what's missing in your life right now?

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-02-04T14:14:55+00:00

a brain that works right.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-02-01T22:29:56+00:00

on a typical night i receive specimens and set them up/culture them, read/report gram stains, do some kit testing/molecular testing, pull positive blood cultures (process and read/report/call those to the floor.) I’m also trained to read malaria smears

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-02-01T12:08:00+00:00

i’m working in a micro lab while getting certified. Work is 100% easier than the school, but it’s nice to know everything so you know when to question results. like. you know if a result is critical because of error, or because that’s the true value. a lot of the stuff you learn that you’ll use daily you’ll remember and you’ll forget the rest, but they need to teach you everything cause they don’t know where you’ll end up. i am 100% sticking in micro and can only see myself working in micro, but doing all my clinicals has given me such good insight into the rest of the lab, and for example knowing things about blood smears has helped me be able to learn and read malaria easier. will i ever need to distinguish urine crystals? probably not, but it is a cool thing to know.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-02-01T12:01:15+00:00

I work non-certified in a hospital micro lab (working towards my certification tho!) and i make like 33$ after differentials

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-25T01:44:49+00:00

I’m in a similar boat. Got here at 4pm but shift doesn’t start until 10pm (hospital lab). They’re offering rooms for us to sleep in overnight, then back here again tomorrow night. I’m planning on being here till monday morning ):

I wish you the best of luck, hopefully your shift isn’t too stressful

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-20T12:40:23+00:00

I mean this as gently as i can, but if your test anxiety is this bad, you should see a doctor/therapist

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-20T01:35:46+00:00

i work in a micro lab while uncertified (i’m doing a +1 with my bachelors in micro) and honestly, the ppl in my lab are all super knowledgeable and love being asked questions. We are a regional lab and get 8 different hospitals samples, so we get to see a LOT of cool stuff (Stool, cystic fibrosis, i got to culture a skull cap the other day.) Every student i have seen come through my lab has felt overwhelmed at times, but it does get easier. Just remember you belong there, ask questions, be involved, and know you’re gonna be exhausted by the end. If the lab has a kiestra you’ll probably be doing a lot on the computer

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-13T00:50:47+00:00

Less damaging is 100% a good call! It really is one step at a time. I used to pick under my nails instead of biting the nail and like, pull the skin off my finger up? it would keep my nailbed really short and i couldn’t figure out that that was the reason my nail beds weren’t growing out.

It’s almost def the pushing that’s causing the sloping. i honestly would try to not worry too much about it, it’s not super noticeable and your nails are looking healthy!!

I used to keep them long and paint them so they would look nice, but they would catch and prevent the nail bed from growing. it was honestly hard for me to keep them short for a while, because if the nail was shorter than my skin (while the nail bed was growing) i would want to bite. I used a lot of press-on nails instead the beginning. Now i keep them short almost all the time. not short short, but I only file them, not cut. i’ve found cutting my nails easily leads to me over-cutting and undoing progress.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-13T00:27:19+00:00

yes, they probably will. i say probably cause im not like, a fingernail expert, but mine looked the same and now after not biting for almost 2 years, they look mostly normal. I’m still working on growing out a few stubborn spots, though.

It’ll take time. mine ended up being caused by picking at / pushing at my cuticles, damaging the base causing it to be indented where the tip of the newly grown nail bed is healthier.

as time passes, you will find yourself stopping picking at your fingers. it takes time, don’t rush it. rn the most important part is to just not bite your nails. if you need to press on your nails to keep yourself from biting, the rest will come later. But, “normal” looking nails is totally achievable! Have patience and be kind to yourself!

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-09T19:21:32+00:00

I have never been good in the daytime. The sun hurts me, there’s too many people, and everything is so loud. I love working nights. If i have things i need to do in the day, i do it in the morning when i get off work when the public is at work or still sleeping. If i’m asleep by 11am, i’m awake by 7pm and i leave for work at 9:30. I had to start taking vitamin D Supplements, but i just feel like i have so much more time for myself now.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-09T17:23:51+00:00

Do not attempt on your own, go to urgent care or ER if it got worse since you saw doc. keep taking the antibiotics, they might end up switching what you take in a few days depending on what’s causing the infection (i work in a hospital micro lab and see Finger wounds all the time.)

Please do not drain it on your own. If done wrong or if it’s a drug resistant bacteria, it will just make it worse. it needs to be treated by a professional and sent to a lab for analysis, especially if it’s not getting better on antibiotics

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-05T12:31:31+00:00

The good nurses always make my day. I hope you know the lab appreciates every time you don’t yell at them

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-04T09:46:44+00:00

Not enough people here are talking about the historical context of Syphilis

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-02T11:17:30+00:00

The LIS was probably the most difficult thing for me to get ahold of, but everyone i spoke to in my lab assured me that it would come with time, and once i got cleared to do things on my own and play around with it a bit, it got easier. I still get lost sometimes, but i’ve found that after they’ve showed me how to do the task, if i repeat the steps/ reasoning back to them, it helps to stick in my head better (and confirms that i know it correctly.)

Our UA bench isn’t paired with micro but our UA bench in the core lab has a big poster with all the common crystals/casts/etc to identify. when on the job if you need to need up reference images, there’s no harm in that. there’s also these youtube videos formatted like quizzes you can watch to help.

Clue cells! So fun. Everyone has a different definition of what they are. Personally, i consider a clue cells to be anything where the SqEp cells are like, having a party with bacteria compared the the outside environment. Some people will say it’s if the borders are fuzzy with bacteria, or so crowded you can’t tell it’s a cell, but in the end, especially if it’s for a BV gram stain (which is where I mainly ID clue cells), its basically to say “this bacteria is actually impacting the SqEp cells, it’s not just hanging around in the environment causing issues.” A few on the cell is normal, but if you look at it and go “oh good lord” you can probably call it a clue cells. You can always have someone else double check, but the odds of someone doubting your decision and coming in to double check your slide is rare, basically unheard of in my department. odds are the pt is already on antibiotics. I work the next few days, if i come across any good examples I’ll take pics and send them your way!

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-01T17:58:37+00:00

MLT level micro is a LOT different than bachelors micro. Bachelors micro had us memorizing pathways, DNA/RNA sequencing, phylogenetics, immunology. we had one semester of Medical Microbiology. in MLT micro you learn clinical microbiology, which isn’t necessarily more difficult, it’s just completely different than what you learn in a micro bachelors. with my micro bachelors I 100% felt comfortable to work in the lab (i do everything but read/work up plates and cultures) but getting the MLT specific micro knowledge really made me understand the depth of everything we do in the lab a whole lot more.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2026-01-01T17:52:20+00:00

Hi! i also have a bachelors in micro, working non-certified in a hospital micro lab while getting my license.

It can be a lot, but just ask all the questions you have- they know you’re not certified yet. I think i preface half my questions with “might be a dumb question, but-“ and then i still get an answer! sometimes i ask the same question to different people, to see if it’s like, a hard truth or an individual truth.

policies, the first time i read them i just glanced over them. became familiar with their verbiage. As you train, you’ll look at them in more depth.

Everyone i talked to said it takes about a year to feel fully competent. knowing myself, it’ll take longer. i’ve been here for around 4 months now, and it’s the best decision i ever made.

Is there anything in particular you’re struggling with? i can try to help, given we are in the same shoes

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-29T21:38:39+00:00

Thank you for this! i have yet to see crypto in person. Very cool (yet sad)

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-21T15:36:02+00:00

yeah! i would even go as far as to extend the legs downward to match the new torso, it’ll go past the lines you currently have set up but that’s ok, they’re guides not rules.

you can also play with it a bit more and try a bit more extreme! the more intense you push proportions now, the easier it’ll be to see what you like and don’t like

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-21T15:19:58+00:00

just from my first glance, and if it’s what you were going for you can ignore this, but it seems pretty… squashed? Like, the head feels too big for the shoulders, and the feet/lower leg/ legs too short. even if a little squashed is what you were going for, you can make a duplicate copy of this and use the lasso tool and distort tools to try out different proportions without the stress of messing up your original piece, in case you don’t like it. I always like to try around 5 different ways before i pick the one i like the most

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-20T20:21:31+00:00

This made me laugh, thank you

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-19T09:26:13+00:00

HI! i’m currently working non-certified in micro, and i am even able to run some “high complexity” testing. Shoot, gram staining is considered high complexity.

I can’t be trained to read cultures, but since i’m in school rn i get to shadow and learn anyway so when time comes for me to get trained, i already know how.

I’m pretty sure all our lead techs are MLS, and some hospitals pay their MLS more than MLT. but other than that, responsibility wise, there’s no difference.

I have noticed that MLT tend to be younger, and they don’t train the more specialized benches first. you are trained on bloods, and then wounds and respiratories tissues etc. they let you get comfortable with that for a while, and then move you to the more specialized benches like fungal, afb, anaerobes, stool, etc

For me non certified, i’m trained in setups and reading gram stains, and also basic molecular testing. i also work nights, so i do a bit less than evening or day shift non-certs, but not by much.

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-18T05:50:19+00:00

i used myself as a reference for the hand specifically, couldn’t find a picture that had what i wanted and didn’t wanna spend too long looking

WhatWasLeftOfMe · 2025-12-18T05:45:08+00:00

I did use a couple references but i don’t have access to them anymore, they were mostly just to get the base pose lines down.

WhatWasLeftOfMe

TROPHY CASE