KimCrawley.com- Bright Ideas: Diary of a Lab Rat: Not enough cheese in this maze!

I wasn't able to communicate as clearly yesterday as I wanted to. I felt like utter CRAP yesterday. So, now I can think more clearly.

So, a new insomnia drug is being tested on us. Kendle wants to find out for Merck what the addictive potential of the new drug is. It has yet to be approved by Health Canada.

Yesterday morning, a man entered the ladies' communal bedroom at 5:30am to wake up anyone who wants their morning smoke.

Those of us who are addicted to cigarettes, like I am, only have two opportunities to smoke, once before 6:30am (two hours before earliest dosing time!) and once at twelve hours after dosing (for me, that's 9:30pm). So, I've had to go two FIFTEEN HOUR AWAKE periods smoke free.

"Oh, it must be so good for Kim to go without smoking for so long!" you're thinking. You're wrong!

Toward the end of yesterday, I was insane and driving others crazy. Kim+tobacco= peace, okay?!

Each morning, we spend 5-6 hours in the dosing room. (No, Mom, not doZing room, there's no opportunity for sleep there!) Yesterday and today, I entered at about 7:30am. Each of us is dosed and tested at a time unique to each of us.

I was dosed at 9:30am yesterday and today. We weren't told whether we would be getting a drug or placebo. We are dosed double blind, and they mix up who gets what on which day.

I'm pretty sure that yesterday I got a placebo and today I got the drug!

I actually got very nauseous. I was drifting in and out of awareness while in the chair. (We have to stay in our chairs for the entire 5-6 hours.)

Before we're given our 'dose', our vital signs are taken, and we have to take tests on a little laptop, one is given to each of us. The tests include questions about our mental states ("How high do you feel?"), memory tests, and reflex tests. The memory tests present us with sequences of numbers we should remember. We're given a joystick to test our reflexes. We must 'fly a plane' over a squiggly road, and push the button when we see an X on the screen.

These tests are taken several times a day, at set times, a couple of times pre-dose, and several times post-dose.

When I haven't been stuck in the dosing room, I've been working hard in the communal ladies' bedroom on my netbook.

To the people I love, I miss you!

For this session, I'll be checking out tomorrow morning...