Holiday!!

Cool, got reminded of it only on monday. So its was a thursay off, friday not-so-much-stress, weekend, monday errrr, and tuesday holiday again. Woosh! Was looking at the calendar (monday chat wif renee while updating logbook) and realised that CNY will be on a thursday. Good way to start 2004..hehe. Sudden craving for banana fruit drink (wonder if its nice) but drink stall was closed. :(

Monday was actually a sad day. Started off really well. No journal club and cant do anything. So slacked and was in a happy mood. Afternoon was bad. Since got nothing to do, renee decided to sacrfice the mouses tat was 100++ days old le. d123 to be exact. Helped by Dr liew (the expert). 1st, got the cages back from the AHU (animal holding unit). Got them out, Dr liew asked whether i wan to bleed (last bleeding). I passed, and he did it for me. No idea how much blood to take, and he has to ask me whether i still wan to take. Was expecting 800 µl but when we drew ard 600, dr liew decided to stop. He sacrificed the mouse in 1 second. No big deal, still feeling ok. Haiyan came along and commented why we took so much blood. Uh-oh? 2nd mouse came up, after the 3rd go, dr liew gave me the mouse to bleed. Let me try to describe the situation. 1st bleed: mouse still can walk. 2nd bleed, mouse start to cannot balance itself. 3rd bleed: mouse totally cannot move, can only figet. dr liew threw a challenge (cos i replied "draw lor" when he ask me whether still wan to draw anot). Took it up, and realised although the position of the glass pipette and the nicking of the eye is perfect, blood stop flowing somehow. Came quite late, but i realised the mouse got drained. We say death by hanging. For the mouse, it was death by bleeding. Im sorry mouse..i really am.

dr liew continue the bleeding for me..by then, i feel that 600 µl was too much. Didnt do cardiac puncture, where u insert a sringe immediately into the heart and pull the sringe. To give me experience, he gave me the last mouse to sacrifice. Said yes w/o hesitation. We use a forcep in sch rite? At the lab, i used my bare hands (like dr liew). Position secured..and i tugged at the tail. Felt the spine move (yes..with bare hands, u feel it) and released. Lower part of mouse dead, top part still alive (and struggling in pain). Cried inside for the pain i inflicted (for it was actually the mouse i love most. Hv high titre of Ab and bleeds easily) and tugged at his tail again. Let go, and the mouse is still struggling. Tears almost flowed (inside was sobbing terribly already) and this time round, i pulled his tail totally with 80% of my strength. Felt the spine dislocated and the nerve fibers being extended. Grossed out, i tried pulling more and felt more extention. Stopped. Sighed. Apologised.

Collect their bodies in an autoclave bag and prepared to bring it back to AHU when hy goes for her feeding. Talked alot to cover the heavy heart and reached the AHU. Didnt feel like touching mouse for a while, so rejected hy when she ask me whether i wan to feed. Peeking at the cage with the mouse babies (remember the lump of meat?) and got cuted-out. They hv fur now!! They're at their cutest stage, so i took it out to let hy see as well. Lifted the lid and saw 1 of the mothers canabilised with 1/2 her head chewed off. Stunned, hy told me to put it back. After the bleeding, took a tour ard AHU. Saw rabbit the size of the chicken we saw at school of deaf (BIG and FAT!!!) and saw squirrel like animals too. They call it a tree shrew..?? Went past the room with this sign: "Warning! Baboons inside." So that's the monkeys renee was talking about. hy said that if we knocked on the door, we can hear their fierce reply. Obviously didnt try it.

Lost my appetite tat day. Also felt like drinking hard liquor (hts?) to ya-jing. Took time staring at posters abt animal research back in AHU. Not sorry that we muz use animal as models. Juz regretful that i couldnt end her suffering quick enough. Shall stop here for tonite. Finally, here's a salute....

To humanity.

--outz-