# Confused about contamination



## carol9999

Hi... i am having the RAI treatment (had Total thyroidectomy because of thyroid cancer) nov 5th and will be staying the hospital at least one night... i will stay as long as the insurance company lets me..i have clingy 3 year old at home as well as 3 other kids........... I am worried about contaminating them, so after the hospital stay, which i would guess would be one to two nights, I can go to my mom's empty house (she isnt living there now) to spend the rest of the time i would need to ( not sure what that would be).... my question is: what can i touch in the house? the phone? remote control? how long do those things stay contaminated? in other words, does the contamination go away after some time? also, could i rent movies from the library ? will they be contaminated when i return them? just not sure how all this works...........also my laptop...i would like to use it, but can i and then bring it home ???????


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## GD Women

Wear throw-away plastic surgical gloves. You can buy them at the drug stove. Then you can touch what you want. After 4 - 5 days I could be out in public but no close to anyone than 3 feet for the next 3 -4 days. Contamination takes time to dissipate but with each days its less and less, so by the time 7 - 8 days are up not enough contamination is left to be a threat to anyone. However, my RAI was not at a high dose because I didn't have it for cancer. Your dose will be higher, so I would ask the Nuke lab to be on the safe side. But wear the gloves.

At your mothers, sheets and bedding items, sofa/chairs, toilet, you can always use plastic covering if you are that concerned. Flush toilet three times after each use. Use plastic throw away plates/silverware/drinking vessels. Wear old clothing and throw them a way - putting everything in plastic bags first before dumping in garbage. However now there is concerned about garbage and the dumps, even the hospital, being contaminated. However, that is their concern for now, yours is to do the best you can, get well and back to your family as fast and as healthy as you can.

Wear the gloves and drink lots and lots and lots of water to flush your system. Sucking on the sourest lemon drops possible will help produce saliva to avoid sore throat.

Other will be along with their helpful suggestions or to just root you on.

Wear the gloves.

Good Luck! Keep us up date on your progress.

Wear the gloves.


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## Andros

carol9999 said:


> Hi... i am having the RAI treatment (had Total thyroidectomy because of thyroid cancer) nov 5th and will be staying the hospital at least one night... i will stay as long as the insurance company lets me..i have clingy 3 year old at home as well as 3 other kids........... I am worried about contaminating them, so after the hospital stay, which i would guess would be one to two nights, I can go to my mom's empty house (she isnt living there now) to spend the rest of the time i would need to ( not sure what that would be).... my question is: what can i touch in the house? the phone? remote control? how long do those things stay contaminated? in other words, does the contamination go away after some time? also, could i rent movies from the library ? will they be contaminated when i return them? just not sure how all this works...........also my laptop...i would like to use it, but can i and then bring it home ???????


I would think the radiologist or your doctor would tell you these things! Holy cats!

They told me a week to 10 days of no hugging (no flesh to flesh contact), double flushing, no sharing food, utensils or dinnerware.


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## carol9999

THanks for the answers... I don't remember them telling me I need to stay away that long!! My impression from the docs was a couple of days no contact...i know she said i'd be getting either 100 or 125 dose............. like i said, I have 3 year old who wont stay away from me....I figured maybe I can be around the house and just keep him directly off my neck..But what you are saying is that it would be at least a week til safe even a few feet..............How can doctors advice be so different ...the radiation has to act the same...........still very confused about this and don't know what to do...I can't have my husband take off work for a whole week....right now I have 4 days that I can stay out of the house...then DH gets back to work...what do people do???????????????


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## GD Women

You need to find out from the Nuke Lab. Be surprised how little regular doctors know.

I had way less than you will have, yet my time was 7-8 days. Even though 100 or 125 dose may not seem very high, it is way higher than for Graves' disease RAI treatment.

You will read that RAI average dose or normal dose has an 8 day shelf life. Meaning it takes that long for the body to rid itself of RAI from most of the contamination dose and take weeks or months to slowly rid it completely.

I have to mention, that states will have different RAI regulations. Perhaps your state is not all that RAI strict. I know of a women with Graves' who was with her baby grandchild the night of RAI and slept with her husband. Different state.

You will have better piece of mind if you check with the Nuke Lab, then you do the best you can.


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## carol9999

I don't understand this state regulation thing? What difference does that make... is it dangerous or not to be with a clingy three year old or not after the RAI...the state you are in shouldn't matter................OK i'll have to ask the radiologist more but I have a specific question.......... would i be able to use my laptop if i used the rubber gloves when i used the keyboard...also, I have a book from the library and would it be ok if i read this with the gloves...just making sure..........thanks


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## CareBear3030

How the contamination was explained to me is that for the first 24-48 hours your body will be flushing it out of your body, what it can. So that is how you can contaminate things... through your saliva, sweat, etc. Then once your body has expelled all that it is able, the radioactiveness is radiating from you. So, after 48 hours you will not contaminate the remote, or toilet persay, but you will be radiating, hopefully only from your neck. Before the 48 hours then whatever your sweat is on, your urine, spit, etc, it is contaminated and now is radiating also. But, as soon as you clean that area and remove your urine, spit, sweat, then the radioactiveness is gone also. I was in hospital for 48 hours andwas tested during my stay, and before I left with geiger counter. I was waking up with my back wet from perspiration, but when I left, my glasses were clean. So I was not expelling anymore... he even said I was find to put in my contacts.

Once you have expelled what you have... then you will radiate until it has decayed... but no more contamination as far as holding remote, light switch, etc. He said it takes about 10 half lives to totally decay, so with a half life of 8 days, it is about 80 days before you are 100% radiation free. BUT that being said... after the first 5-8 days... the amount of radiation you are putting off is even less than then the sun.

When I left at 48 hours I was radiating 2mph at 3 feet, and 5mph at 1 foot. (A little persepctive a chest xray is 10, so if someone was 1 foot from me for 2 hours they would have the equivelent of one chest xray.) I quarantined myself another 4 days, and continued to sleep alone for even the next week. I also have 4 kids including a very clingy 2 year old... and clingy 6 year old for that matter. After 2 weeks, I was told, of course be aware of it, but that you are not radiating so much that an occasional hug would be worrysome.

Tell them hospital you only have one bathroom so you have no choice but to go to a hotel. They will figure out how to get the order written properly to get it paid for.

Keep us posted! Many hugs and prayers!!!


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## CareBear3030

Even in my first 2 days I used my laptop with gloves and changed them constantly!! If I touched my face, or even my drink I changed my gloves. There was one spot from my wrist that would touch the laptop and nuclear doc said there was one little spot that was dirty but that i must have been very careful.

I was afraid to touch my books because there is no way to wipe those off if you do get something on them. I'd make sure to use gloves and have them test before you take them home. Its the porous materials you need to worry about because you cant clean them.

And when I brought up to nuclear doc that in Europe they hospitalize everyone and take much stricter precautions. He said yeah well our American insurance companies dont like to pay for hospital stays if they dont. We need someone to address this issue!!!


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## carol9999

Thank you , thank you CareBear3030 .........that's the info i needed


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