radiologic imaging sciences?

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are there any aspies who are radiographic technologists? (I think that's the right term) x-ray/mri/angiogram/ultrasound/etc? I just had an extremely pleasant and interesting experience on the receiving end of an ultrasound machine, (looking at my gall-bladder and liver, I'm not pregnant haha) and I'm wondering if anyone has any insight into whether or not this is something I should be looking at as a career option.

I'm sort of a mixed bag as far as people skills. I can be so intensely stressed by simple, easy jobs like drug store cashier that I can have complete breakdowns. I handle more complex things like being a teaching assistant for a college course with ease, and really intense social situations like consoling a friend who has just survived a rape don't phase me in the slightest. it's weird, I've been praised for being extremely calm, rational, and comforting in intense emergency situations or when friends need help dealing with real trauma, but I fall apart if I try to keep a simple part time retail job. I worked the front desk at a hotel for years and was only rarely stressed out by that, and never so much it affected my work performance. that job consisted almost entirely of dealing with strangers over and over again, but usually one on one and with a fair amount of dead-time and routine computer stuff in-between. I don't think it's working with people that stresses me so much as the fear that I'm going to do something wrong and make someone mad, or that I'll have to be inauthentic with someone (which I'm really bad at.) I'm a generally nice/welcoming/helpful person so the quiet antique-filled hotel thing worked out for me, whereas I was so stressed by two days working at starbucks that it took several weeks for the left side of my face to regain movement because of spontaneous stress-induced paralysis...(even then they asked me to come back and insisted they were hoping I would become a manager...so I guess I was doing well even though I was losing my damn mind.)

does anyone with similar issues have any idea if medical imaging type work would be good for me? it seems interesting, high-tech, well-paid, in demand, and not as frequently gross as something like nursing (I have huge respect for nurses. needles and bedpans are not my thing, but you are all underpaid as hell and just as much life-savers as doctors or firefighters.)

I was a young ambulatory patient who knew exactly what my technologist was doing and was freshly bathed and in a good mood, so I figure I shouldn't take my appointment as the norm (but maybe?) she must also have to heave smelly disgruntled old people around who are afraid of the machine or whatever. I can't decide how I would react in a situation like that, or if the time constraints on the job would bother me or not. her office in the clinic I went to was incredibly nice, like a well decorated private suite with nice abstract paintings on the wall and the actual ultrasound room adjoining it, dimly lit with a high-tech device in one corner.

generally it *seemed* like an aspie dream-job. she said one patient had canceled and everyone else had shown up early, so she got to me 45 minutes ahead of schedule, and didn't seem remotely rushed or stressed. is this an abnormally cushy work environment for an ultrasound technologist, or what? if I could expect to work in a place even half as pleasant as that, I'm applying to the radiologic imaging sciences program at the local teaching hospital today...

bump a lump

I am not a radiographic technologist, but I do work in health care (with educational matters, even), so I might have some pointers.

Radiograph technologists are generally expected to have a good attention to detail and somewhat fair science skills (although the heavy science is usually done by radiologists (medical specialists) and physicists).

It will involve somewhat frequent face-to-face interaction, at radiograph technologists would probably have more direct contact with patients than doctors.

... Just remember that a lot of the employment opportunities for radiograph technologists is in cancer treatment. And in such a job, a significant percentage of the patients that you meet will die a slow and agonizing death from cancer... However, cancer treatment could in fact be a "cushy" work environment, as a lot of resources is generally devoted to cancer treatment (good physical facilities and economic opportunities), and since the gravity of the illness would probably mean that bullshitting jerks would be ejected from such organizations swiftly.