So... basically today sucked.
Oh wait, I said that already... Yesterday in fact.
Medium hammers, bag, beatings, nausea, pain, weakness etc... Not as bad for the most part, but still...
One thing I forgot to mention the last couple posts is that I have a complete lack of body temperature regulation. Fever, chills, and my extremities feel frozen off half the time. This is a known side effect of hypothyroidism, gets worse the more hypo you are, and is exacerbated by the radiation.
Yeah cancer still sucks.
Sleep... That would be nice. I had 3 hours of semi-awake semi-sleep, and an hour or two of zoned out not sleep.
HOWEVER, I ate some real food today, even had some coffee and a sweet baked good (from the local hippy bakery. No preservatives, conditioners etc...).
...and, by the 48 hour mark, the rad levels had dropped enough so that Mel could sit across the room from me; which is nice. Still not on the same side of the room, but at least close enough to "be with" each other.
I'm going to graph out a couple doses here from today:
Date -- Time -- Delta -- Distance -- Dose uSv/h
9/15 1000 44 0 830
9/15 1000 44 2 86
9/15 1000 44 3 16
9/15 1000 44 6 6.8
9/15 1000 44 12 2.7
9/15 1400 48 0 790
9/15 1400 48 2 70
9/15 1400 48 3 15
9/15 1400 48 6 5.3
9/15 1400 48 12 2.4
9/15 1600 52 0 750
9/15 1600 52 2 60
9/15 1600 52 3 14
9/15 1600 52 6 5.2
9/15 1600 52 12 2
9/15 2200 56 0 680
9/15 2200 56 2 43
9/15 2200 56 3 13
9/15 2200 56 6 3.7
9/15 2200 56 12 1.7
Since the levels were safe enough, we also had Mel some testing on residual items, my seating area etc... with me out in the yard so as not to effect the measurements.
Very interesting numbers actually... Much lower than I thought they would be, considering the elimination tests. Oh and the difference in my open air distance readings immediate before and immediately after elimination, was generally about 5%, which I thought was interesting as well.
My first full measurement was at 1600 thursday, so comparing 24 hour intervals we see (0 is touching my torso, 2 is holding the meter at arms length):
Distance -- 9/13 ------ 9/14 ----- 9/15
0 >1000 >1000 790
2 >1000 240 70
3 800 40 15
6 600 22 5.3
12 480 9 2.4
Again a substantial, and very nonlinear falloff. Not directly proportional, not very close to inverse square, or inverse cube, and not really on any kind of consistent or predictable trend line slope except "down".
Basically, as I said yesterday, from my own personal results, you can't make any linear regression analyses to plot future dose numbers with any kind of accuracy.
Ehhh, the wife can be in the same room with me, I'm happy with that for now... Sleeping together again is still a while away (still projecting over a week from the dose, though the line is inconsistent). Oh and tomorrow, it'll probably be OK for me to let the dogs in, so long as I don't let them lick me or lay on top of me.
Now as I mentioned, we did some testing on residuals. Yesterday I said this:
One thing that I've found the guidelines are overcautious on though, is your dishes, silverware, and disposable plates and cups. They're not taking on any significant radiation to dose back out; though admittedly it's only been a day, and dosages are cumulative. So with multiple uses over several days, it may build up. I'll test it. Same thing with the sheets, towels etc...
That isn't to say these items aren't picking up some radiation, they certainly are; but it's not a lot, and they don't hold on to it long once out of my immediate presence.Today we got some real numbers (doses for objects are over background baseline):
Date -- Time -- Delta -- Distance -- Dose uSv/h -- Object
9/15 1400 48 0 9 Handkerchief (used repeatedly)
9/15 1400 48 0 2.27 Couch seating area (used constantly)
9/15 1400 48 0 1 Bedding (used for two days)
9/15 1400 48 0 0.8 Laptop (used constantly)
9/15 1400 48 0 0.4 Glass of water sitting for hours (used)
9/15 1400 48 0 0.2 Plate (used repeatedly)
9/15 1400 48 0 0.2 Spoon (used repeatedly)
9/15 1400 48 3 1.02 Seating area at other end of couch
9/15 1400 48 6 0.59 6 foot line from seat, open air, no objects
9/15 1400 48 9 0.72 Closest seat on other couch across room
9/15 1400 48 12 0.71 12 foot line, open air but some objects in area
9/15 1400 48 15 15 Toilet (used repeatedly)
9/13 1400 0 25 0.14 baseline 25ft from seating area before dose
9/15 1400 48 25 0.43 25ft from seating area 24 and 48hr after dose
The 25 foot away baseline reading was the same at both 24 and 48 hours. Long distance, not much emission hitting there, so a slow change is expected.
Essentially, items I was in direct contact with absorbed a bit, but less than I'd expected; particularly my sheets and blankets. I had only been off them for a few minutes when they were tested, and they still barely hit 1 uSv/h.
Bodily fluids dosed the most by FAR. The handkerchief I'd been blowing my nose with for two days absorbed four times as much as my seating/sleeping area, and 9 times as much as my bedding; and the toilet, even though it's 15 feet from my seating area, even a couple hours after use, and even after multiple flushes, absorbed 15 times as much as my bedding.
Items I was less than 6 feet away from, and may have briefly handled or used, but I wasn't in direct contact with for extended lengths of time, absorbed very little. Organic matter more than 6 feet away got a small dose above background, something like .2uSv/h; and inorganic matter more than six feet away seems to have retained almost nothing over background.
Certainly, it would be safe to have someone else wash dishes you had used... Though of course I don't recommend you disregard doctors orders and guidelines.
Now, I just hope I can get some sleep tonight. I'm braindead.
And that was day three...
