Diary of a Lab Rat: Not enough cheese in this maze!

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  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...

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Diary of a Lab Rat: Stay still, get pellet

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   Well, my first 'Diary of a Lab Rat' post is finally here.

    I checked in at 5pm yesterday evening, or at least I was supposed to.   I lugged my HEAVY suitcase into the building, near King and Bathurst.   I would have been five minutes early, if it weren't for the elevators.

    The elevator came, but it wouldn't stop on the floor of the lab!  I had never had that problem before.  I was pissed!  I can't be late...

    I waited at the 10th floor for quite a while.  The delay was really bothering me.

    I tried going up with the other elevator- the exact same thing happened.

    Finally, back in the lobby, a guy in a white lab coat was waiting.  He didn't identify himself as being an employee of Kendle.  I had to ask him questions to find out what the heck was going on.   People who don't engage in clear, direct communication drive me nuts!   See my rant on Blogcritics about it, I Say What I Mean, and I Mean What I Say!

   Anyway, he was waiting there, with a keycard to let test subjects have access to the correct floor, as this particular floor is locked at 5pm.  It would've been nice if he helped me in the first place, before I wasted all of my time!   Arrrggggh!

As I may not take photos in the lab, here's a real photo of something, courtesy of kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com

   It took until about 6:30pm until I was properly registered.  Good grief!  But they didn't consider me late.

   After having my bags searched, this netbook was registered in their laptop directory, with the webcam taped over.   Then my cigarettes were registered and put away, only to be given to me during designated smoke breaks.  I have access to this netbook whenever I'm not in the dosing room, however.  After changing into their scrubs, they took my vital signs, and another urine sample.

   Two of the women had too high of a THC level in their urine test.  They were also testing us for pregnancy, among other things..   All of the men passed (no, they were only tested for drugs!), but those two women I mentioned were asked to leave the study.  It was a bummer for me, too, I was just getting to know them!

   We had Chinese food for supper, washed down with 7up.  It wasn't bad!

   I had to wait until about 10:45pm for my supervised smoke break, it was brutal!

   Lights out time was 11pm.   Stay tuned for the next part, hopefully by tomorrow, when I start again from this morning.

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Diary of a Lab Rat, coming soon to a blog near you!

  To my dear readers, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days.

  On Tuesday, I had to visit downtown Toronto for more lab work.  I'm very busy working on web design projects for a couple of clients.  Plus, there's a lot of Blogcritics articles coming up for you guys to look forward to.  One of the articles I'm working on is a book review of a popular new Lady Gaga biography.  I will also be interviewing the bographer!  Stay tuned...

  As for this blog, the much awaited part five of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series will be posted tomorrow.  I plan to continue my 'Project HTML5' series, as well.

  And, I'll be debuting a brand new, exciting article series soon!  Starting on November 1st is 'Diary of a Lab Rat'.  

  Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a human test subject in a pharmaceutical testing laboratory?  Read 'Diary of a Lab Rat' to find out.  

  I will be participating in a study for Merck, starting on November 1st and continuing until March 2011.  A new, yet to be approved by Health Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the FDA) drug to treat insomnia will be tested on me and about thirty other people in this study.   I don't suffer from insomnia, they will simply be testing the drug's side effects on me.

  A lot of tests have been performed on me already, and I received a phone call from the lab yesterday saying that I qualify for the study, I'm officially 'in'.  

  I've had to sign a large number of legal documents in order to participate.  None of my legal agreements with  Merck or Kendle's lab on King Street West in Toronto bar me from talking about or writing about my experiences in the lab.  But, to be respectful of the privacy of others, I will not mention other people's names in my 'Diary of a Lab Rat' series.  And, Kendle prohibits me from taking photos or video footage while in the facility.  I may post illustrations of my own, or relevant web graphics, but there will be no photos that are actually of my stay.

  I will make sure to bring a laptop computer for my use while in the facility.  So, I'll be writing those articles directly from the lab!  Kendle offers free WiFi for study participants, and I'll be taking advantage of it.  

  The 'Diary of a Lab Rat' series will be posted on this blog from November 1st until March 2011, but I may also write a related article for Blogcritics.  I may not repost articles from this blog to Blogcritics, though, so whatever I write for BC will be original material.  So, keep in touch with both this blog and Blogcritics!  That way, you won't miss a thing.

  I'm thinking of changing the colours on this blog for better readability.  I may change the black backgrounds of these posts to a different colour, and change this font colour accordingly.  Do you find the current colour scheme difficult to read?  Let me know, dear readers!  Comment on this post, e-mail me at kimcrawley@kimcrawley.com, or message me on Twitter.

  Stay tuned for part five of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series, tomorrow!

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