Dorothy, we're not in the hospital anymore!

This week, I have officially entered the world of pipettes, lab notebooks, 4 degree rooms, and hot water baths.  I've started my research year!

Yesterday, I had a conversation with my mentor that went something like this:

Mentor: So you can get started on the drug titration experiment today!

Me: Uh, right! [Actually thinking: OMG, I haven't held a pipette in over 3 years.] What concentration do you suggest for the drugs?

Mentor: You can start with 10, 100, 1000 microM to begin with. And if you seed the cells today, you can add the drug tomorrow, and then 72 hours later, do the growth inhibition assay! Don't forget to keep a stock flask going and split the cells!

Me: Well, uh, you see, I've never actually done growth inhibition assays before. [Actually thinking: seed, split? What the heck - growth inhibition assay????] 

Mentor: No problem! You can start out with 2 different assays.  [Scribbling furiously on a sheet, in illegible writing]
.
.
. 10 minutes later.  It makes perfect sense, right?

Me: Riiiiiight.  I think I'm going to talk to Paul (lab tech). [Actually thinking: what have I gotten myself into?]

So, clearly I'm am not in clinic/patient/hospital land any longer. I can't believe I'm saying this, but after having spent 1 year + 3 months on the wards, the wards actually feel more like home than lab.  I haven't done wet bench research since undergrad. While I am super excited about this project and getting back into the lab, I am definitely out of my comfort zone right now.  On the other hand, I know from my clinical year that I AM better trained at some things - thinking on my feet, anticipating questions, showing what I know (thank you med student role where you have to perform), not to speak of understanding how cancer treatment actually works in the hospital.  But still, it's time to dig out 5 year old protocols and put my basic science thinking cap on...stat!