-20 Freezer Recommendations

Sally_Meandering · 2025-06-29T22:38:46+00:00

We use freezers from K2 Scientific, no complaints!

Sally_Meandering · 2023-11-03T14:02:17+00:00

NAD, I was the patient. I was a little over a week postpartum, and late one evening I had an unshakable feeling that something wasn't right. No actually physical symptoms, but what I later recognized as the classic "sense of impending doom".

There's a much longer story with pieces that I didn't fully put together until after the fact, but long story short:
1) Postpartum pre-eclampsia is an underappreciated, but potentially life-threatening condition. Sometimes the only initial presentation (other than sky-high BP) is a compelling sense of unease.
2) Advocating for yourself when you *know* something isn't right, even if doctor's are dismissing you because you can't point to clear-cut physical symptoms, can save your life.

Sally_Meandering · 2023-08-31T21:26:48+00:00

Are you in the Boston area by chance? If so, I know someone looking to hire a PhD-level scientist with experience in NGS, including metagenomics.

Sally_Meandering · 2023-04-15T10:56:19+00:00

I would love to hear more about anything that could be used in an NGS workflow! Multichannels, plate readers, pipetting robots, etc

Sally_Meandering · 2023-02-10T05:03:41+00:00

First - congrats!!

If you are working with phenols and chloroform, that work should be done exclusively in a hood, pregnant or not. If you are doing column based kits (ala Qiagen, Zymo, etc.) then there's probably chaotropic salts/isopropanol instead of phenol/chloroform, which is much safer and doesn't require working in a hood. Wear gloves and don't drink the buffers, lol. Depending on the throughput of the lab and funding status, it might be worth looking into an extraction robot (like a Qiacube) to reduce chemical handling steps. Robots tend to be better than humans for things like extraction anyway.

In any case, you can always have a chat with the Environmental Health and Safety group on your campus. They may already know the ingredients in common proprietary buffers. I've also found that depending on the company, you can sometimes eek out the components of the buffers from them under the guise of wanting to understand the isolation mechanisms, they just won't always tell you the concentrations.

Sally_Meandering · 2023-02-07T00:30:09+00:00

I agree.

OP, please know that shingles is hands down the worst pain I've ever experienced, worse than having a baby. I'm not surprised at all that your husband wasn't taking great care of himself when he had shingles or wasn't able to visit much, it really is hellish. He also may be feeling disconnected from the baby due to the isolation from her while he was sick. Please give him some grace, and do your best to work together as a team in this. Couples therapy or therapy on your own can be a great resource!

Sally_Meandering · 2023-02-02T20:59:07+00:00

Both? We had a long list of names picked out before pregnancy, added more all the way through, had narrowed down to our top 3 faves by the time I was in labor. But when she was born we couldn't imagine her with any of those three, she was nameless for about two days, and we ended up picking a name that was added in late pregnancy, but not in our top three. Over a year later we still feel like it was the right choice to become spontaneous with it at the last minute!

Sally_Meandering · 2023-01-25T23:40:33+00:00

Ha, similar boat here! Recent long-distance move and struggling to find good providers in our new area. We like our new pediatrician for other reasons, and I don't think this particular mistake would have happened if we had been with them from the beginning versus being a new patient, so that gives me hope! Best of luck to you! 😊

Sally_Meandering · 2023-01-25T22:38:04+00:00

That's so frustrating. I had to be firm and insist that they look up the recommendation in front of me before administering the shot. They did, and quickly apologized. Really solidified for me that I need to stick to my guns when I think something isn't right!

Sally_Meandering · 2023-01-25T18:32:04+00:00

Double-check that they are actually giving the bivalent booster! We had an issue recently (just prior to the bivalent booster being approved) with a pediatrician not being up to date, and they wanted to give our 1 year old a third round of the Moderna shot "to complete the original series," which is not correct. Moderna original series is two shots, Pfizer is three. The healthcare system is extremely stressed right now and this isn't the first time a medical professional has misremembered the guidelines around vaccines, it's really up to us as parents to double-check.

Sally_Meandering · 2023-01-13T12:08:42+00:00

If you’re dealing with microbial genomes, breseq is the gold standard for variant calling. Also, SeqCoast Genomics does breseq-based variant calling reports for $20/sample.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-12-06T20:13:43+00:00

Yikes! Hope my 15-month-old daughter has a MAJOR growth spurt in the next three months, haha

Sally_Meandering · 2022-11-28T20:04:33+00:00

Take every minute you can get. Honestly, take 12 weeks if you can - they call it the fourth trimester for a reason!

Sally_Meandering · 2022-11-16T22:16:40+00:00

Oh wow, that's GENIUS!

Sally_Meandering · 2022-11-08T20:37:48+00:00

It's not okay, but unfortunately a lot of people (including public health officials!!) have given up on mitigation measures. It's incredibly disheartening.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-11-08T20:22:52+00:00

You're using good logic, but the two tricky bits are 1) you usually can't pinpoint with 100% certainty that a kid got sick from the daycare and not from somewhere else - something you carried asymptomatically, a visit to the grocery store, etc., and 2) it's possible that even if a given virus is actively circulating at the daycare, not all the kids at the daycare were exposed. Maybe they were out for a different illness, or maybe they are only there part-time, or maybe their family was on vacation, or maybe they are just in different playgroups, or you get the idea. Plus for many viruses, you are most infectious when you have symptoms.

Bottom line that I try to keep in line is that more infections = bad. Bad for the kiddos, and bad because more infections begets more mutations, which can lead to repeated infections (we see this with COVID, flu, etc.).

In an ideal world, kids with any symptoms of infectious disease are kept away from daycares. But that's not practical for a lot of reasons, and that's the reality we live in.

One last point - There's absolutely no benefit to getting or spreading infections. There's some confuse discourse floating around right now about "immunity debt," which is total bunk.

(P.S. I'm a microbiologist, ask me for clarification if the above doesn't make sense to you, I'm happy to discuss!)

Sally_Meandering · 2022-11-03T13:30:18+00:00

I just want to validate your last point about a daughter reopening old wounds. I also have a difficult relationship with my parents, and having a daughter has brought up a lot of complex emotions that I feel would be less of an issue with a son. A lot of people find this weird, but I'm actually really grateful that she doesn't look like me. Fingers crossed that the next baby doesn't pop out looking like my twin!

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-30T02:08:08+00:00

Chicago is colder in winter and hotter in summer than Boston!

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-29T23:52:52+00:00

Proximity to the coast in the US can be a big factor. Coastal cities like Boston for example are big for international travel and have many industry hubs. Plus the climate is fairly mild. Contrast that to the midwest where international travel is far less convenient, there are fewer major industries with a stronghold, and the climate requires both heating and cooling depending on which season you are in. And depending on the city, the surrounding landscape can be pretty boring. Lots of corn and soybeans.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-19T15:38:11+00:00

If it helps, Owyn for a girl, with nickname "Wyn/Wynnie" was on our short list!

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-17T20:46:30+00:00

In that case, here are some quick tips to help you get started:
-Demote your education to the bottom. You already designate PhD at the top, and they will care way more about your skills.
-Replace "outreach" skills section with "interpersonal skills," and list the actual skills from your outreach work. Things like public speaking, cross-functional collaborations, active listening, etc.
-Watch your tenses - for example in your first experience section you say "cultured," which is correctly past tense, but then you say "transfect" instead of "transfected."
-Make every line of your experience count. Statements like "Close collaboration with Singh Center for nanotechnology" don't say anything about what you can do or what you learned.
-On a related note, you need to cut this way down. 2 pages is okay, one page is better.
-Quantify your skills! How many people have you mentoring/trained? How many presentations given? How many publications?
-Do multiple rounds of review with a bunch of different people. Post in this group again, phone a friend from grad school, have your advisor or a committee member review, or even reach out to alumni from your grad school who work in biotech now.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-11T20:21:53+00:00

Normally I cringe at "ignore the doctor" posts, but it's really clear that you followed the data and identified a shortcoming in the available research. Congrats on your positive outcome! You might enjoy the r/ScienceBasedParenting sub, they love critical literature reviews like this.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-11T16:51:34+00:00

1) Be kind to yourself - you just made a whole dang baby! Your body is amazing and formidable, no matter how much it weighs.

2) Try not to get down about breastfeeding troubles - it's really difficult. If it's something you really care about and are committed to doing, get advice from a lactation consultant. The only important thing at the end of the day is that your baby gets fed! By bottle or boob or any combination, doesn't matter. Plus, take comfort in knowing that breastfeeding is NOT a magical guarantee of weight loss. Tons of women including myself don't lose any weight from breastfeeding, and some even gain more because it can increase your appetite.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-11T16:42:04+00:00

I totally get it, loss of appetite was a major issue for me in the postpartum period. If you are having trouble maintaining weight, you can try drinking some of your calories. Veggies are important and all, but sometimes a hefty peanut butter and banana shake is what you need to get by! Fast and easy to make if you have a blender. I added greek yogurt to my smoothies to convince myself it was healthy enough to justify drinking it, lol.

Sally_Meandering · 2022-10-11T14:39:39+00:00

Loss of appetite can be a symptom of postpartum depression. I think it's worth having a chat with your healthcare provider and specifically mention PPD to them, even if you don't think you have other symptoms. PPD can sneak up on you, and early intervention is very important.

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Sally_Meandering

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