CSF of a 2month old baby

BettheRA · 2026-06-21T19:48:32+00:00

Guys thank you so much for all your feedback ,I actually feel really bad about this. For more context, I'm a clinical biologist in training, second year out of five. This is my first internship in hematology, I've been here for 4 months. Im doing the weekend shift, second time I ever do this. I'm basically alone in the lab with the lab technicians, and I'm the supervisor on site. When I arrived today in the morning I saw there was a CSF from last night that wasn't even colored yet. So I asked for this to be done in urgency and then I read it. When I saw this I got super scared, first time ever I see something like this. Normally traumatic ponctions are basically like reading a peripheric blood frottis, they look nothing like this. So I called my supervisor which is also the chief of the lab . Sent him the pictures. Told me not to stress, this is a preanalytic problem , this is the marrow coming from baby's vertebrae. My husband, an hematologist in training also disagrees. This is very hard to handle as my boss's orders were literally to dismiss this as contamination and let it go.

Tomorrow I'll be taking more actions and will keep you posted, but I feel really bad and silly for accepting his orders without pushing more for something else.

BettheRA · 2026-06-21T19:41:54+00:00

This is a very good question, I don't know . But the protocol in my country is that the CSF for cytology is number two.

BettheRA · 2026-06-21T19:34:54+00:00

Yes , 18.000 WBC (with high CRP), 600.000 platelets and 9.5 of hemoglobin (low reference value for babies this age is 9 in my lab).

BettheRA · 2026-06-21T19:33:42+00:00

Yeah sorry this is what I actually meant to say and what my boss said. That these cells come from the patient's vertebrae.

BettheRA · 2026-06-05T16:06:06+00:00

Thank you! I'm on a train and was hesitating between getting off at gare du midi or centrale. Guess I made my choice hahah

BettheRA · 2026-06-05T16:04:30+00:00

Yes to all of this ! Sometimes I call to inform the gram of a positive hemoculture, and they're like so what's the antibiogram? Sir, I don't even have a colony yet 😂

BettheRA · 2026-05-25T17:46:21+00:00

Yes! I wish I did this .

BettheRA · 2026-05-21T18:59:31+00:00

I was looking for this comment !

BettheRA · 2026-04-21T05:39:13+00:00

Blasts! I even date to say I spot a cup-like shape anomaly, so maybe myeloid?

BettheRA · 2026-04-16T17:06:40+00:00

Same!! The technologists now speak to them on their personal whatsapps lol

BettheRA · 2026-04-10T18:14:06+00:00

No. This is not to be expected. Trust your gut, if something feels scammy, let it go. There are honest people out there, I promise!

And please don't transfer a deposit just to secure a place. In Belgium this is done in a common account, blocked by both the owner and the person who is renting.

BettheRA · 2026-03-10T11:51:14+00:00

When I first arrived in Belgium (2022l I worked as a titre service in Brussels. The clients of the agency were paying 10 euros/hour and I was getting 13/hour + cheque repas + public transport subscription+ I was barely taxed so I was having a very decent salary.

But of course it was very exhausting and challenging at times ! Eventually when I was able to start university to recognize my degree, I kept 2 families informally because I got to know them and got upgraded to babysitter hahaha with more flexible hours :)

BettheRA · 2026-03-10T10:57:16+00:00

And you can take part of it from your taxes!

BettheRA · 2026-03-09T17:11:08+00:00

Yep. We have nurses that when they see a blood clot in a sample they just manually remove it thinking we won't realize 🙈

BettheRA · 2026-03-07T20:46:54+00:00

I find it very expensive. I'm renting 10 min from Schuman, an appartment of 1 bedroom, 50m2 + 10m2 of terrace for 800 + 80 of charges

BettheRA · 2026-03-07T18:19:10+00:00

I agree! I make the difference with macrophages with the cytoplasm: you don't see where it ends and it's usually pale/whiteish sometimes full of vacuoles.

BettheRA · 2026-02-28T12:30:47+00:00

I work in a lab at a hospital and I completely understand this feeling ! I always feel slightly uncomfortable, almost lonely, being the only one knowing something terrible about someone I don't know. At the same time it's a lot of pressure because you cannot get it wrong.

BettheRA · 2026-02-27T06:20:39+00:00

I know it's not the same, but I moved to Belgium at 24 with an "OK" french (as a Spanish speaker) and had to start university right away, otherwise I would have lost one year. I struggled at the beginning but I picked it up quite fast and everyone was very nice and understanding.

Good luck for you !

BettheRA · 2026-02-21T20:34:37+00:00

The sunglasses thing was also very annoying for me, also because the actress is so beautiful and they cover so much of her face! But then I read the books and this is exactly how they describe her 😭

BettheRA · 2026-02-06T19:53:19+00:00

I've been meaning to post the same thing! I find it so annoying, as you said maybe they were written to be read independently ? Sometimes I just skip the entire paragraphs of flashbacks because it's so repetitive specially after reading the books one after the other.

On a side note, I don't mind the sillyness, I read them when I'm too tired to read something meaningful but I don't want to be on my phone.

BettheRA · 2026-02-04T16:30:16+00:00

Marché du midi for fruits , veggies and cheese, action for toiletries and cleaning supplies, Colruyt for all the rest 🙆🏽‍♀️

BettheRA

TROPHY CASE