bronwynrh | Sharps - 3. . . Bronwyn

Boy, has THIS been a day!

Today was to be the last day of my Big Experiment (tm). It was my big, 7-day long mother of an experiment, during the course of which I have generated some 18 GB worth of image files. I haven't been able to begin analyzing these image files though, because the analysis software I need to use has an attitude problem. Basically, it stubbornly refuses to see what's staring it in the face. Anyway, that's a whole other story that I'll save for another time. Right now, my fingers are hurting too much to type it all out for you.

Why are your fingers hurting so much, Bronwyn?

I'll tell you.

Let me begin by telling you that for this experiment (and during the prep and numerous failed attempts and false starts), I have used a diabetic needle (fine-gauge) and syringe for injecting cells into my system.

Today, I was going to inject a chemical into the system because yesterday I had the bright idea that it would be cool to try a little extra thing for the last day's imaging.

So I loaded up my syringe with propidium iodide, a fluorescent dye and an agent that basically elbows it's way into cells and between the bases of your DNA. We've all seen how bubbles are gotten out of syringes, right? You flick it. Well, I was flicking happily until I STABBED the needle practically to the hilt into the tip of my index finger.

Hurt. Like. Hell.

I squeezed my finger to make it bleed as much as I could from that tiny little hole and cried a little from the pain and frustration.

Score one for the Sharps.

(For added frustration, the rest of the flow cell experiment was a bust and a fuse was blown on the microscope, so I just had to blow off Day 7 completely - Oh well.)

If you followed the link to the propidium iodide, you'll see that in Section 4 it says to seek medical attention. I'll tell you right now, there's not a damn thing that can be done about what happened, no damage that may have been done by the chemical can be reversed, but I needed to follow procedure. So off I went to the emergency room.

I was praised for making myself bleed :-)

I was also given a tetanus shot.

Score two for the Sharps.

I then returned home and called Dave because the weather outside was just too good to be true - sunny and 70 degrees. We decided we'd putter in the garden for a while.

We'd not been outside for more than 20 minutes, and I was removing some dead material and mulch from the base of a Lamb's Ear when a horrible, awful sting shot through my left thumb. At first, I thought splinter. A split-second later, I thought caterpillar sting. Another split-second later, a yellow-jacket appeared.

I'm yelping, cursing, crying and calling for Dave. I'm also squeezing the living shit out of my thumb to get as much poison out as I can. Sure enough, a rather large drop of amber liquid emerges from a puncture wound on my thumb as a white area around it appears.

At that point I'm seriously crying from the pain and the shock - Dave is comforting, calming, wiping the poison away, holding me and helping me inside to the cold water tap.

Score three for the sharps.

I found my wasp and hornet spray under the sink.

Score one for ME.

It's been a couple of hours now, I think, and it still hurts like hell. Oh my GOD does it hurt!!! Those of you who have been stung know what I'm talking about. Those of you who haven't. . . imagine pouring concentrated acid directly into your veins. That's what a wasp sting is, so that's what it feels like.

Benadryl hasn't helped. The only thing that has helped so far is ice. Although, getting ice cream was kinda fun. And now I'm getting ready to head out again - with my ice pack, of course.

Whadda day!

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed :-)