29.9 mCI

[Guest guest]

Debbi -

I just had a shot of 30 mCI Iodine two days ago.

I can answer part of your question. I am an engineer by trade, and used

to work in the nuclear power industry. The Iodine they give you causes

you to emit gamma radiation. I'm not qualified to answer the medical

aspects of this, but I can talk about the physics end.

It's given to you as salt water, Iodine Chloride. Table salt is sodium

chloride, except for your thyroid/cancer cells the rest of your body

really may not know the difference. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what your

remaining thyroid/cancer tissue doesn't absorb, you excrete through urine

and sweat, just like the table salt you eat. That's the importance of

guzzling water during this period - you want to flush out the I-131 that

isn't grabbed by thyroid/cancer cells. If you get sweaty, take a shower.

There will be I-131 left on the surface of your skin from sweating!!! I

have several radiation survey meters (I know I'm weird!!!) and have found

my radioactivity is always down after a shower, cause some I-131 washed

down the shower drain. With the higher doses, you probably want to shower

a number of times per day just to cover all the bases.

It's also in your saliva, so don't even think of kissing during this

period. You also want to keep clothes you have worn, toothbrushes,

silverware, etc physically away from others until washed well because of

this.

Don't want to scare you, but gamma radiation is what scared us in the nuke

business. It takes lead or cement to stop it, anything else it buzzes

right through. The walls of your house (unless they contain several inches

of cement) and the metal in your car don't reduce it in the least.

If you had a properly constructed fallout shelter in your cellar, you

could quarantine yourself there. The next best way to avoid irradiation

of other people is distance. Anyone who moves from 2 feet to 4 feet away

from you will receive 1/4 or 25% as much radiation, 8 feet away - they get

1/8th the strength. Unless you have access to a lead 'bunny suit' or a

fallout shelter, you have to put distance between yourself and the rest of

humanity.

The other aspect of radiation exposure is time. You are hottest right

after swollowing the I-131. It starts dropping right away - partially

because you are drinking water and flushing it out. Partially because the

I-131 is breaking down and loosing some of it's potency all on it's own.

Hope I wasn't too wordy.

Dave