This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
Re: Brachytherapy/seed's and sleeping in the same bed ?
Aloha Luann & Rick,
Well, I was off a bit on the radiation doses. 3 to 5 mrem for round trip air cross country. Radiation workers are allowed 5000 mrem/year. The gov site I found says that the average dose/year is 300 mrem/year and that depending on where you live sea level (lower), Colorado high country (higher) you could get 1700 mrem/year. If you are exposed to standard diagnostic medical radiation procedures, you could add another 10 mrem/year for infrequent to over 100 mrem/year for frequent. Medical exposures are specific for each individual. Back when my father had dental x-rays (late 1930's early 1940's), all his teeth were replaced, the dose was high enough to have many facial skin cancers removed in the 60's and 70's.
Still, Ricks radiation exposure to you is very low due to the type of radiation that the seeds release and the half life of the source. If you two spent all your time touching, you might double or triple your yearly dose in that first 2 to 3 months. If you receive radiation treatment for any cancer, then Ricks dose to you is very minor.
Hope I have not made this more confusing than it is. Please do not worry about your exposure.
Joe
Re: Brachytherapy/seed's and sleeping in the same bed ?
Luann,
Published studies show that there is no risk of radiation damage to other parties with brachytherapy. The warning about young children is a 'boots and braces' approach in the views of radiologists.
What is termed the 'half life' of the pellets inserted into Rick's gland is usually about three months - you can check on the seeds he got with the radiologist to find out the precise time - and certainly after that there is nothing to worry about.
It is not clear just when Rick had his procedure. You say 2-21-10 which I understand to be the US way of writing 21st February 2010 - which is almost three weeks away, so I guess you may have the date wrong.
The one aspect where there might be a problem is if a seed works loose before healing is complete there is a remote chance that it might be expelled with ejaculate. for this reason some doctors recommend using a condom for some short time after the procedure.
Hope this helps you and Rick to put your minds at rest. Tell him the pillow isn't neccessary:-)
