I was highly radioactive for a month after a thyroid treatment — here's what it was like and all the rules I had to follow

I have Graves disease, which messes up your thyroid.

Graves disease is very uncomfortable and can be dangerous if left untreated.

Radiation nukes the thyroid to calm it down.

The symptoms of Graves can be controlled with pills. But if the pills don't work, a more permanent treatment is considered.

One method is to kill a good proportion of the cells in the thyroid, sharply reducing the hormone output. 

There are two ways to do this: one is surgery, which is quite invasive. The other is radioactive iodine, a treatment that is thought to have very few side effects that can be done as an outpatient procedure. 

The dose is so high that you start emitting a level of radiation that can harm others.

I had to follow a low iodine diet before the treatment.

I was treated at St. Bartholomew's hospital in central London as as an outpatient.

My pill came in this thick lead container.

I wasn't supposed to touch the pill and was given a grabber to swallow it.

Here goes!

The procedure was completely free via the UK National Health Service.

I live in the UK and got the treatment through the state-owned NHS. There was no charge for any part of the treatment.

As soon as I took the pill, my body gave off high levels of radioactivity.

I left the hospital quickly.

This is a graph of how radioactive I was over the course of the month.

The radioactivity decreased quickly as I got further and further away from the Geiger counter.

I felt totally normal.

The worst people tend to report while radioactive is a sore throat and slight nausea. I didn't even feel that.

The only superpower is radioactive sweat.

I felt guilty about the risk of exposing people, even a tiny bit.

For me, being exposed to the radiation was OK because I had a big upside that outweighed the extra risk.

For other people, there were only downsides to being near me.

The rules I followed are designed to reduce the risk of exposing others to practically zero. But still, because people can't tell you're radioactive, it's up to you to decide what to say or do to manage it.

I found the responsibility of potentially exposing people without their consent to be overwhelming. 

For the first two weeks, you are asked to stay 6 ft away from people. In London, this essentially means staying inside.

Being isolated felt like going back into COVID-19 lockdown.

You can't kiss, hug, or share a bed with your partner for two weeks.

An important election happened during my treatment and there was no way for me to vote.

I couldn't go to a gig I was really excited about.

My partner had won tickets for a festival in Bristol where the band Portishead performed for the first time in seven years.

I had to settle for streaming the event live at home instead.

I couldn't get my hair cut.

After two weeks, places where I'd be close to people for a long time were still out because you never know who might be pregnant.

I went to a gig I knew wouldn't be too crowded and watched from the back.

I had a few friends over for dinner. They had fun with the Geiger counter.

Airports have detectors for radioactivity, so I got a special letter to explain myself.

Airports in Europe were no problem, but I set off a detector in a US airport.

The treatment worked!