Thursday, September 20, 2007

Stool Sample

They save all the good stuff for Year 2 in medical school at UCSF.

Tomorrow's microbiology lab requires that we collect our own stool samples and analyze them for bacteria. For the stool sample collection, they recommend that we put Saran wrap over the toilet seat and defecate into the clear plastic wrap. Then we're supposed to take a pea-sized amount and place it in a plastic jar provided to us for this special reason.

I will graciously spare you the details, but collecting my own stool sample has turned out to be one of the most sad/funny/traumatic experiences in medical school so far.

Maybe I'll go curl up into a ball now.

2 comments:

Emily H said...

Yep, pretty humiliating task. I couldn't go the night before so I ended up collecting my sample in the library 30 minutes before lab. No saran wrap, just a plastic spoon to scope some from the toilet. Gross. The whole time I was thinking, if people only knew what I was doing in here they would freak out!!!

Steph said...

Wow, you are so brave!!