dental xrays with 3 to 4 skull xrays for dental work. Here in france they do not shield your thyroid or eyes when doing those exams.
After doing quite an amount of research I admit I have trouble coping with all this and I am quite anxious due to the amount of radiation I have been exposed to.

Am I at high risk for developing any type of cancer? particularly a brain tumor or cataracts from those exposure?

I am very very anxious and have deep regrets about the head scans especially, to the point were I can't sleep at night over it. It has ruined my life.

any feedback would be appreciated.

[Radi1]

You're worried about nothing. It takes far more medical radiation than what you've been exposed to to cause any kind of harm, long term or otherwise. I would have no issue having what you had done if I were in your shoes. You are not in a high risk category. Medical radiological procedures are not Chernobyl.

[Ger57]

I can not understand why you say that the tests were unnecessary. Do you mean that the tests showed nothing out of the ordinary? In that case, you should be glad for that and there is no reason for deep regrets.

About the risk of getting cancer:

A male of 22 years old has a baseline cancer risk of 44,9%, meaning 44,9% of the males of 22 year old will develop cancer somewhere during the remainder of their lives.

2 CT scans of the head, one of the chest and the pelvic fluoroscopy increase the risk to something like 45,17%.
The doses from chest-x-ray and dental x-rays are negligible compered to the CT scans.

So, your chances of developing cancer are a bit above baseline, but not much.
Really, there is absolutely no reason to think that your life is ruined from the examinations.
Relax and stop let this bother you. Sleepless nights and worrying are not healthy.

.