Thoughts About Radiation Exposure and IC?

[DukeNukem]

I was diagnosed with IC and Chronic Prostitis in 2010 after being really sick for 3 months. I am still on LTD and slowly getting better. My question is have any of you heard of any connection between IC and radiation. I worked at a Nuclear Power Plant and was regualry in the radiologically controlled area.

[nineteenwinters]

Can't radiation weaken your immune system? If so there is a connection I have seen from people with weaker immune systems in general and IC.

[statesboro]

I figured I would give you a welcome first of all. I am a male as well. I was diagnosed back in 1997. Anyhow, I have never been exposed to a bunch of radiation. Also, I have read many posts about how different IC'ers think that the IC started up. That was not one as far as I can remember. I don't have a good theory about mine.(except that I started urinating more often )(hmmm) I won't say it is a good thing to keep getting exposed to radiation, but you must be the only one at work with IC. OK. I don't know if you are still considered to be an employee, but you can get my point. Besides, I use to drink Coke like it was the best thing since sliced bread.(none now) OK. I have seen it clean battery currosion, but many Coke drinkers don't pee half as much as I happen to. What do I know? I know we would like to know how we ended up with it.(which may be more than a single way)(as I use to keep in touch with a dude that was diagnosed at kindergarten age) Did he actually get it the same way that I did? (as he was having it before that age) By the way, I just want to be rid of IC. IC just sucks. Yep!

[ICNDonna]

I have met one person who has a condition similar to IC due to radiation, but she had a great deal of exposure while being treated for abdominal cancer.

Donna

[DukeNukem]

Thanks for the Welcome Statesboro, I joined a while ago but have been wrapped up in so many things its unreal. STD, then LTD, SSDI , healthcare stuff..man its not enough to be sick I have to deal with all the bs paperwork also. I am no longer emplyed as thay fired me, I am still on LTD though awaiting SSDI, getting slowly better but im not waiting im determined to go back to work. I have read about radiation exposure from medical procedures Donna thank you, I was just wondering if by any freak chance where I worked had anything to do with it, as I was perfectly healthy and then bam one night like a light switch. I shall keep doing research.

[Sarojini]

I've worked in an academic research reactor and then in the laboratory with a number of different radioisotopes (my bachelor's degree is in nuclear engineering; my Ph.D. is in radiation biology). However, I no longer work in the laboratory - had to make a career switch about 4 years ago due to my IC and other conditions, and I'm now a writer. However, despite my experience with radiation, all of my dosimetry during those years was always very clean and never even came close to the quarterly and/or annual maximum allowed doses for radiation workers - in fact, they were often so low my film badges didn't even register anything. So, between that and the fact that I'm pretty sure my IC actually began when I was around 8 years old (well before I even figured out what a radiation area was ) makes me think that in my case, the radiation really didn't have an effect.

As Donna pointed out, there is such a thing as radiation cystitis, but that usually occurs when people are having radiation therapy to the abdominal area (uterus, ovary, and prostate in particular), and in those cases the bladder often gets absorbed doses that total over 60 Gray (but are usually given in 2 Gray fractions several times a week). Now, if you got that kind of dose to your whole body working in a radiation area, it would kill you in 24 hours.

However, as a radiobiologist, I'm now curious about what would have happened if you'd gotten a much lower dose than that, but still enough to be more than the general population. Do you have any paperwork showing what your quarterly and/or annual radiation doses were (in either rem or Sieverts)? If you don't, you can call your former employer's health physics/environmental health office, and they are legally required to give you copies of all of your dosimetry reports. I'd be interested to know if you had ever gotten a larger than normal dose, especially one that was to the abdominal area (ie, from leaning over a radioactive pipe, contaminated counter, etc).