Hey, everyone who has been wondering where I am and what I’ve been up to. I figured I had better leave a "proof of life" so here it is.
I have literally not had enough energy leftover in my body for even my fingers to type this past week or so, and the reason being : arthritic mice!!!
I just started my ten week research project at the BioMedical Center here in Lund. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into and only now am realizing that I have gotten in WAY over my head.
But, I am really going to be thankful for this experience
at some point in my life!
My typical day:
Ø Catch the bus around 7:50 a.m. for a 45 minute bus ride in to the university area.
Ø At the lab by 9:00 a.m.
Things I do at the lab:
Ø Inject cute little brown mice with molecules that will induce arthritis in their poor little hindpaws.
Ø Put the mice to sleep with isoflurane and then poke their little jaw veins with a really sharp object in order to draw blood samples. Try not to drop the supposedly asleep mouse when it twitches in the middle of the above procedure (ack!)
Ø Watch as my advisor breaks the little mice necks (I prefer not to participate in that act) and then wait until their death spasms are over so that I can:
Ø Pin down the poor little dead and decapitated mouse so that I can proceed to cut it open and harvest its little organs, in particular its 4 lymph nodes.
Ø Do all kind of experiments on the cells from the lymph nodes, including PCR screening and pyrosequencing, fluorescent-activated cell sorting, & transfer and proliferation experiments.
Ø Make approximately 5,603 mistakes per hour because I am learning something completely new continually and have NO time to process it all.
Ø Make approximately 29,034 mistakes from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. because by that time I am completely exhausted and my brain is on overload.
Ø Catch the bus home around 5:15 so that I can be home by around 6.
Ø After 6: try not to think about anything that has to do with mice, rheumatism or T cells and instead try to pay attention to Niklas without wondering how I could experiment on him as well.
Ø Go to bed completely worn out and hope for a good night’s sleep so that I can do it all over again the next day!
Ack!
Now THAT is why I have not been posting a lot lately.
I decided not to include any pictures of my mice because, well, that would just be WEIRD.
Someday, when all of this is over I think I will look back on these 10 weeks as informative and crucial to my learning experience, and also as quite comical because Niklas really doesn’t know what to think, being married to a maniacal scientist!!!
6 kommentarer:
I laughed out loud at the thought of you experimenting on Niklas!!!!!
Watch out, Niklas! Ya can't trust sleep-deprived women!
Well I wanted to wait for Hennyfair's reaction before I posted. I have seen her reaction to mice. But, I thought I might as well just comment now. Sounds like your job is tedious, but the end result is hopefully a cure for pain. If I were Niklas I would sleep with one eye open.
ewwww. Katie, you're so cruel! Those poor mice! (do realize that I am somewhat joking here... we had a little mouser in our houser not that long ago and we disposed of it in a very inhumane way). Anyhow... praise God that someday... "The wolf will live with the Lamb... the cow will feed with the bear...and the lion will eat straw like the ox. (Isaiah 11:6-7... taken from Yolanda's comment)"... and maniacal scientists will dance with mice!!!
This past week my students and I got into an in depth discussion of why mice are used for medical experimentation and research. They wanted to know how in the world a mouse is anything like a human. I don't think I ever did get the point across. Mostly because I think they just didn't want to accept it. Anyway, I had told them about your mice, but that was before I got all the wonderful details! I might have to read this to them!!!! The only part I don't like about that is the breaking their neck thing. Ick! I simply cannot stand the sound/feel of breaking bones. It sounds to me like you are having a wonderful learning experience and for that I am quite jealous!
Ack.
Another reason I'm not a scientist....
Good luck to you, KT. You officially have like the best reason ever not to blog for awhile.
I'm tired just reading your schedule...
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