Thursday, November 01, 2007

Lab Day 4

Today I saw a mouse dissection. So in a way, I've taken BIOL204 lab without actually doing it.

Lisa the grad student was taking lymph node, thymus and spleen samples from this mouse that had just died from cancer. I watched, thinking I'd puke at any moment, but I didn't. Somehow, her confidence at working with these mice got to me as well, and I stared intently at the way she sliced open the fur, got through to the inner epithelial layer, and pulled back the skin of the mouse. She picked off the peripheral lymph nodes, and then sliced open the inner epithelial layer, before picking out the spleen, the lymph nodes of the intestine (it was a mess...) and the thymus. I prodded around and found the liver lobes, kidneys, lungs, heart and bladder.

Tomorrow there'll be more. I hope I get to work on the single-cell suspensions... that'd help me get back on track again.

No comments: