Nuclear Bone scan

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I need to have one of these next week and the Nurse I spoke to has scared me by saying I should avoid getting close to pregnant women and children for 24 hours afterwards (as I will be radioactive ).

So does that mean I don't go home (I have 2 DSs). Bit confused about what to do.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and what did you do please?

Hi

I can understand why you're worried, she didn't really explain this very well. You're best bet is to give the department a call on Monday and they will go with the restrictions with you.

What usually happens is that they inject a very mild radioactive dye. They usually say it's OK to be in the same house as your family but not to share knifes/forks/face cloths etc, not to cuddle for a while and not to kiss. The stuff they inject decays very quickly, hence why they say 24 hours. You really do need to call them as there's no way of knowing what sort of dye they are using but you should be OK to go home. I'd call a cab though.

Does this help?

For a bone scan, the advice is just not to spend long periods very close to pregnant women and children for the next 24 hours - and by close they mean not sitting next to a pregnant woman on the sofa/on the bus, or watching a film cuddled up with the kids. A hug is fine, and you can sit in the same room.

Theres a good leaflet here, but the department will go through everything with you