February 2012
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January 2012
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Anonymous asked: Hi, I'm a first year medlabsci student and I'm just curious how you got the job you did? Did you get hired on after clinicals or did you have to apply for lots of jobs? Do you work in Ontario?
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Update on Posters
I have put a couple of Keep Calm and Pipette On posters on Etsy to see how it goes. It’s a very tiny run, but I’ll add more to the listing depending on demand.
I also have 2 first run prints for grabs where the border is a teensy bit off. Drop me an ask to get those for half off. :)
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culturedfancyfish asked: Did the contest end? I'm sad that I didn't win the poster, I would've put it in my space my lab. Plus your tumblr is superb, any advice for a 2nd year undergrad not sure what she wants to do in the science field? I currently work in a zebrafish lab that specializes in diabetes.
December 2011
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Collection woes part 3
Sometimes I think back and contemplate all the surreal collecting moments in my training and laugh awkwardly to myself in reflection.
One time, I was on the transplant ward for morning rounds and I went into this room with a lady who just had a lung transplant (among other things). She had IVs running in both arms and as I was remarking on the IVs, she told me to collect from her foot.
This was...
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November 2011
2 posts
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Case Study: Free Drinks round 2
Well, it’s been a while since I did a case study because I never think to remember things like these, but let’s do another.
A 36 year old male with a history of alcohol abuse is found lying in a pool of vomit at home by his mother. He was apparently drinking heavily for the last 24 hours and was now unresponsive to painful stimuli. He had a grand mal seizure (45s long) followed by...
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October 2011
5 posts
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September 2011
7 posts
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Lab test(s): Allergy Testing
Allergy testing wasn’t something I learned in school, likely because the tests that exist right now are admittedly not very good. So when I ended up on the Allergy Bench I was a little bit boggled that there was a whole bench for it. Hopefully this will be an acceptable crash course in it.
Introduction
Allergies are complicated! A lot (it varies by region, but about 1/4) of people think...
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Anonymous asked: what did you study/major in?
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August 2011
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Collection woes Part 2
A long time ago, I did some collections training at a hospital that pretty much had 3 populations: complicated pregnancies + very sick babies, drug abusers, and a small group of “everyone else”.
Drug users often have a huge stinking vein in their arm but we pretty much never get to use it because it is their drug vein and they don’t like people touching it. 9 times out of 10,...
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(Un)sustainable healthcare
Let’s do something different today and talk about healthcare and money. As a Canadian, I’m used to thinking that healthcare is this public, free, wonderful thing. It isn’t public; the bulk of it is private. Everything except hospitals is private (The difference between us and say, America, is that we have public insurance, not public health care. Both places are just as...
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July 2011
4 posts
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June 2011
9 posts
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Today, I sat on the admissions council for the University lab sciences program to decide who would enter the program next year. In attendance, there was two executive students, three instructors (two on the admissions committee), the two program co-ordinators, the department head, the university registrar rep, a rep for the government healthcare services, and a Senate rep.
The decisions are made...
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Lab tests: Prenatal Blood Banking
So what’s the deal with HDFN?
This is sort of a intro to the disease and a less slapdash intro to pre-natal testing. I personally am not very excited by the prenatal part of it, but it’s important. I tried to do this assuming very limited knowledge of blood banking, but it is kind of an esoteric discipline so please ask if something I wrote has completely boggled you.
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May 2011
13 posts
Anonymous asked: Where did you do your undergraduate?
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Lab test: Ketones
Well, it’s been a while, but let’s talk about lab tests again. I’ve chosen Ketones this time because they’re so simple.
Background: The development of ketosis requires changes in adipose tissue and the liver. Ketone bodies are made from fatty acids from said adipose stores. Normally, they are taken up by the liver and are re-esterified into triacylglycerides and stored...