Friday, September 21, 2012

Fallout Boy - Day 8: The numbers

NOTE: I split the "fallout boy" post for today into two parts. This part is the data for today; the other part is the story of the day.

So... Today was a rather eventful day... For both good and ill, mostly good. I spent half the day at the docs, so there was no 1400hr data series.

Date         Time HR   D   Dose 
9/20/2012 10:00 164 0 115   
9/20/2012 10:00 164 2 6.8    
9/20/2012 10:00 164   3    4.0    
9/20/2012 10:00 164   6    0.97  
9/20/2012 10:00 164   12  0.62   
9/20/2012 14:00 168 0   
9/20/2012 14:00 168 2      
9/20/2012 14:00 168 3    
9/20/2012 14:00 168 6    
9/20/2012 14:00 168 12  
9/19/2012 18:00 172 0 107  
9/19/2012 18:00 172 2 5.5   
9/19/2012 18:00 172 3 2.7   
9/19/2012 18:00 172 6 0.97 
9/19/2012 18:00 172 12 0.62 
9/19/2012 22:00 176 0 116  
9/19/2012 22:00 176 2 5.3   
9/19/2012 22:00 176 3 2.7   
9/19/2012 22:00 176 6 0.94 
9/19/2012 22:00 176 12 0.57 

As I said, there was no 1400 series, so I'm going to include the 1800 series for the day over day.

Distance -- 9/13 ------ 9/14 ----- 9/15 ----- 9/16 ----- 9/17 ----- 9/18 ----- 9/19 ----- 9/20 
0                 >1000    >1000     790       580         485       335         190       107  

2                 >1000    240         70         38           20        13           9           5.5  
3                 800        40          15          7            6           4.7         4.0        2.7  
6                 600        22           5.3        2.5         1.7        1.6         1.0         0.97
12               480        9             2.4        1.1         1           0.75        0.8        0.57


Tomorrow, I'm going to restart the day over day data series, starting with a 9/20 baseline.

I'm pretty happy with where where I am, given what happened today. By the 2200 measurement I was just about safe for my wife to sit with me on the couch touching me.

Yeah... we're still at least a week away from sleeping together again unfortunately; but that just means the radiation is still working... Which is kinda important...

We also took another series of residual measurements today


Date -- Time -- Delta -- Distance -- Dose uSv/h -- Object

9/20      1000      164        0                  7.52              Shirt (worn for 3 days, dropped to 5 after 12 hrs)
9/20      1000      164        0                  4                   Handkerchief (used repeatedly)
9/20      1000      164        0                  3                   Wet towel after shower (0 dose after 12 hrs)
9/20      1000      164        0                  1.87              Couch seating area (used constantly 7 days)
9/20      1000      164        0                  1.23              Bedding (used for 7 days)
9/20      1000      164        0                  0.4                Laptop (used constantly 7 days)
9/20      1000      164        0                  0.4                Glass of water sitting for hours (used)
9/20      1000      164        0                  0.2                Plate (used repeatedly 7 days)
9/20      1000      164        0                  0.2                Spoon (used repeatedly 7 days)
9/20      1000      164        3                 1.16                Seating area at other end of couch
9/20      1000      164        6                  0.62              6 foot line from seat, open air, no objects
9/20      1000      164        9                  0.92              Closest seat on other couch across room
9/20      1000      164        12                0.72              12 foot line, open air but some objects in area
9/20      1000      164        15                14                 Toilet (used repeatedly)

9/12      1000       0           25                0.14              baseline 25ft from seating area before dose
9/20      1000      164        25                0.43              25ft from seating area, unchanged since 24hr

The biggest surprise was how much the shirt I'd been wearing the last couple days (I should mention, I'm barely sweating at all, because I'm basically lying on my ass all day; and because I'm severely hypothyroid) retained, giving off a dosage of 7.52uSv/h a few minutes after I took it off, and was still at over 5 uSv/h 12 hours later.

Given how little the bedding or couch retained, I was really expecting the shirt to retain less; and to decay faster than that.

 We also did a shower skin test, checking various areas on my skin before and after a vigorous shower (after not showering for a couple days), and found that I consistently dropped about 1 uSv/h over my entire body. My wet towel registered 3 uSv/h immediately after use. Funny thing though... It was indistinguishable from background after hanging up for 12 hours.

I realize this whole series of data is anal and nitpicking... and if you're not interested it must seem endless... But I haven't seen any other thyroid cancer survivors doing this; and I know I wanted this data before I went through the radiation, so I'mna keep doing it for a while.

I'll probably do this level of detail for another week; which will bring us to the "two weeks" line that the doctors recommend for "restricted" contact and limited work time etc...

After that, I'll probably do it as a one measurement a day thing, until my levels fall below significantly above background.