lab life
Yesterday was my first real work out since my surgery! Yay! I went back to the gym which I hadn't been to in ages and it felt pretty good. I only did 30 minutes but that is better than nothing.
Today I need to remix a set of drugs. I ran some through the autoclave and somehow they interacted w/ the stoppers, staining my drug red. I couldn't use that! So now I have to start over and I'm avoiding it. I hate measuring out 3.2 milligrams of powder...
But I did it so now I'm waiting for the autoclave to be done. So I can cool them and put them in the fridge.
I organized a bunch of my papers for reading and reorganized some of my teaching files. I went to the eye doctor to recheck my contacts, they look good so now I can order them. I showed one of the undergrads how to assess lesions so he can get started on that and then I can double check his work. I trained my animals. Otherwise I was not too productive today.
I talked to our other undergrad student who will be joining our lab as a gradstudent this fall (R), and he was saying how he had changed some of the training methods w/ some of the larger animals. I was a little annoyed because had he asked me about the problems he was having, I would have told him how to solve it. Instead he and the PI are trying something new, which is not consistent and which may work in the short term but probably won't last for the long term. I'm mostly ok with this guy joining our lab but we need to come up w/ a better system on discussing training methods. So that we are all on the same page and everything is consistent.
I'm supposed to train these animals w/ a new drug, but guess what their behavior is all messed up because the two guys in my lab were not training them w/ the schedule necessary for this study. That means I can start with one maybe two animals and then have to retrain the rest, until they are back to normal so I can do the drug injections. Yet my PI is like I want this done as soon as possible.... Ack. When I tried to explain to the new guy R why we have to be careful w/ training protocol he said yeah but our PI said it was ok. That may be true but she probably wasn't thinking about how changing the protocol for one animal will mess up my data, and changing it now also means it doesn't match the protocol I'm supposed to be matching from the 1st study. She probably wasn't thinking about that at the time they were discussing the problem which is ok, but how do I explain to R that every suggestion she makes isn't always the best thing to do? Yes she is technically in charge of the lab and funding etc. but she isn't running the animals every day. I know now from experience to think about any major changes before implementing them and I often have counter suggestions or know of pitfalls because I know what we are aiming at. (not always of course, I'm still learning) I guess I'm seeing what it will be like when he joins the lab as a grad student and it worries me a little. Not understanding the long term implications of what you do w/ training can really f*ck w/ the behavior of our shared animals. That in turn could effect my time and data collection.
Second, R mentioned that the PI said yes B is very particular about things and is at the opposite extreme of C (my lab mate) Well yes I have standards, I expect things to be done correctly and if you see something that needs to be done, I would expect you to do it. Without me explaining every time! Maybe I wouldn't have to be so anal if C did any of the daily lab upkeep stuff without me constantly telling him. Either I have to bitch at C (because asking nice doesn't work) or I have to do it all myself which is time consuming and draining. Especially as it has been this way for 4 years! Just C and me. Now R is joining so I explain and point out things but he doesn't seem to be too good at seeing what needs to be done either.
Third, C came in at his usual late time today but for some reason yelled at me because I wasn't training yet. Even though I was showing the other undergrad how to do something... and I'm not in charge of the morning shift on Wed. He is. He is because he teaches in the afternoon, so I run the afternoon sessions. He should know this and not swear at me in his foreign language. I just yell back in English- no swearing. But don't get mad at me that you didn't come in earlier. I didn't stop you! I've been here working so back off!
Today I need to remix a set of drugs. I ran some through the autoclave and somehow they interacted w/ the stoppers, staining my drug red. I couldn't use that! So now I have to start over and I'm avoiding it. I hate measuring out 3.2 milligrams of powder...
But I did it so now I'm waiting for the autoclave to be done. So I can cool them and put them in the fridge.
I organized a bunch of my papers for reading and reorganized some of my teaching files. I went to the eye doctor to recheck my contacts, they look good so now I can order them. I showed one of the undergrads how to assess lesions so he can get started on that and then I can double check his work. I trained my animals. Otherwise I was not too productive today.
I talked to our other undergrad student who will be joining our lab as a gradstudent this fall (R), and he was saying how he had changed some of the training methods w/ some of the larger animals. I was a little annoyed because had he asked me about the problems he was having, I would have told him how to solve it. Instead he and the PI are trying something new, which is not consistent and which may work in the short term but probably won't last for the long term. I'm mostly ok with this guy joining our lab but we need to come up w/ a better system on discussing training methods. So that we are all on the same page and everything is consistent.
I'm supposed to train these animals w/ a new drug, but guess what their behavior is all messed up because the two guys in my lab were not training them w/ the schedule necessary for this study. That means I can start with one maybe two animals and then have to retrain the rest, until they are back to normal so I can do the drug injections. Yet my PI is like I want this done as soon as possible.... Ack. When I tried to explain to the new guy R why we have to be careful w/ training protocol he said yeah but our PI said it was ok. That may be true but she probably wasn't thinking about how changing the protocol for one animal will mess up my data, and changing it now also means it doesn't match the protocol I'm supposed to be matching from the 1st study. She probably wasn't thinking about that at the time they were discussing the problem which is ok, but how do I explain to R that every suggestion she makes isn't always the best thing to do? Yes she is technically in charge of the lab and funding etc. but she isn't running the animals every day. I know now from experience to think about any major changes before implementing them and I often have counter suggestions or know of pitfalls because I know what we are aiming at. (not always of course, I'm still learning) I guess I'm seeing what it will be like when he joins the lab as a grad student and it worries me a little. Not understanding the long term implications of what you do w/ training can really f*ck w/ the behavior of our shared animals. That in turn could effect my time and data collection.
Second, R mentioned that the PI said yes B is very particular about things and is at the opposite extreme of C (my lab mate) Well yes I have standards, I expect things to be done correctly and if you see something that needs to be done, I would expect you to do it. Without me explaining every time! Maybe I wouldn't have to be so anal if C did any of the daily lab upkeep stuff without me constantly telling him. Either I have to bitch at C (because asking nice doesn't work) or I have to do it all myself which is time consuming and draining. Especially as it has been this way for 4 years! Just C and me. Now R is joining so I explain and point out things but he doesn't seem to be too good at seeing what needs to be done either.
Third, C came in at his usual late time today but for some reason yelled at me because I wasn't training yet. Even though I was showing the other undergrad how to do something... and I'm not in charge of the morning shift on Wed. He is. He is because he teaches in the afternoon, so I run the afternoon sessions. He should know this and not swear at me in his foreign language. I just yell back in English- no swearing. But don't get mad at me that you didn't come in earlier. I didn't stop you! I've been here working so back off!
Labels: lab blahs
posted by B @ Wednesday, April 04, 2007
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