So, is secondhand radiation safe?

The more I've been reading about people's experiences with radioactive iodine, the more I'm concerned. We all know the dangers of secondhand smoke, but secondhand radiation exposure? The hospitals and doctors treating a person would have you believe that if you stay 1m away from everybody (including pets) for 11 days you, and they, will be fine. Except, according to real people's real experiences they are not being entirely truthful. Take for example, a woman in the US who walked into her father's garden shed a few days after treatment where she proceeded to set off the Geiger Counter he had in there! As if that wasn't scary enough, reports say that the 'send people home' approach instead of keeping them isolated in hospital for the few days immediately afterwards (the danger period) only came into force in 2007. Pre-2007 patients having radioactive iodine were kept isolated for four days afterwards and after that they were sent home. Is this just for economic purposes? I definitely think so. Treatment varies around the world.  In Australia you ARE still kept in hospital and isolated from others, in Hawaii you are kept in and monitored; in the UK and the US you are sent home to contaminate every living thing you care about. I am so angry about the dangers of secondhand radiation NOT being explained fully to me so I could take more than the paltry regulations they tell you to take. They are: sit in the back seat of a car in which you are travelling with another person. Impossible when that car is a jeep (because of my back problems) the close proximity of sitting in the back seat to the driver (hubs) is as close as if I were sitting next to him, which is what we had to do as I can't sit on the back seat where it is more bumpy because of being over the wheels because of the back problems. The doctors aren't worried are they? lets be honest here, they are not living with you in the same house. I am also advised not to travel on public transport, to keep away from pregnant women and children under 5 until October 1st. Everything else will be ok until 20th Sept. Other advice from differing NHS trusts and indeed from hospitals around the world are: Keep an arm's length away from anyone else, keep 1m away from anyone else, no flying for 6 months, do not get pregnant for 6 months (helpful to men I always thought!) wash your clothes every day, shower every day, do not prepare food for others, do not share utensils, and it goes on and on and on. Hospitals only ever cherry pick their 'conditions' you are never told all of these things by the same hospital, it is downright illogical and confusing. Better to go and live on the top of a mountain for 6 months and be done with it eh? (except you'd probably contaminate the mountain!!) Seriously though, it does make you wonder if it would be safer for all concerned to stay in hospital until it's over, but then of course, like I said earlier that costs money doesn't it.

Because it is not visible, we are unaware of the dangers the radioactive field we are emitting just by being in the same house as someone. My dog thinks I don't love him as he can't sit next to me on the couch I presume until October 1, as I could affect his thyroid as well as hubs. Hubs and I already sleep in separate rooms because I don't sleep well and keep him awake, which is unfair when he has to go to work, so we decided a while back to have separate rooms, therefore sleeping apart was not going to be a problem; just living in the same house is. Flush the loo twice, rinse utensils before washing them yada yada yada.

Apart from this, radioactive iodine can permanently damage the saliva glands and cause a very dry mouth, it also plays havoc with the body's mucous membranes, which are critical for digestion, all the enzymes go haywire and all they tell you before you take this thing is: 'You will only get a sore throat for up to 48 hours afterwards' except I didn't, I had to go back for an x-ray 4 days afterwards and had to stretch my neck upwards so they could take the picture, now I have a sore throat and neck. The problems I already had with my swollen throat, catarrh and mucous and unable to swallow saliva have definitely been exacerbated. I was told, and had indeed hoped I would be making my problems better, not worse. Then, later when the thyroid cells begin to die off I can expect to put on a huge amount of weight, which apparently is impossible to lose, I will have problems with no saliva and I will be constipated because the body will start to slow down. Add to this, further blood tests to find out if my thyroid has become hypothyroid (underactive) will be needed, probably for life. I say probably, because in this country, and definitely where I live, follow up healthcare is a lottery. I have had undetected thyroid problems since mid 2000's yet pre-treatment, my blood test for thyroid always came back normal, so how will they tell I will have an underactive thyroid or not if the tests keep coming back normal. I suppose I'd have to go into the coma (myxoedema) which can happen with underactive thyroid, or collapse somewhere (knowing me, it will be highly inconvenient) before they will help me. Also, because my veins have been completely buggered up by inept junior doctors and some nurses in local hospitals who can 'never find a vein' but doggedly persist in digging around for one until I am black and blue literally, and my veins have thrombosed. Because of one person's cack-handedness, I suffered with a thrombophlebitis in my left wrist for 18 months, how attractive is that? It looked for all the world like a slug under the skin, all green and black bruising and then yellow as it healed, oh yes it was delightful - NOT.

So, to sum up, I am not happy to have had this treatment with all the side effects kept away from me, and the fact that I will have to have regular blood tests to see if I am going underactive, with all the digging around in my veins, I will have none left, what will they do then? Well, then it becomes my fault that they can't find a vein, and at which point I remind them that I didn't bugger my own veins up just to spite them, rather they did it to me and this is a consequence of staff who don't do it properly, because on those occasions when you get a really good phlebotomist you don't even know you have had blood taken, no bruising, no scarring and no pain. Sadly, I only ever see these people once in a blue moon, the rest of the time I'm at the mercy of gung ho nurses who take great delight in saying things like 'hope the next one is normal' thinking I can't hear the insult, I am normal my dear, least I used to be until cack handed junior doctors and some nurses buggered up the veins, it's your fault NHS, not mine, stop blaming the patient for your mistakes.

At least they have now found out why my earlier RAI was not in my records, apparently I have two sets of notes!  No, I'm really not joking, you couldn't make this up could you?  They promise faithfully, just like they have so many times before, to amalgamate them.  I am not holding my breath I can assure you.


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NHS losing my records of past RAI treatment, and the implications

Went for my follow up x-ray today to see whether the thyroid has taken up the Radioactive Iodine, and it seems it has.  I was telling the woman who was doing the x-ray that I'd been here before and she said: 'No you haven't, we haven't got any record of you being here before this.'  The Hubs and I know that we were there about 2 years or so ago for a radioactive drink thing, where we had to spend 2 hours in the hospital to enable the gland to be seen and I had the same rigmarole then as I did today.  I get a snotty woman wanting me to lie down for the x-ray, and I can't lie down because of my back problems, she wouldn't believe me, she said: 'So you don't even want to try?'  I'm getting annoyed now because they should be helping me to get comfortable so I can have this done, not be badgered into doing it their way to make theor life easier, honestly I despair of the way the service is going.  I said, rather tiredly, cos I am knackered after this RAI last week: 'It's not a case of trying dear, I simply cannot lie down.'

I had the x-ray sitting n a chair with the camera almost up my throat, like last time.  Except that the nurses were more friendy last time, and I cannot belive they have no record of this at all.  Their demeanour is such that if we haven't got a record of it you didn't come here, but I did and I want to know what the implications are for my thyroid and my health if they have given me this present treatment wothut looking at the contra indications of last time.  Luckily, we still have the date of the test and the appointment letter, so they WILL HAVE TO look for this lost paperwork, I was not making something like this up ... honestly, I really do have better things to do.

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The Ashes 2009: How England Men's Team Won

Australia's Assassinator Brett Lee did not play.

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Radioactivity, A Dogs Life & Cricket

Feeling a bit ropey today, apparently it's to do with my body breaking down the radioactive iodine thingy which I had 48 hours ago.  A bit like the sicky feeling you'd get when your body breaks down the anaesthetic after the dentist has numbed you up for a drilling!!!  Doing my level best right now not to go talking to Himself down the big white telephone.

The dog is mightily fed up with me at the mo, you know he'd had that rawhide bone yesterday? Well, he finally decided he wasn't going to bury it anywhere, after much walking round the house and garden looking for somewhere suitable, at one point trying to bury it under a pile of CD's which were on the floor.  He repaired to the garden and lay down facing away from us (so's we couldn't see him I guess) and starts wiring into it.  Hubs goes out to check on him and finds he's been gnawing so hard on it he's made his gum bleed, so that had to go.  Gave him a bonio and took the bone away while he wasn't looking, but he spent a long while looking for it cos he could still smell it out there, which is heartbreaking.  Although he's fine today and the gum has stopped bleeding, it's not worth making him ill just to let him have this bone so it's gone now, suffice to say that that is why we haven't bought one for a while as it must have made his gum bleed last time.  With the passage of time, I forgot that we don't give him these things for a reason, he's far too precious to me to let him loose on these things.  Being a border collie he in intense, with everything, so whereas another dog would lick it slowly to soften it up for chewing, he just tries to eat the whole thing in one go.  His toys are all the tough stuff as he has broken or ripped most of the other toys he had.  His favourite is still the little blue bone. 

He still doesn't understand why he can't sit next to me on the couch and is being moved to the required 3 feet away until I am no longer radioactive (next Sunday).  Can't even cuddle hubs and having to observe strict routines like keeping my towels away from his, not using cutlery that I have used in cooking, say I'd tasted something I'm cooking - I can't then put the spoon back into the food, just little things like that, keeping toothbrushes and cups etc away from his, and flushing the loo twice just in case there's a pesky bit of radioactivity lingering.  I know they said I won't glow in the dark but it would be helpful to see what is going where as if you can't see it you tend to think it's not there, but you can't take any chances.  Little niggles which you wouldn't think are a problem, really are when you come to observe them.

I'm also aggrieved a bit whith the doctors at the hospital as they say I have to observe all these things but just say 'it's just a precaution so you don't give anyone a dose of radiation' when you ask why.  I am curious enough (or just plain nosy if you will) as to what would actually happen if their observances were not adhered to!

And finally for today, the 4th ODI England v Australia

With the Aussies cruising steadily at 3-0, I ask myself what is the point of this current England Team.  'Resting' players is a misnomer, poor babies eh? - what they should say is replaced!  I don't know what Ravi Bopara has over the team, but they will not drop him and replace him with someone who can score runs.  Their present effort is  a miserly 150+ which, in a limited over game is just not enough.  I think Strauss does not understand that to win these types of games, as opposed to the longer test matches, you have to put runs on the board quickly, you cannot have the luxury of being 'in' for tow or three days to get a decent amount of runs on the board.  Blocking and defensive playing is not what ODI's are all about.  It really annoys me that there are so many great players out there in county cricket who never even get a sniff at playing for their country in favour of the current mollycoddled players out there at the moment.  The rest of the world must be laughing their socks off at this lot, I know I am and it's a joke.

If our Women's Cricket team can play AND WIN their ODI's and their Ashes series consistently then why do the men find it so hard?  Answer: The women have the right mental attitude, they want to win and they see Australia as equal; so they play accordingly, they do not see Australia, like the men seem to do, as conquerors.  It's so depressing to see this lot almost quaking at the crease, turning away from the ball as if they don't want to hit it, or be hit by the ball, it's daft to the point of nonsense.  I doubt that England (men's team) will ever be good enough, until they change the way they think about the game.  We are not the sum total of one or two batsmen (Flintoff and Pietersen) there is no I in team; they need to realise that they themselves are capabe of winning every match they play but they lose so much that that is what they expect and so that is what happens ... with monotonous regularity.  I just wonder how many more times the crowd will be willing to get behind such a losing side time and again, and how many times they will be willing to fork out all this money to see them play at these expensive venues, watching the team lose again and again and again.  Ok, they may win today but can you see them winning the next 4 matches?  me neither.  How they ever wrestled The Ashes back is beyond me, it really is.  Australia must be having a good laugh at us in private, they know we are weak and now so do I.

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Putting up with Them - The Dog's Viewpoint

When they came home today they brought me one of those bones made of hide or some other such stuff.  They present it to me and then watch as I try to go outside and bury it, I mean don't they know anything?  I HAVE to be on my own so's they can't pinch it when I'm not looking, any self respecting dog wouldn't let another see where he's burying a bone for heaven's sake!  S'cuse me for a mo while I sit down for a bit, it's thirsty work all this running round the garden trying to outsmart them and, after trying to bury it in my dad's sweetcorn plant, they must have heard me trying to upend it I think, cos mum came out and stopped me.  She said it was in case I hurt myself if the pot tipped over but I know it was really so she could see where I'd buried the bone so's she could half inch it when I went to bed tonight, I'm a border collie you know - I'm NOT daft (well, she says I am sometimes, but I don't agree with her).  I mean, they are the daft ones, they give me this bone and then expect me to sit in my bed and chew it!  The ignominy of it all.  See, told you I was clever, I know big words like ignominy and stuff.  So, as a proud border collie, I can't for the life of me understand them, probably never will but I have to try it on sometimes, especially with her cos she thinks she's top dog and she's always saying stuff to me which to her sound like "When you can open your own dog food and serve yourself then you can be top dog" which to me sounds like Blah blah blah blah, food blah blah, blah de blah blah!  They never understand do they?

Anyway, back to this bone, I am doing my best to make them understand that I want to bury it outside but dad keeps telling me to blah blah blah, or bring it in he says, and he won't see that I want to stay outside and bury it, there's nowhere inside is there?  My daddy and my mummy are so daft at times but they love me I know they do, even if mum is staying away from me and daddy for some reason [Because I'm still slightly radioactive doggie darling] see, again, butting in.  Blah blah blah stuff.  Ah well, soon time for my bonio.  I know that word all right, do I ever, AND they brought me black ones today, daddy says they make my poo black and mummy just says it's supposed to help with flatulence, but I don't fart ... well, not that much anyway.

S'cuse me now while I go and see if my bone is still where I buried it.  I'm letting mum have the copyright here cos she's sitting there pressing some little buttons for me and looking up at a window with pictures on it.  I love 'em really, cos they love me.

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Overheard in the hospital lift whilst on my way to my appointment today

I had 22 BLOODY patients in last night - 22 bloody patients.  This from a nurse in front of her colleagues and other such 'patients' in the lift.  My first response was, 'well if it wasn't for patients you'd not have a job would you?'  - but then I thought 'eeeuuu, that must have been messy!!!'

Nice to know the NHS is staffed with 'nurses' like this isn't it? or should I say BLOODY nurses!

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I am now radioactive - so pleased to meet you

And it finally happened today.  I saw my physisit phycisit  physicyst  nuclear medicine doctor today, and I have now had my tablet.  What a carry on though, my appointment was at 11am and we get there, just, after doing battle with their car park entrance aka traffic backed up onto the main road!!!  I had to sign forms to consent to the treatment and they proceeded to tell me what the dangers were (as well as the benefits obviously), I can't go near children or pregnant women, I cannot be near my beloved dog, the husband I can live with but hey my poor dog thinks he's in disgrace.  I cannot fly (in an aeroplane) obviously (hey if I could fly without one I'd get myself an agent and a caribbean island out of the proceeds thank you very much!)  Anyway, back to reality - I have to carry my card (in said reality a bit of yellow paper) which tells people at the airports that I am not (yes, I'd love to use the T word which rhymes with berrorist but they'd be down on me like a ton of bricks, or should that be tonne, oh poop, who cares) as I'd set off their radiation thingies at said airport.  So I promised I would not fly until 1 October when I am officially free of radioactivity and can do what the hell I'd like (even though I have never been on a plane, or been abroad in my life, all 49 years of it).  I also asked if this stuff is so dangerous for other people around me, is it actually safe for me to have in the first place???  Doctor was quiet than, so you see why I was so worried in my last post!  Apparently it IS safe, just not for other people to be around me.  Oh, don't you just love going round in circles???

As a brief aside, in the hospital's entrance today there was a workman loading boxes into a cupboard, specifically for boxes and some bright young thing had helpfully (in their eyes bless 'em) had written 'Please store all box's here.'  I am speechless at the lack of decent education in this area if that is what people are being taught today, you just couldn't make it up ... and why would you want to when there is this wealth of idiocy sweeping the nation's spelling, it is such a rich stream of material.

Until next epistle, ta-ta for now.

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All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author