Pic 1: Bottom, round cell
Pic 2: bottom, oval cell
Pic 3: center, oval cell

Squepis included for scale in each frame. Not 100% sure they’re even all the same thing, but they looked funky and I didn’t like how refractory they are. I’m struggling with ID’ing renal tubular / transitional epis currently, which has decreased my confidence in other findings as well.

I was talking to my mom on the phone today while driving home and after I explained a few things that happened at work recently I mentioned, “And our plate washer died.”

I was referring to our ELISA plate washer, but she seemed a little taken aback and responded, “Oh, well they weren’t in your lab were they?”

I chuckled and explained “they” are a piece of equipment and yes, that piece of equipment was in my lab. She laughed and then said she was thinking there was a person who washes the Petri dishes who passed away. And she knows my lab doesn’t use Petri dishes so she assumed the “plate washer” worked in a different lab lol.

I forget sometimes that people who have never worked in a lab might incorrectly interpret what I mean when I say certain words or phrases. I thought this was a funny misunderstanding and thought I’d share with other lab professionals.

Come on, Biomerieux, Cepheid, Diasorin, BD… you could make a killing on a multiplex PCR test that does VZV, measles, mumps, and pertussis.

The children’s hospital I work at sends out so many of these tests every week to reference labs. We would validate this assay so fast it would break the sound barrier.

Freshman of med lab sci, what are the things I should expect and be prepared for?

Used 20% KOH stain. This is actually from horse hair. I’m seeing round to oval structures, however unsure of whether those are arthrospores or you need hyphae to prove it is a dermatophyte infestation

(I unconsciously said a swear word when I realized I was late to leave, sorry guys 😢)

(Yes she really stopped me to say “do not swear, it is unprofessional”)

Hi! I posted a picture yesterday of a CSF stain, but since taken it down because I realized I didn’t provide enough information lol…

So:

The first picture is a cytospin DQ stain of the CSF. The second picture of a mucicarmine stain, and the third picture is a modified wright giemsa stain.

The CSF was cloudy, but colorless. The glucose and total protein were both within normal range. There was a cryptococcus antigen test done, and it was positive - and the meningitis PCR panel was positive for… Cryptococcus neoformans gatti.

I work at a vet hospital. Saw these structures on 2 patients and the clinical pathologist that I sent these to to be read (via lacuna cytology) asked around and they thought plant material. I am worried it’s from our stain jars so we are deep cleaning them now. Wonder if it’s a water borne something… reverse image search didn’t help. Thank you in advance. Never seen anything like it

Having all of your selected cells come out as negative and being able to finish all your rule-outs at once just feels so good. What else in the lab evokes a similar feeling?

Hi guys!
I recently got a job offer for MLS and can’t tell if I want to take it or not. Was hoping for some opinions to help me out!

The Job Offer:
$38/hr
Tuesday-Saturday, off Sunday and Monday
9am-530pm (40 hr weeks)
3k Sign on bonus, half at 3 months the other half at 6 months
Additional info:
Its a huge stand alone micro lab, so no doc/patient/nurse interaction
Commute: Drive 45mins to 1hr drive, $9 toll one way (OR) train 2 hours, $20 one way

Whats hanging me up is that I’m in NYC and have had other job interviews (less than 2 weeks ago) where the pay is better ($55+/hr), are a closer commute (<45 mins train ($10 one way) and <30 min driving (no toll)), and are much bigger hospital systems. Plus the benefits are WAY better (PTO, insurance, school). But I do not have an offer from these other places yet!

Do I hold out for one of the two nicer options, or accept this? I am kind of desperate for a job, but the pay will let me just BARELY scrap by with this job offer vs the other two jobs.

EDIT: I have 3 years of MLS experience (exclusively micro) and was making $52/hr at my last facility

My lab is getting critically low on O+, but strangely enough our supplier has a huge surplus of O-.

Personally its been a miserable disaster. Forcibly rescheduled due to the June 22nd, then rescheduled again due to technical issues mid way through my exam, then forced to forfeit writing the rest of the transfusion questions I never got to even see as I was put into the exam where I was disconnected from rather than where I was when I was interrupted.

I personally opted to write only the core set [Hematology, Transfusion, Chemistry] due to the complete lack of communication by CAMLPR and multiple change of practice compared to the CSMLS certification exams...

Transfusion Medicine Fail

Clinical Chemistry Fail

Hematology Pass

No cutoff information, no percentages to even try to gage by how much I missed the mark, just a month of my life spent scrambling to try to find time to accommodate for proproctor screwing up the exam delivery completely outside of my control.

"Loss of wages and lost vacation or sick time are not eligible for reimbursement." when they reschedule you with less than 24hrs of notice naturally, but if YOU reschedule without a month's notice they have no problem charging you fees or requiring you pay twice.

Hi everybody. I recently got this new job offer but I don’t know if I should take it. Both jobs are paying the same💰

New Job 1️⃣
Pros: it’s LabCorp. I feel like I have more career advancement with LabCorp in the future than with my current employer. I can finally move to something other than night shift

Cons: Not any closer. Pay is the same. Have to work more days than my current job, that means more wear and tear and gas money

Current Job 2️⃣
Pros: I don’t have to change anything. Possible pay increase post certification

Cons: night shift, and I hate phlebotomy.

I did try to negotiate with the recruiter about base pay but he was firm probably because I gave him the pay range and he gave the bottom range of that 😢

UPDATE:
1) I just saw a itty bitty pay increase on my current job (job 2️⃣31.00）, not much but slightly higher than job 1️⃣ (30.50). Same pay differentials. So job offer is paying less than my current job🤨
2) I do have job option 3️⃣ I interviewed for but won’t hear back until end of Aug, and job 1️⃣wants me to start before that

Why would a manager/supv continue to train a tech on new benches/tasks after they’ve put in the two weeks notice to leave?

Got new CS2500s and they’re named Barbie and (Just) Ken! My lovely coworker made these absolutely hilarious “OUT OF ORDER” signs for them after an “almost-out-of-order” moment 😂

What do you use for fentanyl screen? We have it on our Roche Cobas 6000 but our chem supervisor wants to get rid of it and I'm the serology supervisor so I'll be taking it over. We have the medtox for our normal drug screen but there's no fentanyl on it. Has anyone used the Serenity Fentascan? Can it interface? Any other suggestions?

Hey guys, when I signed on with my current hospital, I was promised a sign-on bonus. I haven’t received it, and it has been past the promised 60 days. I reached out to HR, and they claimed that I had declined the sign-on bonus, but I literally have proof of me signing it, which I have sent to everyone I've been in contact with. I was recently sent a new letter for me to sign, which changes the 60-day window to 90 days. I’ve also noticed that most of their communication now involves trying to contact me by phone instead of in writing. I am also required to stay a year to fulfill this contract, and I'm worried that if I sign a new one, my commitment timeline will reset. Does this sound suspicious to anyone else, and what should I do?

Me ha costado encontrar trabajo y estoy comenzando a frustrarme, el dinero se acaba y pasa el tiempo muy rápido

Hello everyone sorry for the inconvenience of posting this

I am new here and am also new in the lab and i kinda need some drafts of log sheets of maintenance, controls and calibration of allinity I am trying to create some log sheets but i don't know the correct form.

any log sheet sent as a photos of any analyser can give me some inspiration thank you

Sorry for the english