What are you doing right now?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Besides posting on here and replying to this thread. Original credit for this goes back to Fate and Nathan on MX.

[nathan_p]

Plotting detailed fanfic at a time where I really don't have the, ahaha, time to write detailed fanfic.

[Devil's Sunrise]

Lol "on top."

[Contradiction]

Karofsky needs to stop being so damn bipolar. He's so lovely when he smiles. AND THEN HE'S A BITCH.

[Contradiction]

Can anyone explain supersaturation to me? I understood when I heard it the first time, but now I don't remember...

[nathan_p]

Something fuckin weird happens to the... the solvent, so it can hold more of the solute than normal.

 

Basically... ever made tea with too much sugar? When the tea is hot you can dissolve much more sugar in it than you can when it's cold.

[Contradiction]

Yeah, I get what it is. Just not how it works, chemically...

[Xuut]

Debate, you will be the god damned death to me.

Just bullshitted this English assignment beautifully, if I do say so myself.

I don't understand why people say white people are racist. I've met more flat out racist Asians than I have white people.

[Omega]

I kinda realised I've never really explained what I do at uni to you guys in ways that you'd understand it because let's face it, few people do. So I figured I would, just because I can.

 

I'm in my fourth and last year of a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science (BMLSc) degree. The course is designed so that when we come out the end of it, we're the people who can go into a hospital laboratory.

To do this, we need to be able to test all of the various things that come off/out of the human body - blood, plasma, urine, faeces, mucus, cerebrospinal fluid, skin scrapings and biopsies - you name it, there's probably something you can test it for. If you've ever had a blood test, then it's minions like me (or the overseas equivalent) who do the actual testing. Not like House, where they'd have you believe it's the doctors doing it. And not quite like CSI, but you can go into forensics with this degree if you want. :)

(We have done some DNA stuff like that, testing the Med students to see if they're a carrier of a recessive gene that is a cause of Cystic Fibrosis. CF genes are surprisingly common - about 1 in 25 people are carriers in caucasian populations in NZ, it's around about the same in Aus/the US etc. That was really quite cool, but literally took hours!)

We do a little bit of anatomy, a little bit of chemistry and biochemistry earlier on in the degree, but most of what we do is physiology - how stuff works, and what happens when it goes wrong.

 

This year, I'm pretty much an intern. So I go out into a real lab and do real things. This semester I'm working in transfusion medicine. If you've donated blood, or been unlucky enough to need a transfusion, this is what I'm doing. Today, I was down in the collections area. This meant I got to watch people's blood being taken, as well as some plasma and platelet donations. I also got to watch some interviews, and see how the auditing process works.

Next week I get to see what they do to the stuff being collected, and later on I get to do the tests, like blood types, and checking for diseases like HIV and hepatitis and malaria. Does anyone here know their blood type??

 

Long post is long, but if you guys are interested, I can tell you a bit more of the gory stuff.

[o0_flying high_0o]

That sounds really cool. And full on. I don't think I've ever heard of that degree before.

 

Have you any idea what you'll do next year? Like, are you planning to just go into a hospital laboratory, or see if you can follow it to forensics, or any of the other paths this degree could lead? Or, not sure yet. 

 

XD O Positive, horrendously common. 

 

And... potentially interested...? Depending how gory... >.>

 

Also: You're starting 4th year? o.o *did not realise this* *suddenly feels very very young again*

[SilverMoonArcher]

I'm O positive as well. Go figure.

 

I'd like to know too, as I think I'm following that career path.

[Omega]

Is also O positive! Actually, O positives are ridiculously common in the 'western world'. Here it's something like 38% of the population.

 

I'm planning to go into a hospital lab for a little while in NZ, because we have to get registered, and then go overseas and take whatever job I can get.

 

I'm not planning on doing forensics, no. About half my class would love to do so, but they call it 'dead men's shoes' over here, because someone literally has to die/retire before you can get a spot.

 

Anyway, I'll write a few things up for you guys. Anything in particular you're curious about?

[nathan_p]

Cool! I vaguely know a guy who was going into the same field, and yeah, they call it something different here. Fucked if I remember though.

 

My parents actively refuse to tell me my blood type. "Ooh, we don't know" for years. Look, I don't care if my blood type proves I'm adopted / the mailman's. I'd like to fucking know.