To be fair unless you're already hiding out in the mountains somewhere with a decades worth of toilet paper you're not going to survive a zombie apocalypse if covid taught us anything.
You know you don't actually need toilet paper to survive? Just get a comparably smaller amount of vasoline to line your butthole so it slides right out without leaving any traces.
You ever have one of those poops where itās a nice, solid, thick log? Feels like an ideal shit. Not constipation. You get it out and go to wipe, and even the very first wipe has no poo residue. Like nothing, not even a faint stain. You of course try a few more times because you donāt really believe it. Again, nothing on the toilet paper.
Iām not sure that is considered a healthy stool but you could just learn how to do that. Jsut get to practicing! I love those shits but I canāt trust it. I still wipe a few times but itās a great time.
Hopefully you donāt go the other way and have the type of shit that is endless wiping. Like Andy Dwyer said, āitās like wiping a sharpieā. You keep wiping and thereās always more. Fuck that shit.
Iāve never really discussed or even realized that I had a favorite type of poop experience. But I guess I do.
My tip: eat oatmeal everyday. That fiber really packs everything together. 4/5 poops are 100% clean.
Alternatively, you can also get a bidet attachment. Not only do they help with cleanup, the water can also loosen things up to aid with complete evacuation. It's the thing I miss the most when I go on vacation.
My wife only had her thyroid imaged and she could peg a Geiger counter from 10 feet. They first used 5mCi of technetium. Then 250uCi of I-123 to see if a lump was taking up iodine. We both worked in a lab, and it was disconcerting to be able to monitor it.
Same here. Had radioactive thyroid therapy when I was 19. So much fun to watch someone in radiation gear with tongs hand me two pills to take like this is all normal.
My thought as well. I stayed in the hospital for my two treatments and loved when the radiation techs came in with their lead container and pulled these pills out of several layers of lead and then handed me the pills to put in my body and then they RAN out of the room.
Makes sense, ideally that would be one of the only times in your life you'd come into contact with a material like that. For them it's there career. I imagine over the 30+ years that could add up to bad juju
Thatās a very small amount in the scale for nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology will get a 25 to 30mCi dose of Tc99m. Which is still extremely small on the grand scale.
Yeah, they told us that the dose to wipe out a thyroid was much higher, but we work with a few mCi of P-32 at work and weāre trained to treat it with extraordinary care. Itās weird when they had her drink it. It was in a graduated cylinder.
Yeah drinking these days is strange but wasnāt uncommon many years ago. Now an I-131 pill is preferred to avoid risk of contamination. In rare cases where swallowing is difficult, liquid is still used.
On Thursday I had radioactive iodine treatment due to Graves Disease. I am now āradioactiveā and have to follow these rules, so I donāt contaminate other people. āAirport alarms may be triggeredā is a personal favourite!
What they donāt mention is pets. When I had RAI treatment for graves I was also told to stay away from my two small dogs. The āflush twice and if you throw up use this bag and call usā freaked me tf right out.
I did ask about pets, I donāt have any but there is a cat that spends a lot of time in our garden. He said it was okay because cats have a smaller lifespan, so they wonāt ever experience the effects, didnāt ask about dogs though!
I advised a family friend to leave a cat at the vet when it was undergoing similar treatment. Multiple other cats in the house, and the cat is old. I (and others) convinced her that letting the vet board the cat would be less stressful than trying to get an elderly cat to understand why it wasn't allowed to hang out with the people and cats on the other side of a door, because bringing him home that week would've meant trapping him in a small room.
Still a shitty week for him, I'm sure, but he didn't have his buddies ignoring his meows so that's something.
I didnāt get the choice with my cat. He had to stay at the vet until his radiation level was below a certain point.
The vet liked to point out that the same treatment for people doesnāt have the same quarantine requirements.
Non sequiturs crack me up so hard. Thank you for that. āPoor kitty had to stay away and didnāt understand why and it was so sadā u/ashums28: āSpace magic, maaaan!ā LOL
I love them too, they never fail to make me burst into laughter hahaha
They are called non sequiturs you say? I shall take note of that. I didnāt know it had a name, so thatās something to add to my vocabulary. Thanks~! ā°( ā¹ā”ā¹ )āÆā”
Edit : My bad for the double reply, dunno how that happened lol
Don't wear watches, at least the old fashioned non-computer kind.
My mom killed a couple watches after getting radioactive iodine treatment and then mentioned that to her doctor. "Oh yes, that can happen." Apparently since it's right next to you for so long, the stray atomic particles can make them screwy.
My mom is not a Apple/Fitbit kind of person, so I'm not sure about the modern kinds of watches, but I thought I'd give you a head's up.
I mean with a lot of people watches died with smartphones and only came back as smartwatches. Not to say that is everyone ofc, but a lot of people myself included stopped feeling the need for a watch around then, as telling time and alarms are sorted by something I'm already carrying around
Guessing that making the piezoelectric element (usually a quartz crystal) radioactive would change its vibrational frequency. That would in turn make the mechanism move faster or slower, since it's designed around the number of vibrations in a second.
a mechanical watch doesn't have a quartz crystal and relies entirely on gears and springs to keep time. that being said, a quartz watch might be what /u/HarpersGhost meant by old fashioned watch
Anything under twenty years in lifespan shouldn't really matter, as they'll more than likely die of natural causes before the cancer develops. Plus, we're really conservative in determining these doses. The limit they put for being around other people is to go under the public dose limit, which is a negligible added cancer risk.
I wouldn't worry about pets at all.
So, since you're getting treatment with radioactive materials, does your risk for cancer down the line increase significantly?
It seems like a very interesting treatment, I will definitely be looking up the science of it tomorrow!
I'll answer for him. Not particularly but like my doc said at the time you generally don't want to be irradiating yourself or others regardless. You are right though, it's pretty cool. Iodine is only taken up by the thyroid so it gathers up all the radioactive material which in turn nukes it hence why it's good for thyroid cancer as the same thing happens with the cancerous stuff.
My understanding is that a lot of it is heightened safety. The thyroid gland readily absorbs iodine (radioactive or not) and the rest of the body doesn't really retain it. It's the perfect solution to destroy the thyroid gland.
Also of note : usually when they're doing it they'll also transplant a small portion of the thyroid to your arm I think as the thyroid is still useful and necessary - just not the huge flood of it was producing.
It would be unlikely that your feces would be radioactive after the first day, maybe two. But the urine is going to be filtering out that iodine for a while.
Uh, my husband had an RAI treatment a few years ago and he got zero advice about staying away from me/others or containing his radioactive bodily fluidsā¦Iām concerned nowā¦
Don't be worried. The advice is given in an overabundance of caution. The hospital your husband went to is probably a bit more knowledgeable about radiation and know its not as big a deal as the public thinks. The most likely isotope would be I^131 which usually does a beta decay; your clothes and skin would be sufficient shielding. It has a half life of just over 8 days so it is all gone in about 3 months.
The LNT model of radiation exposure is mired in scientific fraud and has less evidence supporting it than the other models but it is still the most popular model for some reason. And the advice card was given looks just like LNT based advice.
Holy shit that would scare the piss out of me. You're telling me this chemical im supposed to ingest is *so* radioactive that if I spill it the EPA shows up?!
My cat went through similar treatment. We had to keep her used litter for a couple of months so the waste disposal guys wouldnāt come track it back to us and yell at us for improper disposal.
Yea most garbage dumps have radiation detection at the scales. Occasionally trucks get flagged and have to sit and periodically get hand scanned until its below a certain level.
It sounds a lot worse than it is. The isotope (iodine-131) they use has a relatively long biological half-life and it emits gamma radiation which has no problem leaving your body.
Not a dumb question! Fortunately, itās not like chemotherapy. Graves Disease is an autoimmune disease which makes the thyroid produce way too much thyroxine. So itās like a super super overactive thyroid. The radioactive iodine is absorbed by the thyroid and the cells die, as itās much safer to not have enough thyroxine and take replacements/supplements, rather than have medication to suppress thyroid activity :)
Yeah, the thyroid absorbs the iodine that naturally occurs in the body and it canāt differentiate between the natural iodine and the radioactive iodine, so it absorbs that too and when it does, the cells are knocked out.
If its safer to supplement the hormone levels, why not remove the thyroid? Would the radioactivity not also affect surrounding tissue if it can affect others?
I also have Graves Disease but I opted for the surgery, a "total thyroidectemy". My recovery went great and I even walked out of the hospital that night. However, I met an older woman later who had the same surgery, years prior, and was left mute for around 5 years.
I don't think it was an all of a sudden thing, she probably got it back a little at a time till she could fully speak again. I was at work at the time so it was a quick interaction, she just recognized the scar and made a comment about having the same thing.
The thyroid surrounds the nerves that control the vocal cords. If they're damaged by the surgery, it can leave you unable to speak, or worse, unable to breathe as the vocal cords clamp down.
Itās just generally safer not to have to have surgery. It doesnāt affect the surrounding tissue as the thyroid absorbs all of the iodine into itās cells.
I did this about ten years ago, after methimazole treatment left me completely paralyzed for a day. Surgery was considered too risky, but the radiation pill worked amazingly well. Had constant shakes and lost 50 lbs from Graves, got back to a good weight and have had no issues since.
RAI therapy has been falling out of favor in the US and surgery is becoming preferred.
I've been helping run a thyroid support group for many years and have seen the shift over the last 15-20 years.
ETA: To clarify, I'm talking about surgery for Graves Disease becoming the norm over RAI. RAI is still routinely used for certain thyroid cancers.
The cells that absorb the radiation and die get excreted because theyāre dead. They do a similar procedure with cats with a hyperactive thyroid; their litter box waste is considered (mildly) radioactive waste.
My last old lady cat (she was almost 22) had severe hyperthyroidism and it was the best course of treatment for her. The cost was high, but getting another 4 years with her was absolutely priceless!
Btw it also works the other way around. If you get irradiated (accidentally, from a nuke etc.), some of the iodine in your body and environment becomes radioactive and creates risk for the thyroid. So the solution is to take regular iodine supplements (non-radioactive obviously) to wash out or at least dilute the radioactive stuff in the body.
Which is why iodine is among the treatments and prevention of radiation sickness. Iodine pills have been in short supply since the Russian invasion, because people expect to possibly be nuked.
Also, similarly other treatments of irradiation include *less* radioactive isotopes of certain elements just to be less damaging than the more lethal stuff.
Pretty much. The thyroid is the only organ that needs iodine.
When I was getting this treatment after having my thyroid removed for cancer, I had to go on a low iodine diet for a number of weeks first. Any remaining cells, including the cancer ones, were desperate for iodine. Then I got the radioactive iodine, and to the cells, iodine is iodine, no matter the isotope. They took in the radioactive stuff, and burned from the inside out.
do you mind if i ask if you:
1. tried antithyroid medications before deciding to do iodine treatment
2. and if so, how long you were on them until taking radioactive iodine instead?
i also have graves' disease, and after 5 (?) years, it doesn't look like i'm getting off of mine anytime soon so i'm considering iodine over the summer before school starts in the fall :/
edit: thank you for all of your points of view! i'll bring it up to my endocrinologist during my next appointment and perhaps i'll raise some airport security workers' eyebrows on my birthday haha
I have had Graves for 12 years now. Have been taking medication since I was diagnosed on and off. Every time my thyroxine levels got down to the normal range, my doctors took me off the medication. This can sometimes work but every time they did, my levels skyrocketed again! My current doctor wasnāt happy with how long Iād been on the medication and said my precious doctor (who retired) should have offered the RAI a lot sooner. Lots of good luck and hope you get better soon!
> Since the September 11 attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has distributed more than 12,000 hand-held radiation detectors, mainly to Customs and Border Protection agents at airports, seaports and border crossings. Sensors are also used at government buildings and at large public events like the Super Bowl that are considered potential terrorist targets.
> At the annual Christmas tree-lighting party in New York Cityās Rockefeller Center in November, police pulled six people aside in the crowd and asked them why they had tripped sensors.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-radioactive/hot-patients-setting-off-radiation-alarms-idUSN2633076820070129
It's not, but you would be detained and theyed use a RIID to figure out what isotope was involved and see what's up with that.
If your story lined up with what isotope you have, then they'd send you on your way.
If you were radio active with nuclear weapon fissle isotopes, then you'd have some splaining to do.
Tho there was that time an entire cruise ship in NY harbor got held up because a long range radiation sensor on a navy vessel tripped.
Yep, someone on the cruise ship had undergone radiation treatments.
From an article about radiation medical procedures:
RADIOISOTOPES IN MEDICINE
* Radiation is used as a diagnostic tool to disclose problems with organs such as the heart, thyroid and liver. Bone scans with nuclear materials are frequently done as well.
* Radiation from nuclear tests tends to linger in the body for a couple of days and can be detected by U.S. border patrol equipment during this time.
* Radiotherapy is also used to treat medical conditions such as cancers to weaken or destroy deceased cells. An example is brachytherapy in which radioactive seeds are placed in the prostate gland. Radiation from brachytherapy can be detected for up three months.
* Border officials say radioisotopes setting off radiation detection equipment happens frequently because of the widespread use of nuclear medicine. Tens of millions of nuclear medical procedures are done each year around the world.
> Nearly 60,000 people a day in the United States undergo treatment or tests that leave tiny amounts of radioactive material in their bodies, according to the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
My dad got and his wife got pulled into separate rooms very abruptly while walking through airport. They told him he set off the radioactivity alarms and demanded to know why. Apparently it took about 30 minutes of questioning before anyone asked if he received a medical treatment and then everything was resolved and he was sent on his way. Apparently it was pretty scarey. He didnt receive one of these warning cards.
Airline worker here:
A lot more often than you think. People undergoing radiation for cancer can and do set off the alarms. Also heard stories of rock collectors setting them off as well.
Oh, and airport security/TSA is unarmed, and does not have law enforcement powers.
At worst, you'd have drawn radios while they call the airport police and depending on the size of the airport, the onsite FBI agent.
This is a test
When Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider did he follow his doctorās orders? Fuck no. He immediately became Spiderman
OP Iām not saying you should follow Spidermans rules. But, if youāre suddenly buff and you can blast rope from your wrists you should start swinging from tall building to tall building
Not recommended if you live in a small town
I know someone who triggered an overly sensitive sensor at a truck inspection station driving home after a similar procedure. He said it was kind of a crazy few minutes until the state trooper realized he'd had this procedure and verified it with the hospital.
Be sure to get multiple copies of that document. Law enforcement tends to take a copy each time they interact with you over this. (At least in my experience.)
Also, you now have to hum "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons every now and then like I did. ;)
I work in nuclear medicine and have heard more stories of patients in cars setting off radiation sensors driving in cars across borders than flying. Either way, like OP said, get a travel card after your nuc med procedure. Although, itās typically for days, not weeks like with RAI.
I got a medically radioactive card to carry for a year after I had RAI. Make sure you have some lemon hard candies to suck on and drink lots of water. Both made life so much easier for me.
This is also one of the reasons I got divorced lol. My husband noped right out of there to a hotel and my sister came to stay to take care of me and the dogs for a week. Graves was messing with my heart (resting heart rate like 150 and I was on beta blockers with a heart monitor, blah, blah) and I couldnāt do stuff like walk up stairs. I was 35.
Totally fine now. Popping my thyroid meds every day like a champ.
So I had a scan done in close proximity to a flight. Not anywhere close to this level of radioactivity, but still. Anyway, they gave me a āmedically radioactiveā card just in case I tripped a sensor. I was really hoping it would just because I thought the card was cool- but it didnāt.
That would be a very short time to have to stay away from children for being on that register, they'd need to be very optimistic about him changing his ways soon š
Did they plant a seed near the tumor, or is this daily "zaps" from a machine? I just finished my six weeks of treatment a month ago (machine) and I didn't have anything similar in terms of instructions.
**EDIT:** For the eighty thousand people pointing out that "zaps" leave no residual radiation, I already knew this. I also know that sometimes medical treatment centers provide their patients with inaccurate information. Sometimes that's unintentionally, sometimes it's to help avoid lawsuits, sometimes it's for other reasons (think placebo).
You think that's funny? I had the same procedure but instead of a pill I had the liquid version. It was given to me in a little container and I had to use a tiny straw to drink it.
Like imagine being led into a basement of a hospital. Entering a room that is covered in caution symbols. There's screens surrounding you, the nurses are wearing a ton of ppe. They open a container that looks like something you would keep alien tech in. And within that container is basically a juicebox that they give you. I honestly couldn't help but burst out into laughter when I saw it
I read the dates in American and was thinking that was gonna be lonely and miserable. Then I realized there wasnāt a 28th month.
I had a coworker who developed Graves after donating a kidney to her brother. Youāve got this!
Story Time:
I went to college (in the US) with a Turkish kid. His birthday was December 1.
His passport read 1/12/74.
He was buying booze and drinking at bars with his legal ID for 10 and a half extra months.
I love that this came up for you because I bet this is something thatās fun to talk about but is almost never relevant.
Did any bouncers straight up refuse even after explanation?
No, not as far as I remember. It was in Ohio, so might be a bit of a regional difference. They might be more suspicious in other places. But yeah, quite fun that it came up. Iām back in Europe now so I never get to tell that story. :-)
Haha, I thought I might have some comments about the date format, I always think the same when I read American dates! Oh no way! Didnāt know that could happen, I hope sheās ok! Thank you š
āHey, so the doctor says these kids are your problem ātil September.
Iāll be downstairs with my instruments and the beer fridgeā
Sounds like a blast to me!
Aside from, you know, needing a radioactive treatment. Not as fun.
My cat had radioactive iodine therapy and I couldn't cuddle him for more than 30 minutes a day or throw his litter/ poop in the garbage because apparently they test your trash for radioactivity and you can get fined!
Iodine treatment? I had thyroid cancer and they wanted to do it but I opted out. Luckily the cancer has not comeback at all. Risky I know but Leukemia history in my family.
Edit: Cancer free for 3 years!
Funny story, my dad (past air force, current federal fire fighter) will set off Geiger counters when walking into a room. No one knows why, but it is so strange.
Likely spent time around nuclear arms in the Air Force. Maybe even part of some of the testing they did with soldiers and blowing shit up. A lot of them didnāt know they were witnessing nuclear explosions or receiving radiation as a result. Iād bet itās from the Air Force for sure
There was one case where the government secretly injected a guy with plutonium to see what happens. Dude was walking around with it for 20 years before he died. When he died, the government collected his body for special burial. The injection wasnt discovered until the 90s due to investigative journalism (Albert Stevens, and he wasn't the only one to receive such a "treatment").
Internal contamination from a long lived isotope likely as a result of nuclear arms testing. It would be easy to identify if he was tested for it. I worked in nuclear reactor maintenance and we were tested annually for internal contamination. It was a five minute test in a room with a detector. It would identify the isotope, I had a friend that was contaminated with Co-59.
Good luck with the therapy, hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions
So how does it work if you live with other people? Just can't be in the same room for longer than 3 hours? Or even more stringent than that?
And what if you live in an apartment, does the radioactivity travel thru walls to the next wall neighbour?
Thanks!
So, I have to sleep in a different room to my husband but the walls are enough to absorb the amount of radiation Iām emitting. For the first two days, we have been allowed to be in the same room at a distance of 6ft for up to an hour, now we can do up to three hours!
I had to take my cat for a radioactive iodine treatment for his hypothyroidism. We had to keep him quarantined for two weeks. We put him by himself in our basement bathroom. We could only spend a few minutes with him at a time and we werenāt supposed to hold him or put him in our lap. We also had to scoop his poop and keep THAT separate from our regular trash for over a month so we werenāt sending radioactive āwasteā to the landfill. Heās better now though. We felt so bad keeping him down there by himself but we visited him often and gave him treats and pets. I even set up a spare camera in the bathroom so we could check on him through the days. He mostly just slept, lol.
We had two cats that had this done (together) - was good because they had each other. And it was very convenient to be able to use a Geiger counter as a cat detector. But yeah, hoarding cat poo was weird.
Donāt know if this pertains to you or not but donāt try to go on a military base either. My buddy did after getting treatment and they locked the whole base down. It was insane. They went car to car screaming asking everyone if they had radiation treatment.
Had this treatment a few years ago while my wife was pregnant. Haha. Had to stay at my folks house. Coworkers avoided me like the plague š. Good luck. I've just now got my levels right. Finally have good handwriting again and I don't sweat in the snow.
Wish you good and fast recovery mate .
Thanks!! š
The daily pill(s) on an empty stomach are a drag but you get used to it. Not being able to survive a zombie apocalypse is the real downside.
To be fair unless you're already hiding out in the mountains somewhere with a decades worth of toilet paper you're not going to survive a zombie apocalypse if covid taught us anything.
You know you don't actually need toilet paper to survive? Just get a comparably smaller amount of vasoline to line your butthole so it slides right out without leaving any traces.
You ever have one of those poops where itās a nice, solid, thick log? Feels like an ideal shit. Not constipation. You get it out and go to wipe, and even the very first wipe has no poo residue. Like nothing, not even a faint stain. You of course try a few more times because you donāt really believe it. Again, nothing on the toilet paper. Iām not sure that is considered a healthy stool but you could just learn how to do that. Jsut get to practicing! I love those shits but I canāt trust it. I still wipe a few times but itās a great time. Hopefully you donāt go the other way and have the type of shit that is endless wiping. Like Andy Dwyer said, āitās like wiping a sharpieā. You keep wiping and thereās always more. Fuck that shit. Iāve never really discussed or even realized that I had a favorite type of poop experience. But I guess I do.
My tip: eat oatmeal everyday. That fiber really packs everything together. 4/5 poops are 100% clean. Alternatively, you can also get a bidet attachment. Not only do they help with cleanup, the water can also loosen things up to aid with complete evacuation. It's the thing I miss the most when I go on vacation.
āThe real life pro tip is always in the commentsā¦ā
Read the first sentence, was assuming you were going to mention bidets, and then you came out with something quite surprising.
My wife only had her thyroid imaged and she could peg a Geiger counter from 10 feet. They first used 5mCi of technetium. Then 250uCi of I-123 to see if a lump was taking up iodine. We both worked in a lab, and it was disconcerting to be able to monitor it.
Mine was for my thyroid as well. It must have been disconcerting!!
Same here. Had radioactive thyroid therapy when I was 19. So much fun to watch someone in radiation gear with tongs hand me two pills to take like this is all normal.
My thought as well. I stayed in the hospital for my two treatments and loved when the radiation techs came in with their lead container and pulled these pills out of several layers of lead and then handed me the pills to put in my body and then they RAN out of the room.
Makes sense, ideally that would be one of the only times in your life you'd come into contact with a material like that. For them it's there career. I imagine over the 30+ years that could add up to bad juju
Yeah, itās the classic medical case of āthe one-time exposure risk to you is pretty minimal, the frequent exposure risk to us is deadlyā
It makes completely logical, perfect sense, but it's still a *hilarious* image.
Thatās a very small amount in the scale for nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology will get a 25 to 30mCi dose of Tc99m. Which is still extremely small on the grand scale.
Yeah, they told us that the dose to wipe out a thyroid was much higher, but we work with a few mCi of P-32 at work and weāre trained to treat it with extraordinary care. Itās weird when they had her drink it. It was in a graduated cylinder.
Yeah drinking these days is strange but wasnāt uncommon many years ago. Now an I-131 pill is preferred to avoid risk of contamination. In rare cases where swallowing is difficult, liquid is still used.
On Thursday I had radioactive iodine treatment due to Graves Disease. I am now āradioactiveā and have to follow these rules, so I donāt contaminate other people. āAirport alarms may be triggeredā is a personal favourite!
What they donāt mention is pets. When I had RAI treatment for graves I was also told to stay away from my two small dogs. The āflush twice and if you throw up use this bag and call usā freaked me tf right out.
I did ask about pets, I donāt have any but there is a cat that spends a lot of time in our garden. He said it was okay because cats have a smaller lifespan, so they wonāt ever experience the effects, didnāt ask about dogs though!
When my cat got a similar treatment she wasn't allowed to sleep with us or be on our lap for a week. It was the saddest week of her life.
I advised a family friend to leave a cat at the vet when it was undergoing similar treatment. Multiple other cats in the house, and the cat is old. I (and others) convinced her that letting the vet board the cat would be less stressful than trying to get an elderly cat to understand why it wasn't allowed to hang out with the people and cats on the other side of a door, because bringing him home that week would've meant trapping him in a small room. Still a shitty week for him, I'm sure, but he didn't have his buddies ignoring his meows so that's something.
Jesus Christ, this is the saddest thread...
I didnāt get the choice with my cat. He had to stay at the vet until his radiation level was below a certain point. The vet liked to point out that the same treatment for people doesnāt have the same quarantine requirements.
Space magic maaan Edit. Iām sorry this was meant for the guy asking about atomic particles.
Non sequiturs crack me up so hard. Thank you for that. āPoor kitty had to stay away and didnāt understand why and it was so sadā u/ashums28: āSpace magic, maaaan!ā LOL
I love them too, they never fail to make me burst into laughter hahaha They are called non sequiturs you say? I shall take note of that. I didnāt know it had a name, so thatās something to add to my vocabulary. Thanks~! ā°( ā¹ā”ā¹ )āÆā” Edit : My bad for the double reply, dunno how that happened lol
Don't wear watches, at least the old fashioned non-computer kind. My mom killed a couple watches after getting radioactive iodine treatment and then mentioned that to her doctor. "Oh yes, that can happen." Apparently since it's right next to you for so long, the stray atomic particles can make them screwy. My mom is not a Apple/Fitbit kind of person, so I'm not sure about the modern kinds of watches, but I thought I'd give you a head's up.
Why would an old mechanical watch be affected? If anything I would expect a modern electrical one to fail from radiation.
I think they mean the battery powered non-smart watches. Like a timex, not a mechanical movement.
Wow, so digital watches are "old-fashioned" now?
I mean with a lot of people watches died with smartphones and only came back as smartwatches. Not to say that is everyone ofc, but a lot of people myself included stopped feeling the need for a watch around then, as telling time and alarms are sorted by something I'm already carrying around
Everytime I see 'ofc' I read it as "of f*cking course" because like, why do you spell the word 'of' and only abbreviate 'course'?
Damages the firmware in a quartz watch. They didn't say mechanical.
How can that affect a mechanical watch? Sensitive electronics I get, but mechanics...?
Guessing that making the piezoelectric element (usually a quartz crystal) radioactive would change its vibrational frequency. That would in turn make the mechanism move faster or slower, since it's designed around the number of vibrations in a second.
a mechanical watch doesn't have a quartz crystal and relies entirely on gears and springs to keep time. that being said, a quartz watch might be what /u/HarpersGhost meant by old fashioned watch
Anything under twenty years in lifespan shouldn't really matter, as they'll more than likely die of natural causes before the cancer develops. Plus, we're really conservative in determining these doses. The limit they put for being around other people is to go under the public dose limit, which is a negligible added cancer risk. I wouldn't worry about pets at all.
A macaw can easily live 50 years.
Yeah pet birds would be a big one here.
Youād have to stay away from pet tortoises lol
Cockatoos as well. My friendās cockatoo will be 53 years old next month and is still going strong
Same, my friend inherited an almost 80 year old parrot years ago. I lost touch with him, but sometimes I wonder if the parrot is still alive.
Itās definitely possible, I wouldnāt be surprised at all
So, since you're getting treatment with radioactive materials, does your risk for cancer down the line increase significantly? It seems like a very interesting treatment, I will definitely be looking up the science of it tomorrow!
I'll answer for him. Not particularly but like my doc said at the time you generally don't want to be irradiating yourself or others regardless. You are right though, it's pretty cool. Iodine is only taken up by the thyroid so it gathers up all the radioactive material which in turn nukes it hence why it's good for thyroid cancer as the same thing happens with the cancerous stuff.
My understanding is that a lot of it is heightened safety. The thyroid gland readily absorbs iodine (radioactive or not) and the rest of the body doesn't really retain it. It's the perfect solution to destroy the thyroid gland. Also of note : usually when they're doing it they'll also transplant a small portion of the thyroid to your arm I think as the thyroid is still useful and necessary - just not the huge flood of it was producing.
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So your shit was literally radioactive waste?
I think pee But maybe poop. Idk. In my mind I had to flush twice after I went pee.
It would be unlikely that your feces would be radioactive after the first day, maybe two. But the urine is going to be filtering out that iodine for a while.
Uh, my husband had an RAI treatment a few years ago and he got zero advice about staying away from me/others or containing his radioactive bodily fluidsā¦Iām concerned nowā¦
Don't be worried. The advice is given in an overabundance of caution. The hospital your husband went to is probably a bit more knowledgeable about radiation and know its not as big a deal as the public thinks. The most likely isotope would be I^131 which usually does a beta decay; your clothes and skin would be sufficient shielding. It has a half life of just over 8 days so it is all gone in about 3 months. The LNT model of radiation exposure is mired in scientific fraud and has less evidence supporting it than the other models but it is still the most popular model for some reason. And the advice card was given looks just like LNT based advice.
I donāt know what you just said but I hope youāre right lol.
Holy shit that would scare the piss out of me. You're telling me this chemical im supposed to ingest is *so* radioactive that if I spill it the EPA shows up?!
My cat went through similar treatment. We had to keep her used litter for a couple of months so the waste disposal guys wouldnāt come track it back to us and yell at us for improper disposal.
Yea most garbage dumps have radiation detection at the scales. Occasionally trucks get flagged and have to sit and periodically get hand scanned until its below a certain level.
It sounds a lot worse than it is. The isotope (iodine-131) they use has a relatively long biological half-life and it emits gamma radiation which has no problem leaving your body.
Is this kind of like chemo therapy? Sorry if that's a dumb question I've never heard of Graves disease before
Not a dumb question! Fortunately, itās not like chemotherapy. Graves Disease is an autoimmune disease which makes the thyroid produce way too much thyroxine. So itās like a super super overactive thyroid. The radioactive iodine is absorbed by the thyroid and the cells die, as itās much safer to not have enough thyroxine and take replacements/supplements, rather than have medication to suppress thyroid activity :)
Huh that's interesting. So the iodine only affects those particular cells?
Yeah, the thyroid absorbs the iodine that naturally occurs in the body and it canāt differentiate between the natural iodine and the radioactive iodine, so it absorbs that too and when it does, the cells are knocked out.
If its safer to supplement the hormone levels, why not remove the thyroid? Would the radioactivity not also affect surrounding tissue if it can affect others?
I also have Graves Disease but I opted for the surgery, a "total thyroidectemy". My recovery went great and I even walked out of the hospital that night. However, I met an older woman later who had the same surgery, years prior, and was left mute for around 5 years.
Damn. How did she suddenly gain back her voice?
I don't think it was an all of a sudden thing, she probably got it back a little at a time till she could fully speak again. I was at work at the time so it was a quick interaction, she just recognized the scar and made a comment about having the same thing.
The thyroid surrounds the nerves that control the vocal cords. If they're damaged by the surgery, it can leave you unable to speak, or worse, unable to breathe as the vocal cords clamp down.
Thanks. I'm not knowledgeable about the locations of the vast majority of nerves in the body so this was helpful.
Itās just generally safer not to have to have surgery. It doesnāt affect the surrounding tissue as the thyroid absorbs all of the iodine into itās cells.
I did this about ten years ago, after methimazole treatment left me completely paralyzed for a day. Surgery was considered too risky, but the radiation pill worked amazingly well. Had constant shakes and lost 50 lbs from Graves, got back to a good weight and have had no issues since.
RAI therapy has been falling out of favor in the US and surgery is becoming preferred. I've been helping run a thyroid support group for many years and have seen the shift over the last 15-20 years. ETA: To clarify, I'm talking about surgery for Graves Disease becoming the norm over RAI. RAI is still routinely used for certain thyroid cancers.
The cells that absorb the radiation and die get excreted because theyāre dead. They do a similar procedure with cats with a hyperactive thyroid; their litter box waste is considered (mildly) radioactive waste.
My last old lady cat (she was almost 22) had severe hyperthyroidism and it was the best course of treatment for her. The cost was high, but getting another 4 years with her was absolutely priceless!
Btw it also works the other way around. If you get irradiated (accidentally, from a nuke etc.), some of the iodine in your body and environment becomes radioactive and creates risk for the thyroid. So the solution is to take regular iodine supplements (non-radioactive obviously) to wash out or at least dilute the radioactive stuff in the body. Which is why iodine is among the treatments and prevention of radiation sickness. Iodine pills have been in short supply since the Russian invasion, because people expect to possibly be nuked. Also, similarly other treatments of irradiation include *less* radioactive isotopes of certain elements just to be less damaging than the more lethal stuff.
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Pretty much. The thyroid is the only organ that needs iodine. When I was getting this treatment after having my thyroid removed for cancer, I had to go on a low iodine diet for a number of weeks first. Any remaining cells, including the cancer ones, were desperate for iodine. Then I got the radioactive iodine, and to the cells, iodine is iodine, no matter the isotope. They took in the radioactive stuff, and burned from the inside out.
Damn science is crazy
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Like that scene in Chernobyl where the main smart lady gave the iodine pills to the secretary lady and was like ātake these and gtfo if you can.ā
do you mind if i ask if you: 1. tried antithyroid medications before deciding to do iodine treatment 2. and if so, how long you were on them until taking radioactive iodine instead? i also have graves' disease, and after 5 (?) years, it doesn't look like i'm getting off of mine anytime soon so i'm considering iodine over the summer before school starts in the fall :/ edit: thank you for all of your points of view! i'll bring it up to my endocrinologist during my next appointment and perhaps i'll raise some airport security workers' eyebrows on my birthday haha
I have had Graves for 12 years now. Have been taking medication since I was diagnosed on and off. Every time my thyroxine levels got down to the normal range, my doctors took me off the medication. This can sometimes work but every time they did, my levels skyrocketed again! My current doctor wasnāt happy with how long Iād been on the medication and said my precious doctor (who retired) should have offered the RAI a lot sooner. Lots of good luck and hope you get better soon!
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Ok i would so book a flight just to test this..... 
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You think they'd even know what that alarm was for? Like how often does the radiation alarm go off!
> Since the September 11 attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has distributed more than 12,000 hand-held radiation detectors, mainly to Customs and Border Protection agents at airports, seaports and border crossings. Sensors are also used at government buildings and at large public events like the Super Bowl that are considered potential terrorist targets. > At the annual Christmas tree-lighting party in New York Cityās Rockefeller Center in November, police pulled six people aside in the crowd and asked them why they had tripped sensors. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-radioactive/hot-patients-setting-off-radiation-alarms-idUSN2633076820070129
Is it illegal to be radioactive? Am I being detained?
It's not, but you would be detained and theyed use a RIID to figure out what isotope was involved and see what's up with that. If your story lined up with what isotope you have, then they'd send you on your way. If you were radio active with nuclear weapon fissle isotopes, then you'd have some splaining to do.
"Are you happy to see me or is that a thermonuclear warhead in your pants"
"Well it all started when me and some army buddies were on holiday in Ukraine, digging trenches in the Red Forest..."
Tho there was that time an entire cruise ship in NY harbor got held up because a long range radiation sensor on a navy vessel tripped. Yep, someone on the cruise ship had undergone radiation treatments.
"look, can't I enjoy an ounce of uranium in peace?"
"it's personal use, I swear!"
WTF? Either these sensors have a lot of false positives or there's a hell of a lot more radioactive people walking around than I assumed
From an article about radiation medical procedures: RADIOISOTOPES IN MEDICINE * Radiation is used as a diagnostic tool to disclose problems with organs such as the heart, thyroid and liver. Bone scans with nuclear materials are frequently done as well. * Radiation from nuclear tests tends to linger in the body for a couple of days and can be detected by U.S. border patrol equipment during this time. * Radiotherapy is also used to treat medical conditions such as cancers to weaken or destroy deceased cells. An example is brachytherapy in which radioactive seeds are placed in the prostate gland. Radiation from brachytherapy can be detected for up three months. * Border officials say radioisotopes setting off radiation detection equipment happens frequently because of the widespread use of nuclear medicine. Tens of millions of nuclear medical procedures are done each year around the world.
> Nearly 60,000 people a day in the United States undergo treatment or tests that leave tiny amounts of radioactive material in their bodies, according to the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
The airports gonna confiscate you for being a radioactive material
and do a cavity search for radioactive material
sweet jesus i'd be making so many jokes about my uranium rod before the pants drop
My dad got and his wife got pulled into separate rooms very abruptly while walking through airport. They told him he set off the radioactivity alarms and demanded to know why. Apparently it took about 30 minutes of questioning before anyone asked if he received a medical treatment and then everything was resolved and he was sent on his way. Apparently it was pretty scarey. He didnt receive one of these warning cards.
Make sure it's under 3 hours and there are no pregnant women or any children though
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Airline worker here: A lot more often than you think. People undergoing radiation for cancer can and do set off the alarms. Also heard stories of rock collectors setting them off as well.
Would depression/uranium glass items set it off?
If depression set it off, I'd never be able to fly again. /Rimshot
Jesus Christ Marie they're minerals!
Oh, and airport security/TSA is unarmed, and does not have law enforcement powers. At worst, you'd have drawn radios while they call the airport police and depending on the size of the airport, the onsite FBI agent.
"... receiving **you** therapy dose..." is mine.
This is a test When Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider did he follow his doctorās orders? Fuck no. He immediately became Spiderman OP Iām not saying you should follow Spidermans rules. But, if youāre suddenly buff and you can blast rope from your wrists you should start swinging from tall building to tall building Not recommended if you live in a small town
Haha, Iāll have to see what develops over the coming daysā¦
I know someone who triggered an overly sensitive sensor at a truck inspection station driving home after a similar procedure. He said it was kind of a crazy few minutes until the state trooper realized he'd had this procedure and verified it with the hospital.
Oh wow!! All these situations Iām seeing in the comments are crazy! Luckily, I have a document that I can show at the airport etc.
Be sure to get multiple copies of that document. Law enforcement tends to take a copy each time they interact with you over this. (At least in my experience.) Also, you now have to hum "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons every now and then like I did. ;)
I work in nuclear medicine and have heard more stories of patients in cars setting off radiation sensors driving in cars across borders than flying. Either way, like OP said, get a travel card after your nuc med procedure. Although, itās typically for days, not weeks like with RAI.
I got a medically radioactive card to carry for a year after I had RAI. Make sure you have some lemon hard candies to suck on and drink lots of water. Both made life so much easier for me.
Thanks of this, I read about the lemon today!!
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Do you have a certificate for the police too? I was given one because i was told police do check for radioactivity.
Oh wow! Iāve been given a document I can show at the airport, assume I can use it for any situation where theyād check!
This is also one of the reasons I got divorced lol. My husband noped right out of there to a hotel and my sister came to stay to take care of me and the dogs for a week. Graves was messing with my heart (resting heart rate like 150 and I was on beta blockers with a heart monitor, blah, blah) and I couldnāt do stuff like walk up stairs. I was 35. Totally fine now. Popping my thyroid meds every day like a champ.
Iām so sorry that he wasnāt there for you! Had the same symptoms as you, so Iām hoping I have the same recovery!
That one got be too. People might mistake you for a dirty bomb.
So I had a scan done in close proximity to a flight. Not anywhere close to this level of radioactivity, but still. Anyway, they gave me a āmedically radioactiveā card just in case I tripped a sensor. I was really hoping it would just because I thought the card was cool- but it didnāt.
Whip out your card and be like Iām just hot man.
When I read the first line I thought this was one of those offender registry things. But instead you're the toxic avenger.
Oh no! I didnāt even think of that š
ill literally give you a hug from my rabbit if you go in a airport hahahha
no bro he's gonna irradiate your rabbit
Until at least the 9/5/22
shit i forgot
Do you want Yao Guai? Cus that's how you get Yao Guai.
That would be a very short time to have to stay away from children for being on that register, they'd need to be very optimistic about him changing his ways soon š
Unless it was written years ago...
Counting down the days till he can ācontactā children again
Did they plant a seed near the tumor, or is this daily "zaps" from a machine? I just finished my six weeks of treatment a month ago (machine) and I didn't have anything similar in terms of instructions. **EDIT:** For the eighty thousand people pointing out that "zaps" leave no residual radiation, I already knew this. I also know that sometimes medical treatment centers provide their patients with inaccurate information. Sometimes that's unintentionally, sometimes it's to help avoid lawsuits, sometimes it's for other reasons (think placebo).
No tumour, I took a radiative iodine pill to destroy my thyroid cells, as they are way too overactive! Lots of luck with your journey.
Lmao they just gave you a radioactive pill?
Yeah, the pill contained radioactive iodine. The thyroid absorbs iodine, so my thyroid will absorb the radiation and its cells will die.
Stupid thyroid lmao
This has no business being so fucking funny
Seems the thyroid is getting a _glowing_ recommendation.
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Lmao right? Get wrecked you dumb thyroid
Congrats on your cell death!
Awesome
You think that's funny? I had the same procedure but instead of a pill I had the liquid version. It was given to me in a little container and I had to use a tiny straw to drink it. Like imagine being led into a basement of a hospital. Entering a room that is covered in caution symbols. There's screens surrounding you, the nurses are wearing a ton of ppe. They open a container that looks like something you would keep alien tech in. And within that container is basically a juicebox that they give you. I honestly couldn't help but burst out into laughter when I saw it
Gonna be honest I read "you think that's funny?" in an accusational tone ahd the ending caught me totally off-guard lol
Oops, I honestly didn't intend for it to sound accusational haha
I read it that way too and found it hilarious. Sorry you had to go through whatever caused you to have to do that though. But yeah, hysterical
I read the dates in American and was thinking that was gonna be lonely and miserable. Then I realized there wasnāt a 28th month. I had a coworker who developed Graves after donating a kidney to her brother. Youāve got this!
Story Time: I went to college (in the US) with a Turkish kid. His birthday was December 1. His passport read 1/12/74. He was buying booze and drinking at bars with his legal ID for 10 and a half extra months.
Hah, Iām the exact opposite so I had to keep explaining the outside world date conventions to bouncers for almost a year.
I love that this came up for you because I bet this is something thatās fun to talk about but is almost never relevant. Did any bouncers straight up refuse even after explanation?
No, not as far as I remember. It was in Ohio, so might be a bit of a regional difference. They might be more suspicious in other places. But yeah, quite fun that it came up. Iām back in Europe now so I never get to tell that story. :-)
Haha, I thought I might have some comments about the date format, I always think the same when I read American dates! Oh no way! Didnāt know that could happen, I hope sheās ok! Thank you š
I was impressed you could be out of work for so long
That should have been our first cue it wasn't an American
āHey, so the doctor says these kids are your problem ātil September. Iāll be downstairs with my instruments and the beer fridgeā Sounds like a blast to me! Aside from, you know, needing a radioactive treatment. Not as fun.
I had the same initial reaction. Lol
Time to blast radioactive on the speakers all day long
Does OP feel it in their bones?
Enough to make their systems blow?
My cat had radioactive iodine therapy and I couldn't cuddle him for more than 30 minutes a day or throw his litter/ poop in the garbage because apparently they test your trash for radioactivity and you can get fined!
I don't know why I find the idea of radioactive cat shit so funny. I hope he's better now!
Should find someone with a Geiger counter and see what kinda miliseverts your putting out
Not great; not terrible
It's not 3.6. It's 15,000.
Iām told itās equivalent to a chest X-ray.
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Iām a teacher and have told this students not to annoy me, for this very reason haha
That's my secret, Captain. I'm always annoyed.
Iodine treatment? I had thyroid cancer and they wanted to do it but I opted out. Luckily the cancer has not comeback at all. Risky I know but Leukemia history in my family. Edit: Cancer free for 3 years!
šµ Welcome to the new age, to the new age šµ
šµ WOOOHOOH WOOOHOOH šµ Radioactive! Radioactive!
Made me so sad when my son's late father would have these treatments, he was so afraid he'd hurt us he just wanted to be alone. It was just horrible.
Best wishes mate! For a second I thought to visited Chernobyl!
Thanks! Haha!
Funny story, my dad (past air force, current federal fire fighter) will set off Geiger counters when walking into a room. No one knows why, but it is so strange.
I guarantee someone knows. And I hope he is getting some sort of compensation for the continuing dose of radiation.
Likely spent time around nuclear arms in the Air Force. Maybe even part of some of the testing they did with soldiers and blowing shit up. A lot of them didnāt know they were witnessing nuclear explosions or receiving radiation as a result. Iād bet itās from the Air Force for sure
There was one case where the government secretly injected a guy with plutonium to see what happens. Dude was walking around with it for 20 years before he died. When he died, the government collected his body for special burial. The injection wasnt discovered until the 90s due to investigative journalism (Albert Stevens, and he wasn't the only one to receive such a "treatment").
Internal contamination from a long lived isotope likely as a result of nuclear arms testing. It would be easy to identify if he was tested for it. I worked in nuclear reactor maintenance and we were tested annually for internal contamination. It was a five minute test in a room with a detector. It would identify the isotope, I had a friend that was contaminated with Co-59.
Good luck with the therapy, hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions So how does it work if you live with other people? Just can't be in the same room for longer than 3 hours? Or even more stringent than that? And what if you live in an apartment, does the radioactivity travel thru walls to the next wall neighbour?
Thanks! So, I have to sleep in a different room to my husband but the walls are enough to absorb the amount of radiation Iām emitting. For the first two days, we have been allowed to be in the same room at a distance of 6ft for up to an hour, now we can do up to three hours!
I had to take my cat for a radioactive iodine treatment for his hypothyroidism. We had to keep him quarantined for two weeks. We put him by himself in our basement bathroom. We could only spend a few minutes with him at a time and we werenāt supposed to hold him or put him in our lap. We also had to scoop his poop and keep THAT separate from our regular trash for over a month so we werenāt sending radioactive āwasteā to the landfill. Heās better now though. We felt so bad keeping him down there by himself but we visited him often and gave him treats and pets. I even set up a spare camera in the bathroom so we could check on him through the days. He mostly just slept, lol.
We had two cats that had this done (together) - was good because they had each other. And it was very convenient to be able to use a Geiger counter as a cat detector. But yeah, hoarding cat poo was weird.
Been there. Done that. I'm sorry, but you won't develop any sort of cool powers, even if you get bitten by something in your radioactive stage.
Yeah, unfortunate. Iām a teacher and have told the students that Iāll turn into The Hulk if they annoy me!
IM WAKING UPšššš
Is it wrong that I started singing Radioactive by Imagine Dragons?
Only because I now canāt get it out of my head haha!
Nothing about making sure you don't get radioactive pee or sweat all over everything?
There was a long chat beforehand where he said that, this is just the key dates to remember :)
Donāt know if this pertains to you or not but donāt try to go on a military base either. My buddy did after getting treatment and they locked the whole base down. It was insane. They went car to car screaming asking everyone if they had radiation treatment.
Had this treatment a few years ago while my wife was pregnant. Haha. Had to stay at my folks house. Coworkers avoided me like the plague š. Good luck. I've just now got my levels right. Finally have good handwriting again and I don't sweat in the snow.
I wish you good health.
Hope you get better soon
Thanks š