Wednesday, September 29, 2010

0.11 mR/hr

This is a Geiger counter. It has a little wand attachment that you can use to wave against things that are radioactive to measure the activity. This isn't exactly the picture I wanted to get, but when I picked it up and it started beeping I wish I'd gotten a picture of the physicist's face who was sitting next to me. He about came unglued, "That's not supposed to beep!"

I explained that I'd intentionally been exposed to I-123 the day before for a scan. Then he got super excited and wanted to help me calculate exactly how radioactive I was. I just wanted a picture of the screen with the needle, but he was insistent that we also show the knob because that's the number you need to do the math. So here you go... and the answer is the title of this post.

Then I asked how much radiation a person would have to be exposed to in order for them to glean superpowers. I love this physicist. He's a nice guy and can explain things to me in a way that I understand them... but he's not from this country. He looked at me, "Super? Powers?"

me: Yeah, you know, like Spiderman got his powers from being bitten by a spider. The Hulk got his powers from radiation exposure. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got their powers from walking through radioactive waste. How much exposure do I need to get some super powers? Is it cumulative?
him: Oh, no. It's not cumulative.
me: So you're saying that super powers are based on a one-time exposure and not lifetime cumulation?
him: It's not cumulative.
me: So you're saying that my chances of getting super powers out of all of this is not likely at all.
him: No. Not likely.

I told him he broke my heart, that I was counting on telekinesis.
I think he had no idea what I was talking about.

And then about three hours later I received fantastic news... my Tg is down from last year and my scan only showed normal uptake. No 2nd opinions or surgeries are needed at this time. I'll continue my 3 month follow-ups and we'll do our yearly rigamaroll of labs and scans again next fall.

Thanks to everybody for their well wishes, prayers and good vibrations. It all helps.

The Hater and I are doing the happy dance. We're going to have ice cream later to celebrate.


After we came home I told Baby the good news. She was so excited that she pooped all over herself. Two blowouts in less than twenty minutes.

We live a most blessed life indeed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay Sister!

Cerulean Bill said...

When I had my shoulder repaired, I told the ortho guy I wanted the Inspector Gadget mod so that I could extend my arm fifteen feet. He said "Ha. Ha." Guess he'd heard it before.