I am full of...

[cjsmith]

...technitium-99. (This is for a triphase bone scan.) The half life is six hours, so in a day I'll be back to normal background; in the meantime I shouldn't try to fly at a commercial airport.

Naturally this got me wondering about the medical supply of an isotope whose half life is six hours. El Camino Hospital probably has a moly cow. I get to go back for the bone portion of the scan in a couple of hours, so I'll ask.

I love asking medical people about things. Techs either love me or hate me. :-)

Comments

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I did the radioactive iodine.

I was disappointed that nothing exciting happened, except that it did its job with the thyroid.

I did go home from Sloan Kettering via a bus and was very nervous about that!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Why were you nervous about a bus? Is there something that you shouldn't have done after the radioactive iodine treatment, like be crammed in with other people?

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I was nervous walking around NYC supposedly slightly radioactive - didn't want to hurt anyone and afraid I'd get picked up by some detector that was looking for terroists.

I had to stay away from baby Alan for a week so he wouldn't be affected :(

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I figure that last bit must have been the worst. I asked, when I got injected, whether I shouldn't be picking up any babies. The technician looked startled and asked "You have babies?" I said no, and as a result, I never got a clear answer. (I am sure this was much less worrisome than the iodine treatment, as well as being shorter in duration, but I don't know if I could have been, say, nursing.) That must have been rough, staying away from Alan for a whole week.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

It was - if you look in my blog for May 2004, you can see what it was like.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Now that I go back, I remember reading that at the time. *hugs*.