It would be a pleasure to have had my heart broken by you..

June 30, 2014 J. 0 Comments


Who the hell says that? ^.^ :D

Obviously I've been dabbling in John Greene. (Not the way it sounds). I went to watch the movie, after reading the book and was hit all over again. I know a lot of people on Goodreads were unimpressed by the book but for me it was awesome. It's been a long while since I read a book I loved as much. That does Mr. Greene a lot of credit. 

I cried. Both for the book and movie. So I guess that settles that. 

I start the LFT bench again tomorrow. Now that you know what horrors await me, I hope you sympathize. Sigh! The next two weeks are going to be fierce. And not Sasha Fierce fierce. 

o.O
Oh my! You're going to have to excuse me. My only excuse is that i am currently seriously exhausted. 
I am going to go now. 

J. 

P.S.
Try to ignore the part where I am only just now watching "The Fault in Our Stars". I have no social life whatsoever. :(

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NYSC

Working the LFT Bench

June 30, 2014 J. 0 Comments


You know how in every educational system, there is that one subject/module that makes you work just that much harder, demands just a little bit more and takes all your sanity away with it... That is the liver and renal function test (LFT/RFT) bench at The Hospital Labs. The two benches, although different, are worked together because they are the most requested-for tests performed by The Chemical Pathology Labs and also because there are only two automated immunoassay machines in the Lab, with the other primarily used for and by the Glucose Bench.

It was absolute horror! Especially when the machine, Cobas c311, crashed. It took a week to repair.  A WHOLE WEEK! That was probably the longest week ever. Closing time changed from 4pm to wherever all the LFT/RFT benches were cleared.

Source


I repeat: It was absolute horror!!

And wouldn't you know it? I learned the two benches like I'd known how to my whole life (and this is a marvel because we all know that technology and i aren't exactly BFFs). It took me approximately one work day to learn the normal references ranges for male and female of all ages and the rest all came to me just as easily. Unlike the hormone bench i was allowed to operate this machine and so i learned and practiced. I even learned how to run controls and calibrate the machine.. and a few tricks for when the machine decides to acts up.

Well, maybe it wasn't all THAT bad but after working the smooth sailing hormone bench, LFT/RFT was just A LOT to take in. Luckily i had a very good teacher who continues to test my limits to this day. ^.^

yes, now i can thank him for it, back then i thought he was just good old, plain evil! -.-

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Nigeria Today.

June 28, 2014 J. 0 Comments

"We are all brothers under the skin and I for one would be willing to skin humanity to prove it."
- Ayn Rand
____________________________________________________________

Last Wednesday, a bomb went off down the road from where i live. The force of the explosion shook my house to the core of its foundation but thankfully, no one was hurt.

No, that's not true. 
21 people were pronounced dead on the spot with 17 others seriously injured. 12 young children were left orphaned with nowhere to go and are now being housed in a mosque nearby.

This is what we have become... Bombing of schools and other public places, kidnapping of teenage girls and human slayings in the middle of nowhere. THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BECOME!!

We have always had problems. Corruption, embezzlement and poverty.. yes, we have always had these. But never have we sat back and watched our people suffer mercilessly and die because of the deeds of some cowardly and selfish bastards! NEVER!

This isn't an ethnic or religious war. In case you haven't noticed, the people responsible for this aren't picking single ethnic groups or religions to attack. They are attacking public places, killing and hurting everyone everywhere. So let me break this down for you: THEY JUST DON'T CARE!! So the sooner we do something about this, rather than pointing fingers at the Muslims or Christians, the sooner we can get things done and hopefully put an end to all this. Let's quit acting like we are mentally deficient and DO SOMETHING about this because I, for one, am seriously fed up!

J.

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Guilty pleasures

June 28, 2014 J. 0 Comments

..

We all have at least one one these, don't we? One of my mine is... "Chori Chori" - Bollywood movie from 2003 starring Rani Mukerji and Ajay Devgan.


So I'm not a big Bollywood fan. Having to read the subtitles for a whole movie is work for me. And watching movies is supposed to be relaxing, i.e. the opposite of work. So I don't really dabble. But back in high school I had a friend who was a real dabbler. She lived for Indian movies and she wanted me to share her enthusiasm so every chance she could, she made me watch them with her. I was never sold.. Not until I watched "Chori Chori". 

I can't explain it. It isn't the finest of all the movies she made me see, it wasn't the best directed or produced and it didn't have the best graphics or effects but I was hooked. My friend couldn't understand it. She'd made me watch better films and this was the one I liked? I must have mentioned over the years that I am a weird child. *shrug*

Anyway, on one of those nights, those brooding nights - c'mon you know what nights I'm taking about - I pull the movie out of my archives and turn off the lights. I still cry at some scenes even though I know almost every line. 

There are also two songs in there that I love. The lyrics to one of the song goes:
"What I've got to tell you today 
I will say to no one else ever again
I've got to stay with you
Or not live in this world at all. 
In love we will live, in love we will die. 
The anguish of separation we will not bear."

 I LOVE IT!!  *Hopeless romantic alert*

There is another song too and although I haven't found anyone to translate it for me, I have a feeling I'll like what it says. All I've managed to translate so far is this:
"Mother, do send my father
Spring is here...  
My child, your father is separated from us. 
Although Spring is here.."
Or something like that. 

So there you go. Someday maybe I'll share another. 

What's your guilty pleasure?


Juicy Raindrops! 

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NYSC

Working the Hormone Bench

June 26, 2014 J. 0 Comments

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” 
-Steve Jobs

___________________________________________________

Working at The Hospital Labs has definitely been an experience, I'll tell you that. Diving into it, all hands on deck, like i have has given me a pretty good view of what Medical Laboratory Science is like in Nigeria. From my very own personal experiences, to those that i have merely witnessed - pooh!- let's just say that it is a lot and lucky for you, that gives me a lot to talk about.

For starters the public health system in Nigeria totally sucks. I am not one to tear down what i can't build but seriously, we have enormous issues. Now, i know what you're possibly thinking.. Nigeria is a developing country and as such should be given a chance to, well, develop.. i felt the same way during the first couple of months when i was still wet behind the ears. But now, completely disillusioned as i have become.. well like i said earlier i am not one to tear down, so i'll focus on my expericences.

As soon as my provisional license was released i was put to work. Being able to actually work the machines and DO the tests themselves now - "working the bench" - i was assigned. My first "bench" was hormonal analysis and my training began immediately.

I admit that there was as much excitement as there was apprehension and in hindsight i believe that both were very accurate reactions to have had, after all with great power comes great responsibility. I just didn't know it yet.

There are different benches based on the tests run on each one. In the Chemical Pathology Lab, for instance, we have the following benches: hormones, electrolytes, liver test functions (LFTs), renal function tests (RFTs), glucose, urinalysis and PEPFAR (which is a special treatment clinic for HIV positive patients).

I worked the Hormone Bench with a med lab scientist for two weeks. Prior to this point, I had collected samples, labelled and registered them, spun and separated them and then stored (as needed). The scientist I was working with had a schedule: He collected sample all through the week and then ran them on Thursdays as a batch - this is supposed to be more economical. The only downside to this was that I had my CD (community development) days on Thursdays which essentially meant that I missed watching him run. He did however explain the theory to me (beware of air bubbles or cloths etc) but I wanted to practice. 

One Friday I got lucky. Because of the very high number of tests that had accumulated over the strike period, he had had to run tests on both Thursday and Friday so i got to watch. One of the joys of clinical biochemistry is that almost everything is automated and this was no exception. The results were ready in about 2 hours and I entered the results on the request forms and had them signed. I begun feeling like a fully fledged scientist.

I would later find out that The Hospital Lab is very possessive of its beloved and expensive Cobas E411 (hormone immunoassay machine) and therefore no one but a select few are allowed to handle it AT ALL. But they couldn't burst my bubble.

Source
Unfortunately, my two weeks were up at this time and I had to change benches. This time to the LFT bench.

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Rado

For you.. again

June 15, 2014 J. 0 Comments

..

Hi :)

I'm just as surprised as you are that I am writing another one now. 

But I am. And I'm done being scared. I've  stepped onto the floor.. They are playing our song.. 

Dance with me?

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Love..

June 03, 2014 J. 0 Comments


Being together is hard! Be it a relationship or marriage.  Anyone who ever said or thought it was easy is completely misinformed. Being together is HARD! Take it from someone who knows. Being together with someone is equivalent to accommodation because that’s what you’ll be doing. Accommodating every whim, bullshit and crap. It’s like having a baby. Babies cry, poop, cry, eat, cry, poop, cry, eat, cry and then cry some more. It could drive a sane man to drink.

But then comes a moment - A moment that makes every single thing worth it. The presence of this moment is Love. I have finally defined the elusive word. Love is that moment when everything is justified. No, wait! “Justified” is such a big word. Let’s use accepted. You take all the crap associated with sharing your life with someone just for those moments when you think, “All worth it!” – honey, that’s love!

Love is those moments in a lifetime. True love is a lifetime of moments!

- J.

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