Maybe even a cheeseburger!

My first official week on the job… Boy, let me tell you, it was a busy one. I learned so much about what goes on in our department, it was great. They’ve been teaching me, in the lab, how some of the equipment works, and also the numerical system that they categorize their blood samples by. There are sets of numbers from 100-400, each corresponding with a different vein or artery. In the barns when we were taking samples, the first and foremost thing I learned was that if the system gets messed up, everything gets messed up. You have to keep the numbers straight in your head, which is really tough at first. I’m very fascinated by this experiment as a whole. I’m pretty much in awe of Niels. Like seriously, how did he think of doing all of this stuff? If it was me, I’d have no idea what to conduct an experiment on! This man is quite literally a genius; I feel really privileged to be able to work with him and have him teaching me.

I’m really enjoying the time I get to spend at the barns, whether we’re sampling or not. Pia is teaching me a lot about the day to day things that go on there. One of the main things I do is wash cows. It might sounds kind of ridiculous, but it’s something that has to be done. The rumen fistula is constantly oozing out stomach contents onto the cow’s side, and it has to be kept clean. The cows really seem to enjoy the attention. At least, most of them do. One cow seems to have taken a strong dislike towards me. Let me say, there is nothing more frustrating than tying up a cow that does not want to be tied up. My threats of turning number 96 into a hamburger fell upon deaf ears; she fought me until the end!

When we’re actually sampling, the day is a lot more structured. Last week we took samples and for me, it was quite an experience. Niels had mentioned when I first got in that he wanted to train me in taking blood samples, so that I could get in there and take his place. Excellent, I said! Just teach me to do it right, I said. We would be doing 8 samplings that day, one each hour. The first hour, I just watched Niels as he explained it all to me. the second hour, he wanted me to get a little more involved, so he let me draw blood from one of the catheters, as I had done once before. All was well! So far. The next hour, Niels says, ‘Here, take all four syringes’ Let me say, it may sound easy, but simultaneously drawing blood from four catheters into four 20ml syringes is not an easy task. With Niels standing by, however, I did it just fine and got the samples to where they needed to be. Fine. Cool. The next hour, Niels goes, ‘Are you ready to do it on your own?’ Excuuuuse me Niels? And before I could adamantly object, I had been set up at one of the cows and Niels was off to his office. And so for the next five hours I had two cows to take samples from, and I basically did it on my own. Marie was there to help me out after she had finished sampling from her cows, which I really appreciated. But mostly, it was up to me. It felt great to know that they trust me with a task so important to the whole experiment. Phew, talk about a leaning curve! This place is crazy. I love it!