Daughter of the King: I Am a Man of Science

Lately I have been donating, well more selling my body to science. About a month ago I started donating plasma again, which pays pretty well and you are helping other people, and you can donate up to twice a week, so you end up helping more people. Seeing that I am borderline anemic, I can't donate whole blood. Ironically I learned this when I did donate blood and kept getting declined after the first few times of donating.

About a month ago two of my faculty completed a Diabetes II study here at UAMS and were telling me I should do it too, since it was an easy way to get $175. So once school was out I contacted our research center and set a date. So two weeks ago I went in. The first day you go in after an 8 hour fast. They draw your blood to get your fasting blood glucose, then they draw it a few more times over 30 minutes. Then you have to drink bottle of liquid glucose in 2 minutes. Then they draw your blood every 20 or so minutes for 2 hours. While you are waiting for the next draw they take you into another room and do a body scan. This gives you your bone density, body fat percentage and lean body mass. Pretty interesting. Some of the blood samples they take for all different labs. A few days later they emailed me all my lab values and they are all perfectly in range. Calcium, potassium and all. My glucose testing went perfectly, I started at a 75 and ended at 75, which is perfect. I qualified for the study. So we scheduled my next appointment. That appointment I had to fast for 12 hours prior. I got there put on some shorts and was put in a hospital bed. They put IVs in both arms and soon the doctor came in to describe the procedure to me. They would be taking a fat and a muscle biopsy. So they set up their sterile field and prepped me. They asked if I had any questions and if I was ok. First they prepped my stomach for the fat biopsy. Then they pulled out the huge needle filled with lidocaine and started numbing my tummy, as he continued that part of my stomach felt heavier and heavier. He pulled out the scalpel and asked if I could feel that. I told him I did not even feel the pressure. He made a small half-inch incision. He held pressure on it then they took out the biopsy tool that looked like this. The bottom one is what they put in, the other two are what go inside the bottom one to actually cut the tissue.

Attached to the instrument is tubing that attaches to a HUGE syringe. The scrub nurse holds the syringe and pulls and closes the plunger to suck the tissue in. So they took about 15 samples of my fat. I told them they could have as much as they wanted. They kept asking if I was ok, or if I wanted my head lowered so I could not see as much. I told them the only thing that would be better, would be if I had a mirror so I could see all that they were doing. After that he held a lot of pressure on it to stop the bleeding then covered it with steri-strips, gauze and then the pressure bandage. Then it was on to the muscle biopsy. They changed out their gloves to maintain sterility and got my leg positioned correctly. Then it was on to prepping me. He told me once they had passed the fascia and hit the muscle it may spasm and cramp. So he started with the lidocaine and sure enough once he hit that muscle my leg twitched. He made the same size incision, except it went down to the muscle. Then it was on to the biopsy. The first one he took had some fat and muscle. So he deadened me some more and made the incision a little deeper. And went in a little deeper. He did the biopsy and when he pulled that sucker out, I felt something, that was not very comfortable. It wasn't really painful, it is hard to explain. So that was a good enough sample that he said he was done. Then he put a lot of pressure to stop bleeding and my thigh cramped up. So he also massaged the muscle and that helped. Then he bandaged that all up. Then he explained all the post-op care and asked if I had any questions. Then it was on to 3 hours of taking my blood. I was able to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 during this time though. After all that shock my body just wanted to go to sleep. After that they fed me lunch and I was on my way. Later that day I went and did some shopping for my sister's birthday and my leg did not want to. I was limping and ready to just go home and lay down.

The next day we went to float the Buffalo. It was a calm and easy trip but I don't think my body wanted me to do that after a biopsy. I did cover the wounds with Opsite, basically a transparent waterproof patch. They did ok. When I went to bed they got their revenge. The steri-strip on my tummy decided to come off, so the wound opened and I had about 4 blood stains on my bedding and some on my pjs when I got up. I reapplied a steristrip and got ready for church. After Sunday school we found my friend who is a recent nursing graduate, and had her fix me up. I had to put pressure to stop the bleeding some and that made me sick to my stomach and woozy. I have had to change those steristrips too many times, but the wounds are healing as they should be.

Here are my pressure bandages.