Guest guest Posted July 25, 2001 Report Share Posted July 25, 2001 Chris The radiation measurement will vary according to: 1) The amount of radioactivity in the pills, 2) the distance between the radioactivity and the detector 3) the absorbtion of anything between radioactivity and detector 4) the type and sensitivity of the detector. 1 is known, 2 is determined by the length of the stick, 3 is essentially related to the amount of muscle/fat in front of your stomach and varies from person to person but won't vary significantly for the time you're in hospital and 4 is a constant. In other words, it's a low-tech but effective way of ensuring a consistent set of measurements. The rate of urinary excretion is exponential with a rate determined by your kidneys, which in turn is quite strongly related to age. This is usually represented as a 'Half-life' A young person might clear iodine with a half life of 8 hours or even less (I've seen a couple of 6's). This means that after 24 hours (3 half lives) they will be down to 1/8th of the radioactivity. Someone with slower kidneys might clear iodine with a half-life of 16 hours and thus be down to about 35% at 24 hours. > Right after I swallowed the 2 RAI capsules (150 mCi), the physicist > stood behind these waist-high lead shields that are in my room and > had me to hold one end of a wooden meter stick (at least I think > that's what it is) while he pointed the geiger counter ? down the > line of the wooden stick. > > My " number " was 21 then, and today when they did it, the number was > 7. > Questions: Did your numbers go down that fast? > What's the deal with pointing the counter down the line of > the stick? > > Just curious? > > BTW, after sleeping almost all day long, the thought of being KICKED > OUT OF HYPOLAND with some Cytomel sounds good to me. My doc won't let > me restart my meds until the day after I go home. What's the deal > with that? Why can't I have them now that the RAI dose has already > been given?? > > --Chris Ian Adam Radiation Safety Officer The Institute of Cancer Research Cotswold Road Sutton Surrey SM2 5NG Tel: 020 8722 4250 Fax: 020 8722 4300 EMail: iana@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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