Just got back from a relaxing weekend in the desert, but I’d heard this one on AM talk radio during the drive, and after finding it online, had to post it.

In an unexpected and embarrassing complication from prostate cancer therapy, a Canadian was recently pulled aside by guards at a major airport and interrogated after radioactive “seeds” near his private parts set off security alarms.
…
“He was taken into a separate room where he was asked to stand against the wall and refrain from speaking while workers examined his luggage,” says the report by Hamilton doctors involved in his treatment. “Eventually, he was asked why he kept setting off the radiation detector.”

Aside from the lousy reporting, shown both by a reluctance to describe male anatomy with detail and some inaccurate technical aspects of the medical procedure, it was interesting to see the story. I just passed my six-month check up for this procedure myself, and had my implants about the same time as the man in the article.

My seeds have a radioactive half-life of about sixty days. That means that by early December, they were emitting (not leaking) at about 50% of the strength they were the day of the implants. By early February the daily radiation dose was down to about 25% of the starting level. By early April the dosage was down to about 12 1/2% of the original level, by early June I should be receiving about 6% of the starting level every day, and so on and so on. It will never go away; at some point it will just become less then the normal background radiation we all get every day. Most of the side effects have passed, and those that haven’t are pretty much just an accepted part of life now.

Some friends and I actually did joke about going to Tijuana shortly after the implants to see if I could set off the Customs inspectors’ radiation detectors. I guess now I should be glad we never went through with it. I wonder how long our this poor Canadian will have to go through this.

2 Responses to “Another Potential Radiation Side Effect”

1. jin says:

   April 20, 2004 at 5:29 am

   i don’t know what to say,just all the very best!
2. jin says:

   April 20, 2004 at 5:35 am

   by the way,my uncle had stomach cancer three years ago.and now he is alright.