Rai And Objects?

I'm very lucky that I'm able to do my isolation away from my home.  We own apartments and had a vacancy, so we set it up for me to live in for a week while I'm glowing.  My question is, even though I'm going to wipe it all down well with Clorox wipes when I'm done and I haven't walked around without flip flops to protect the floor, I'm sure it is inevitable there will be a surface somewhere I may have touched or brushed against that I didn't wipe down, be it a wall I bumped or something.  We are willing to leave the apartment vacant until it would be safe, but I'm not sure how long that would be.  We are just going to leave it as is, with the furniture I used, even though I'm covering it all, again, what if I bumped part of it with a part of my body I didn't realize or something.  How long should we leave it until we know it wouldn't be a harm to anyone?  Even though I've tried to use rubber gloves, I keep thinking, too, what if I unconciously scratched my arm with the glove, then touched something?  Isn't that sort of like just touching it directly?  So again, it worries me that I might have done that.  I've seen some of those really complicated breakdowns of half lifes and things, but I really don't understand them.  Is there just a rule of thumb?  I had 100mCi of RAI yesterday morning and will stay isolated until this upcoming Friday.  Thanks for any thoughts.

Lori

Lori:  By the time you are safe to be in close prolonged contact with other people, the apartment will be safe.  The radiation inside you and the radiation you may pass on to other obejects "decays" at the same rate. 

If your doc says you can kiss your loved ones, you can certainly feel all right about renting the apartment.

Hope this helps

Hi Lori

 I can tell you what my husband's nuclear med doctor told us. He said that in order to safely throw things away and allow people to come in contact with things he has come in contact with, to wait at least 40 days as the half life of it takes that long to decrease. He explained it a lot better than I am (proper wording) but it's something like 8 days, it halves...then another 8 days, another half, etc. Bottom line though, was 40 days at least. I don't know if it differs depending on the dose of the RAI. My husband's was 160 mc. By the way, I don't think bleach is necessary...nuclear med doc said water is best. It dilutes the radiation. That's why they say to flush so many times after using the bathroom. I wish you the best for a perfect scan when this isolation is all over!

Karen

Thanks!  I was just so worried about showing the apartment to someone with small kids or something and endangering them, which is something I couldn't live with.  We are going on vacation a week after I'm out of isolation, we were going to leave it until we returned, so a total of 3 weeks, so I feel really ok now about that decision.  Thanks again!

Lori

Oh, maybe we'll wait a little longer, then, just to be safe.  I didn't realize about water versus the Clorox, we were trying to be extra careful.  Thanks for the advice!

Lori

It's fine just to wipe things down with a lot of water. Bleach won't make the radiation go away any faster. I used to work in a biochemistry lab.

It helps to keep people at a distance for a half-life or two. Even a few feet makes a huge difference. Don't worry about spreading the radioactive isotope except through body fluids or being really close to someone (embracing, sleeping in the same bed) and that's only true until the day your MD said not to worry. 

Best of luck. If you have more questions, feel free to email me.

Rachel 

On 7/19/2008 RachelaK wrote:

It's fine just to wipe things down with a lot of water. Bleach won't make the radiation go away any faster. I used to work in a biochemistry lab.

It helps to keep people at a distance for a half-life or two. Even a few feet makes a huge difference. Don't worry about spreading the radioactive isotope except through body fluids or being really close to someone (embracing, sleeping in the same bed) and that's only true until the day your MD said not to worry. 

Best of luck. If you have more questions, feel free to email me.

Rachel 

so I am gonna do 150 mc and my doc says 72 hrs for isolation, is that okay? it does not seem long enough.

I only had 100mCi and did 7 days.  That doesn't seem long enough to me either, personally. 

Lori

On 7/29/2008 lori41470 wrote:

I only had 100mCi and did 7 days.  That doesn't seem long enough to me either, personally. 

Lori

Not bad at all.  The only issue I'm having is taste.  I haven't been able to taste any thing since about 3 or 4 days after RAI, but that is the only side effect.  My biggest issues are related to being seriously hypo, not RAI at all.  You'll do great!

Lori