Animal Testing

Today we had a lab on local anaesthetics. It was awful. It helped me realise something about myself that I never knew about before but I can't say that I'm surprised about the discovery.

Experiments that will undoubtedly hurt an animal should not be carried out! Especially not by a bunch of second year medical students who don't know how to hold a rodent and inject it!

Today, our experiment on local anaesthetics was carried out on baby hamsters. These tiny little things were only just over a month old. Why didn't we use the adult hamsters? I didn't like the idea of having to purposely cause pain to the animal by pricking it with a needle multiple times. Over and over again. For about an hour. The anaesthetics did eventually work, after they were injected, but until they worked, they were being pricked, poked and prodded with a needle.

What annoyed me the most, though, was the attitude some people had towards the hamsters. They're not "just hamsters. So prick them." No, no. They're baby hamsters that were born over a month ago, barely grew then had their backs shaved, to be moved out of the cage where they are comfortable into the hands of a bunch of students to be pricked with a needle multiple times and injected with some drug. For a little creature that's only 3 inches long, that's a lot to digest in one day. Truly. And that much pain? Torture.

I did not take part in this lab. In fact, I got sick of listening to people talk down on the hamsters just because they don't have as high a level of thinking that humans do. They have personalities of their own and feel pain just as we do. They're not "just hamsters". They were terrified. The little creamy white one was timid and after being pricked, it balled up in a corner of the tray in a defensive position. Eventually, I left the lab for long periods of time and returned near the end of it all. Got my results and left.

So, basically, these are experiments that I personally cannot condone.

I know the lab with the toads had its entertainment, but it didn't involve a lot of pain. Just a single injection into each toad and they got to sit in water. I felt a little bad about having to use them in our experiment just like that but at least we didn't do anything to purposely cause them any sort of pain. And they were set free back into the wild afterwards.

I know my view won't be shared by many others. I have a high respect for animals...some get way more respect from me than some human beings I know.

Pests!

Cockroaches are filthy, vile disgusting creatures. Last night was the second night in a row that I found a massive (by massive, I mean 2.5") cockroach in my bedroom. I go nuts on these things with bug spray just to corner then drown them in it. My nearly full bottle went down to about half after last night's run. *shudder*

It's times like these that I wish I owned a pet cat. My Mom hates pets so I've never had the privilege of raising one but I was staying at a friend's house and she told me about cats getting rid of problems like roaches. Not long after informing me of this interesting fact did a cockroach crawl through the room (small in comparison to the ones I have at home...but this was in Trinidad) as if to give me a little demonstration. I didn't see what happened to the vile creature, being too busy staying off the floor. I'm sure it was no pretty sight to see since all I saw left of the creature were a few legs left scattered about the floor. Neat. I remember thinking, "I should definitely get a cat!" But I probably won't. Felines don't appeal to me as much as canines.

My room needs to stop randomly producing big roaches at night when I'm ready to go to bed! Just where are they coming from anyways?!

Shades of Grey

Grey's all over the place today. I had an Ultrasonography lecture today and it was fairly interesting...listened to only half of it. I also had an ultrasonography lecture on Wednesday, except that one was at the hospital and it was late =[ All I learned from it is that it takes some real skills to be able to tell what's what when you're doing an ultrasound O.O Sometimes you can't even make out what's what even when they point it out to you...sometimes you can. Can you tell that the ultrasound picture is a liver? =O It's one of the few that I can make stuff out in haha.

The lecturer also brought along an ultrasound machine so she had some people volunteer to be used =) I volunteered my upper limb for viewing =D I thought it was really neat watching the muscles and tendons moved as I moved my shoulder and elbow. And it was even cooler when she showed my brachial artery and followed it up to the axilla. And I learned that veins collapse quite easily so if you press down too hard with the probe you won't see the vein. I also learned that when you hold your breath, blood flow stops in the veins due to the pressure in the lungs preventing the flow. I can't remember the name she told us though =(

My mom didn't make lunch today so I went ahead and bought myself a Chicken & Potato Roti from Chefette. Not anything like a real roti or anything though. Nothing beats the genuine stuff =D When I got home and spoke to my friend, I started thinking that I should've gotten some popcorn chicken from KFC instead since I can't recall ever having it before...oh well, next time! I think this is the most junk food I've had for awhile...

This afternoon decided that it wanted to be rainy! And the rain just couldn't wait till I got home to spread its terror...just before I got to the bank *sigh* At least the temperature is much cooler now =] But lots of heavy rain! And this island floods too easily but I blame the people who constructed our roads, they're made in such a way that it collects water much quicker than it should.

And I came home to find sheep in the plot of land behind my house! Well it's not the first time, but I think it's been awhile. There were only 2 of them...sometimes there are way way way more lol. Poor sheep...standing out in the rain.