

Well, I thought I shouldn't write this on a public forum. But this is one significant day of my life, so much so that I just can't let it skip by without a trace. (No charges against me/my lab or anyone related to me for this, no factual things quoted in this post. All procedures approved by animal welfare committees concerned).
This was a day that marks the acceptance of me as a researcher by myself. Today was the day I did a surgery on a mouse and made slices out of its brain. I did that all by myself for the first time today, though I had watched it being done a couple of more times before. Well to watch it and to do it are totally different things altogether, as I now realize.
Morning I dropped in just to watch Anne-Marie perform the surgery( I am for sure going to remember her for long for teaching me so patiently, others in the lab deserve a mention too). Once she was done, she suggested I do it from scratch all by myself. And I really wanted to get over my inhibitions for doing it, so I did it eventually. I was pretty confident about the steps to be followed in the animal house, or so did I think, then. Infact during the first surgery of the day that I watched, I picked up the mouse from the animal house. So I thought it wasn't really a big deal. So I go in to that isolated animal house, all by myself, nobody even anywhere close except stinking mice. Do all the protocols that I am supposed to, fully armed, totally clean into the cage room. I take out the cage and there, four cute nice fluffy shiny mice, playing with each other as if today was the last day of their life. Yes, it was going to be. All they knew was the food that was in there. And a huge pair of hands over them trying to wave to them!
Then came the most horrible part - all I had to do was to catch it by its tail and then put it onto another box so that I can take it to my bench. There I froze. Just froze, couldn't think, couldn't move. My heart pumping in my mouth, for that little thing. Not that I am a big fan of animals in general, nor am I one of those who create a big hue and cry about use of animals in research. But to DO it, omg, I would have had a cardiac arrest!
So I waited and waited and waited... Put the cage back, took it out once again,.. Waited.. Waited... all the while, talking to myself, cheering myself up, apologizing to the mice, talking to them, telling small prayers to them! OMG, you might think I am crazy, but I am what I am, the least I can do to that little thing out of which I make my bread and butter.
Once I did that, the rest was OK, not as horrifying as it was earlier. Even the decapitation part of it looked simple enough. But it has made this day an eventful one. Makes me wanna think, "that's life ain't it? TRANSIENT". What's a good day's work to one person, costs the life to another. Unfortunately the analogy doesn't stop with the equation between a researcher and a mouse alone, it applies to much higher examples. And it isn't even survival of the fittest in this - you would be the first one to be 'sacrificed' if you were the best of the lot! Makes my faith in destiny grow stronger!!
All said, when I had the brain slices in my hand, my joy knew no bounds, I wanted to go tell the entire world that I had done that! It was everyday work for people here, nothing even close to a special moment, but only a corner of my heart knows that it was a bet against myself, against my inhibitions and what I thought was the limit of my ability. Now, I don't know if i even did it correctly, if it was what ideally a good slice should be. But I crossed the lag phase. I am happy to have made a beginning.
God help me with the rest, as always.
How much work can get me thinking!