There is only one exception that I can think of to what Wayne said. Some of us had brachytherapy (a radiation implant, where radiation is surgically placed in the area of the tumor and left there for a period of hours or days). For the duration of brachytherapy (because of federal regulations governing radiation exposure), the patient has to be in an isolation room, and contact with other human beings -- including nurses -- is strictly limited to very short time periods. For the 30 hours that I had an implant, my husband was allowed to visit my room for a maximum of about 10 minutes. However, as soon as the radiation seeds were removed from my mouth, I ceased to be "radioactive" and had no restrictions on contact with other people.

Cathy