Ct scan worries

[Silbury1967]

I've been having pains for the past 4-5 weeks. It started in my lower right back and I had blood in my urine. I was diagnosed with kidney stones. The pain gradually moved round to the front and for the past couple of weeks has moved down to the front of my pelvis. It now feels like a uti but I don't have an infection.
The pain can vanish for days then hit with a vengeance. I had an ultrasound on my kidneys which showed one was draining too slowly, and I had a cystoscopy which was clear.
The doctor was baffled so ordered a ct scan and said it would be some time until I was called for one.
Yesterday I was told they had a cancellation for a scan today so I agreed and had it done. I wasn't told anything about the scan beforehand as it was all very quick and I didn't think to look on the internet for info.
They said they were scanning my kidneys bladder and liver too. When I got home I googled the procedure and was shocked to see that it carries a 1 in 2000 chance of causing cancer in later life.
I feel really naive for not researching this beforehand and now I'm really scared I could have put myself at risk. Why didn't the hospital warn me?
My husband says if I'd have known I wouldn't have gone for the scan and then the doctors wouldn't be able to find out what is causing my pain.
Just how much risk is there from a ct scan? Is this a case of googling too much and scaring myself?

Given that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our life time the chance from a scan are very small.
If you need a scan the the risk of developing real problems by not having it are much,much bigger than the theoretical risk of having a scan.

CT abdo pelvis will expose you to about as much radiation as living in Cornwall for 18 months would.

I guess I've scared myself looking at the list on the nhs website which says the dose is equivalent to four and a half years background radiation. That seems a lot!
Why Cornwall? 😉

Because Cornwall has a lot of radon gas.

If you need a scan the risk of developing real problems by not having it are much, much bigger than the theoretical risk of having a scan.

This ^^ is such good advice. CT scans are expensive, and the NHS only carry them out when they deem it necessary.

You relays you gave a 50% chance of getting cancer anyway? 1 In 2000 is pretty small compared to that. As someone who has had cancer I need to have abuual CT scans. A necessary evil.

Realise not relays

I guess I'd better stop googling 😉

Do not worry about CT radiation risk, my teen dd needed a cardiac CT this year, we were told the radiation is equivalent to one long haul flight.

My adult son needed one on his kidneys recently he was worried too, but i said he wouldn't be worried if he was hopping on plane to somewhere nice and warm.

I was told a pelvic ct scan had the equivalent radiation to 400 chest x-rays. I refused to have it done as I hadn't had kids back then, and I didn't want irradiated ovaries! I've had a ct scan of my brain though...which seemed to switch on migraines.
Living in Cornwall doesn't focus radiation on your pelvic or abdominal region...so not exactly comparable.

Get this into perspective.
This year I've had 2 chest xrays, 2 MRIs, 4 CTs, an echocardiogram, a MUGA scan (like a CT), two mammograms, and 3 ultrasounds. I have cancer and all this leads to life saving treatment.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

You'll be fine.

Thankyou all. I'll try to put it to the back of my mind and wait for my test results.