Are we Radioactive after Radiation Treatment?

[sandyinwisconsin]

Hi Everyone,

I'm considering FSRT, and a friend of mine said, "Well will you have to stay away from babies and children?"  I asked her what she meant, and she said back in the 70's people who received radiation could not be near babies and children because they were radioactive.

I never heard of such a thing.  Have you? 

Sandy

[rupert]

   Radiation from a machine , ends when the machine is turned off.  It doesn't stay in your body.  There are radiation procedures where they put radioactive material in your body, such as radioactive Iodine. That stays in your body for a short time, but that's not anything related to external beam radiation we're talking about for AN's. 
   You can tell your friend that as humans we are exposed to all different types of radiation everyday from the natural world.  The sun, rocks, water. It all bombards us with some radiation everyday.

[arizonajack]

people who received radiation could not be near babies and children because they were radioactive.

That's not it. The real reason is, after getting treated with Gamma radiation, you turn into a big green creature when you get angry.

 

[ASG]

No, I've never heard of that.  I can't imagine the FDA would approve radiation treatment if that were true.

When I had my Gamma Knife treatment at UPMC I asked one of the doctors if they could place the level of radiation administered for an acoustic neuroma in context.  I was told the Gy received during radiation is less, in terms of intensity, than a person would receive getting their teeth x-rayed at the dentist.  Of course, the duration of an x-ray is much shorter, but this is a procedure administered on millions of people per year.  If that made people radioactive there would be a big problem. 

Similar to what Rupert said, people are exposed to 1 or 2 Gy standing on a subway platform.   

[mesafinn]

In the spirit of the time of year:  of course, the premise of Night of the Living Dead s that radiation from a satellite returning from space is believed to be the cause of the dead rising and attacking the living....so all those of us who have been ionized should likely stay away from women and children lest our inner-zombies emerge....!

[Echo]

Patrick - you could always hang out with those of us women who have been ionized and watch as we turn into various shades of green! 

Wonder if the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz was ionized or was she just born green?   

Cathie

[mesafinn]

Cathie:  To get the answer to your question about the Wicked Witch, you can see (or read) WICKED....a prequel to the Dorothy story and one that answers the question about whether she was born green or not!  Her name is Elphaba and it's quite worthwhile (the book or the musical!)

 

[mesafinn]

BTW, newbies wondering why we post such crazy things here....remember that humor goes a long way to comfort such distressing news as we are all experiencing here!    Something about a silver lining....