BioKinetic weekend, long Tuesday
May. 29th, 2007 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, at about 5:00 Sunday night I showered, packed, got ready to go to BioKinetic, hopped on my bike at ten 'til six…and discovered it had a flat. Oops. Plan B: call a cab.
Got to BioKinetic at about 6:30, claimed my favored bed in the bunkroom (which was air conditioned to a a chilly 67 degrees…brr! Good thing I brought my blanket), and then went through a series of lab work and tests. Finally at 8:00, they fed us. I say finally, because I had fasted since breakfast per the study procedures.
Supper was a taco salad with ground beef and spanish rice served in a taco-shell bowl, with green salad, green onions, and black olives on the side. It was pretty fascinating to watch how everyone prepared their salad; many people turned it upside down and broke the bowl into pieces; some just ate it out of the bowl. One person sitting near me slowly and methodically shredded the pieces of his taco bowl into little tiny pieces before eating it. (It didn't help that said person looked like the very stereotype of the "geek" right down to wearing thick-rimmed glasses with one cracked lens. I really appreciated having that guy there; he made me feel "normal.") And I reflected anew how glad I am that my parents raised me not to be finicky. One of the conditions of the medical study is that you have to eat all the food that is set before you, and for some people who really dislike particular vegetables or food items that can be really hard. And you can pretty much forget it if you're vegetarian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu.
Still, I've found that for the most part, the food is remarkably edible. Their hamburger is kind of eh, the lasagna is so-so, but most of the meals have not been that hard for me to eat at all. The taco salad was probably among the best dinners I'd had from them yet, in fact.
I went to bed right after dinner, slept more or less until about 5, when I simply lay in bed and dozed as I couldn't get back to sleep. And I found the reason for the thermostat being so low: the body heat from having a couple of dozen people sleeping in one room needed to be counteracted. Indeed, I found myself throwing off the extra covers I had purloined and turning on the little fan I brought to cool me further.
The next morning we had some more lab work, and I got an unpleasant surprise: apparently my ECG readings are not quite within the stringent requirements for the study. It didn't matter for that weekend, as I was only an "alternate" and not activated anyway, but it has dire implications for next weekend, when they were going to put me in the other study if I hadn't gotten into this one. If I blow the test again on Friday, I can't get into the study. This would be annoying, given that I'm about to make a major purchase on credit that I'd planned to pay off with this money. But on the other hand, the credit is interest-free until November, and if I can't get into this study, another one will come along well before then with less strict requirements.
Caught a lift home with another study participant, since the buses were running on the holiday schedule and I didn't have correct change anyway. Spent the rest of Monday playing Starcraft and City of Heroes.
Today I took my bike to work with me on the bus, thinking to take the bus to the bike shop near Park Central Square downtown after work to have the flat fixed. However, I ended up having to stay an hour and a half late at work as the Tuesday workload is out of all proportion to the amount I can actually do in one day. I'm looking at having that fixed. In the end, it was most convenient for me to take another bus all the way down to the south side of town to get the tire fixed at A&B Cycle, then bicycle back.
A&B told me that I really should (pay them to) get a complete tuneup on the bike, as various things were out of alignment and so forth. But I needed the bike to get back home tonight, and also didn't want to spend the extra money right now. So they made it ridable, and I headed back. And promptly blew a sizable chunk on a sushi dinner at Sakura on the way back, because it had just been too long since I'd had real sushi. Yum.
Now I'm going to bed.
Got to BioKinetic at about 6:30, claimed my favored bed in the bunkroom (which was air conditioned to a a chilly 67 degrees…brr! Good thing I brought my blanket), and then went through a series of lab work and tests. Finally at 8:00, they fed us. I say finally, because I had fasted since breakfast per the study procedures.
Supper was a taco salad with ground beef and spanish rice served in a taco-shell bowl, with green salad, green onions, and black olives on the side. It was pretty fascinating to watch how everyone prepared their salad; many people turned it upside down and broke the bowl into pieces; some just ate it out of the bowl. One person sitting near me slowly and methodically shredded the pieces of his taco bowl into little tiny pieces before eating it. (It didn't help that said person looked like the very stereotype of the "geek" right down to wearing thick-rimmed glasses with one cracked lens. I really appreciated having that guy there; he made me feel "normal.") And I reflected anew how glad I am that my parents raised me not to be finicky. One of the conditions of the medical study is that you have to eat all the food that is set before you, and for some people who really dislike particular vegetables or food items that can be really hard. And you can pretty much forget it if you're vegetarian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu.
Still, I've found that for the most part, the food is remarkably edible. Their hamburger is kind of eh, the lasagna is so-so, but most of the meals have not been that hard for me to eat at all. The taco salad was probably among the best dinners I'd had from them yet, in fact.
I went to bed right after dinner, slept more or less until about 5, when I simply lay in bed and dozed as I couldn't get back to sleep. And I found the reason for the thermostat being so low: the body heat from having a couple of dozen people sleeping in one room needed to be counteracted. Indeed, I found myself throwing off the extra covers I had purloined and turning on the little fan I brought to cool me further.
The next morning we had some more lab work, and I got an unpleasant surprise: apparently my ECG readings are not quite within the stringent requirements for the study. It didn't matter for that weekend, as I was only an "alternate" and not activated anyway, but it has dire implications for next weekend, when they were going to put me in the other study if I hadn't gotten into this one. If I blow the test again on Friday, I can't get into the study. This would be annoying, given that I'm about to make a major purchase on credit that I'd planned to pay off with this money. But on the other hand, the credit is interest-free until November, and if I can't get into this study, another one will come along well before then with less strict requirements.
Caught a lift home with another study participant, since the buses were running on the holiday schedule and I didn't have correct change anyway. Spent the rest of Monday playing Starcraft and City of Heroes.
Today I took my bike to work with me on the bus, thinking to take the bus to the bike shop near Park Central Square downtown after work to have the flat fixed. However, I ended up having to stay an hour and a half late at work as the Tuesday workload is out of all proportion to the amount I can actually do in one day. I'm looking at having that fixed. In the end, it was most convenient for me to take another bus all the way down to the south side of town to get the tire fixed at A&B Cycle, then bicycle back.
A&B told me that I really should (pay them to) get a complete tuneup on the bike, as various things were out of alignment and so forth. But I needed the bike to get back home tonight, and also didn't want to spend the extra money right now. So they made it ridable, and I headed back. And promptly blew a sizable chunk on a sushi dinner at Sakura on the way back, because it had just been too long since I'd had real sushi. Yum.
Now I'm going to bed.