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But that's what I did, when I said to the nuclear medicine tech that I was doing well but I would be twitchy before we got through with whatever needlesticks we needed to do.
"Oh, all I need is for you to swallow a pill."
At which point I switched over to all smiles and curiosity.
They took more detailed medical history, and let me ask questions, and then gave me a pill in a plastic tube, that I was to down like a shot of good tequila, and swallow with a cup of water. The bottle was labeled I-123, 200 μci (microcuries)-- though they just used a u instead of a μ. We talked about that a little-- this is a typical dose given for scanning the thyroid's activity, but she told me they'll be using a millicurie dose of I-131 for actually getting rid of some thyroid cells. "Right, because it has a half life of more like 8 or so days and will hang around long enough to actually ablate some cells." I got a look of suprised agreement from her, and said "I'm a bit of a radiation weenie, and I worked with Children of Chernobyl where they were exposed to I-131 fallout that got on grass and into milk." "Wow," she said, "I knew you'd done some research, but..." "I'm also a science librarian and I used to do biochem research, so I've dealt with radioisotopes and had to wear a dosimiter and stuff." She was pleased to have a patient who wasn't afraid of this stuff, and we parted ways until 2 pm when I go back to lay under a gamma camera and get scanned!
"Oh, all I need is for you to swallow a pill."
At which point I switched over to all smiles and curiosity.
They took more detailed medical history, and let me ask questions, and then gave me a pill in a plastic tube, that I was to down like a shot of good tequila, and swallow with a cup of water. The bottle was labeled I-123, 200 μci (microcuries)-- though they just used a u instead of a μ. We talked about that a little-- this is a typical dose given for scanning the thyroid's activity, but she told me they'll be using a millicurie dose of I-131 for actually getting rid of some thyroid cells. "Right, because it has a half life of more like 8 or so days and will hang around long enough to actually ablate some cells." I got a look of suprised agreement from her, and said "I'm a bit of a radiation weenie, and I worked with Children of Chernobyl where they were exposed to I-131 fallout that got on grass and into milk." "Wow," she said, "I knew you'd done some research, but..." "I'm also a science librarian and I used to do biochem research, so I've dealt with radioisotopes and had to wear a dosimiter and stuff." She was pleased to have a patient who wasn't afraid of this stuff, and we parted ways until 2 pm when I go back to lay under a gamma camera and get scanned!