I've started culturing cells this week. They look like how I imagine white blood cell cancer to look like: (in the absense of a suitable google image) a bunch of round spheres that double in number every time I open the incubator door. Somehow, maybe if I squint real hard, I'm supposed to pretend they represent brain cells. We also cleaned one of our instruments Monday, which meant opening it up and having a good ol' rummage round: In the mean time, lab's core method still having issues. We've spent more than a month of our time and traded out basically every single reagent, but still no dice. Also my knee has started hurting the past few days. It's gotten progressively worse, and today I came in to work with a limp. Set up a doctor's appointment, but got the bill for my last one and it was $215 for a 20 minute appointment that insurance is refusing to cover. My friend told me: "Welcome to your mid-twenties"
I used to have dreadful knee pain and eventually my wrists joined in on it. I was 21 and couldn't use my arm to push myself up from seated which tends to feel pretty pathetic at that age. Juvenile Arthritis is what one person called it however everybody else looked at me like a freak but it's gone now which is the hopefully reasurring reason I am responding here. Everybody thinks it's just downhill but sometimes there are solutions !
Haha. I'm sorry, this exchange reminds me exactly of this reflection on getting older and going to the doctor's, from Louis CK:
My grandmother was a doctor and apparently when old people came to her with problems sometimes she'd be like: Can you show me your passport please? Yes, see that date there? That's why your ankle hurts, go back home It was the USSR so I guess it was an acceptable thing to do back then :P
For me the problem was that there was no obvious reason for my wrists or knees to be hurting. I wasn't at a desk typing or running and that's why it took so long to figure out the issue. I actually still don't even know what the issue is technically. My mom has celiac and mentioned that before she was diagnosed she had bad joint pains she had just associated with getting older that went away after changing her diet. I had been meaning to get tested for a while since I had other issues and I decided to this time before spending hundreds on physio that might not be necessary. Well getting the proper test takes 4 damn months and I'm not the kind of person to just sit waiting patiently so I just stopped eating gluten. I only planned to stop for a little while to try it out but 3 weeks in I got a job working physical labour since all my pain was gone. I ate gluten again for a month after work was finished to get the test and it came back negative but I'll never actually know. I could have screwed it up by not eating enough, but I actually don't think I have it. I think they'll figure out in the next few years what's wrong because I just don't think I believed hard enough for any placebo effect. Not that I know how hard you have to believe, but I believed in other things more only to be let down. I would definitely call that a positive end considering all my problems were solved by not eating certain foods. I'm also now really into baking bread and I'm getting pretty good at it.
It's really not bad as far as digestive problems go. It's actually one of the easiest to manage and I would have been relieved if I had it although that's the perspective of ' if I'm going to be sick I would rather this' as opposed to the option of being healthy. Obviously healthy wins every time. Now I'm just hoping whatever is wrong with me stays solved by just changing my diet a little. For some reason I'm deficient in B-12 when I'm eating gluten but just fine when I'm not so I don't know really might have just messed up the test. My grandfather is the same way and he tested negative as well. I guess they'll figure it out eventually but for now I just hope things keep working out. Another theory is maybe it would have developed into Celiac since it is in the family. My mom only got bad later in life but had a few problems earlier that were seemingly related. I obviously can't know if she would have tested positive with the early problems but I do wonder. Oh and then there's my sister who got terrible migraines her whole life and those stopped when she stopped eating it. They came back again when she started eating gluten again but she isn't bothering with the test. People just don't have time for that kind of stuff so we won't ever know what's wrong with her but being migraine free makes her pretty happy these days. Scientists have their work cut out for them studying the human body that's for sure
Cell cultures are fun! Also responsible for my biggest embarrasment ever, but that aside, I don't get to do much hands-on work, so I remember it fondly. What cell line are you using? Or is it a primary culture? Also what is that thing jesus it looks huge.
It's exciting for now, but I'm sure in 6 months it will be a chore. But hey, it opens up the doors past "wait 6 months for our next batch of mice". BV-2 and N9, both "microglia". Primary culture may follow later, but they give a somewhat limited amount of material (in exchange for being /actual/ microglia), so I'm getting familiar with assays and testing inhibitors in these guys first. Plus my lab isn't equipped to do primary or iPSC-derived cells, so I have to walk across the street to collaborator's lab for that. See the rather-large table-top instrument on the left. We've got a way more ghetto HPLC (right) setup than what's pictured there though.What cell line are you using? Or is it a primary culture?
Also what is that thing jesus it looks huge.
Dude. I got multiple $100-200 bills over six months (almost 1k total in bills), thinking each one was the last of the bills, after breaking a pinky and having to go to an out-of-network orthopedic specialist in rural upstate Michigan. I got no sympathy from the insurance company, even though the closest in-network doctor was like 90 minutes away, I didn't have a car, and my finger was in diabolical amounts of pain and pointing sideways. It's no surprise that I know scores of people in their twenties and thirties who forego medical attention because they don't want to deal with that shit. What a mess.Also my knee has started hurting the past few days. It's gotten progressively worse, and today I came in to work with a limp. Set up a doctor's appointment, but got the bill for my last one and it was $215 for a 20 minute appointment that insurance is refusing to cover. My friend told me: "Welcome to your mid-twenties"
a few years ago I woke up with crushing chest pain and shortness of breath. I was a fat guy loaded up with stress in my late 30's... the logical thing to do is call 911 and NOT die from a heart attack, right? Nope. I went to the computer and googled "Chest pain and shortness of breath" and waited an hour or so until 7am when my normal doctor's office scheduling line opened up. I didn't want to pay the hundreds of dollars for an ER visit. Stop and think about that... All of the symptoms and life situations of a dude who could be having a heart attack and I went to google. How messed up is that? blergh.It's no surprise that I know scores of people in their twenties and thirties who forego medical attention because they don't want to deal with that shit. What a mess.
while I was trying to be "punny" - this whole healthcare situation is JACKED and probably not funny at all. From where I sit, which is a place of spoiled-rotten-white-collar-comfort, we are living in a system that is completely unsustainable. Something HAS to change. But as long as lawyers and lobbyists are running things... nothing will. We will just continue to spend more per person on healthcare than we should - and STILL have to put up with Rx commercials.
Damn, this was in-network, so I don't understand what the fuss is all about in my case... This accurately describes my attitude. =/It's no surprise that I know scores of people in their twenties and thirties who forego medical attention because they don't want to deal with that shit.
I have dealt with a lot of injuries in my life. It's pretty natural for a guy who spends as much time playing hockey as I do. In fact just last night I was dumb enough to grab a puck out of mid air and sprained a finger (possibly broken, but I highly doubt it). As such, I've been to the doctor enough times to know that if something hurts (a knee, e.g.) it's normally not worth a doctor visit. The most likely thing is that they're going to tell you to take motrin and rest. Unless you think something is seriously broken and needs surgery, I'd stay away.
Too late, scheduled already, but I wanted to talk to them about back (> 1 yr) pain as well. I suspect I just have weak tendons, as I've had wrist, ankle, and knee injuries in the past year. The struggle of being tall and lanky. =/Unless you think something is seriously broken and needs surgery, I'd stay away.