reason not to keep a pregnancy secret

Sunidaze · January 2011

A co-worker came up to me before lunch today saying she needed to speak with me at some point that afternoon. I go see her after lunch and she informs me that she is having radiation treatment to killl her thyroid tomorrow and her doctor has advised her to stay far away from any pregnant women for 11 days. She had just moved to an office on my floor, just around the corner from me. Good times.

DowagerCountessofNJ · January 2011

Yikes! That was super considerate of her to pull you aside and tell you personally. I hope her treatment goes well.

cvl105 · January 2011

really? why is that? After receiving treatment do they give off radiation? I've never heard of that before. That's interesting.

Makes you wonder though...because with all the cancer going around these days and the radiation treatments for that...you would think we would have heard of such a thing before. Or maybe it's a different type of radiation.

Sunidaze · January 2011

I don't know...apparently it's going to be a rather high dose since she's only having one treatment and this treatment is supposed to kill her thyroid (which, in turn, means she will need to be on medication the rest of her life). But apparently yes, she will be 'giving off' radiation. I mean not to the point where it's going to be a threat to most people...but just like you're not supposed to have x-rays when pregnant, so goes this.

BernandRob · January 2011

I used to work at a hospital and my boss had this done. She tried to walk out the loading dock to talk to someone once and she set off the radiation alarm so yes they do give off radiation.I think it is a very good thing she let you know.

Sazhrah · January 2011

Two very dear friends have had thyroid cancer and each one of them had to take a radiation pill. they were not to be around pregnant women, small children or even hold their pets. if they went out in public in needed to be in very short spurts. They are radio active. It is just a short while but it kills thyroid cancer.

SpceCadet · January 2011

My mom had lung cancer (she never smoked either) and was radioactive while going through some of her treatments. She had my brother and me keep a distance the first few days after treatments to keep us from being too exposed.

I think it was very nice of your coworker to inform you. I hope her treatments achieve their goal and she's on the road to recovery.

SarahP15 · January 2011

For those who are questioning this, this is a more common treatment for hyperthyroidism. The patient will take a pill, and the radioactive material will make its way to the thyroid gland to 'kill' they thyroid gland so it stops overproducing hormones. Consequently the person then has to take thyroid replacement hormones (pills) for the rest of her life, but that's so common. Meanwhile, the radioactive material stays active for awhile in the patient so she is discouraged from being around children, pregnant women, pets and from sharing silverware, dishes, etc. We learned quite a bit about it last semester in my endocrinology unit.

I'm glad she pulled you aside - rest assured that seeing her from afar will not have any affect - they generally tell you to stay "an arm's length" away from someone with this treatment, but in class we were taught 10 feet. I believe the radioactivity wears off in about a week, but you may want to verify with your doctor.

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