cold room

listening to - power98

first day at micro today... overall not as bad as i expected it to be.. but i was freaked out a couple of times today..

firstly.. the med tech was happily preparing the slide for gram staining.. next moment she turned to me and asked me if i could remember the procedures for gram staining..

i said yes.. terrible mistake..

she told me to stain the sample for her..

its a patient sample.. and my staining would be rather critical for identifying the organism in the later steps.. i panicked and asked around for help and i was told by another med tech to check up the WI (work instructions)..

found the usual thing.. 30 secs CV... wash.. 30 secs iodine.. wash.. acetone 5 secs.. safranin 30 secs..

but the med tech who told me to look up the WI did NOT follow the procedures.. cause i saw her spending only about 10 seconds in each step...

but i shall reserve my comments about her since ive heard nothing but praises for her so far from my other friends..

so i did every step according to the SOP.. except the acetone part.. i think there would be no colours left if i left the acetone there for 5 seconds (i learnt that the hard way at NUH)..

gram staining at NUH is better.. the timing is agaration there.. but the staining comes out just as nice..

***

second thing that freaked me out was the trip to the cold room.. its damn damn cold..

-30 degree celsius... i cant even breathe in the cold air properly.. i could see the mist in front of my face when i breathed out..

now i know how it feels like to be in antartica.. *shivers*

my hands literally turned into ice after the trip to the cold room.. daniel had to lend me his hand so that i have something warm to hold on to..

*brrrr*

the med tech whom i was attached to ( a cute newbie) showed me how they processed tissue samples..

tissue sample = one big (roughly 1/4 the size of my palm) chunk of human tissue cut out from the knee (ouch!)

i stood there and watched calmly as she used a pair of sterile scissors to cut up the meat (oops sorry.. i mean tissue..)

*ouch*ouch*ouch*ouch*ouch*ouch*

until it was gooey and mashed up.. like minced chicken.. =)

the med tech asked me if i was about to throw up..

and i calmly told her that i saw a amputated TOE before back at NUH..

she was shocked.. hAhA..

i guess i am the only one with the affinity with huge chunks of human meat.. attempts to show cuiwen and daniel the sample failed cause the uncle cleared the biohazard bin before we could reach it..

eventful day at the micro lab today.. hope i get to have more interesting encounters on mon..