#i could go on about white blood cells and what chemical signals mean what lol but then this post would be endless

[rainfanu]

Hey excuse me for the random real life question but could u give some examples of what kinds of medical lab stuff do you do/have you done? Just curious bc any kind of 'science' is really cool to me

OH YEA of course!!! I’m still doing clinical training / classes but just to start off—I’m working towards a degree to become a medical laboratory scientist (MLS) which requires a bachelor’s degree. Sometimes we’re also called Clinical Laboratory Scientists!

While studying for this major, there’s a few avenues you can explore; not all MLS / CLS do the same thing nor work in the same departments. I’m mostly interested in hematology (working with blood and testing samples) but other scientists can go into; Bloodbank, Immunology, Microbiology, MedChem, Urinalysis, etc

When people have blood drawn / urine samples taken / spinal taps / blood cultures, it comes to us. Typically a phlebotomist will take the blood but we are also trained to take blood—aka the rare time they’ll need us out of the labs lol.

Personal experiences; I’ve taken blood, tested blood samples for diseases (after centrifuging), observed and counted blood cells, looked at urine samples tested for traces of protein / blood / WBC / bilirubin, conducted serial dilutions, preformed Agglutination tests (which i find are very interesting)... uhmm.. etc. We preform what labwork test is ordered in my department, pretty much! Our results help the doctor diagnose the patient! Not many people talk about MLS but they’re just as important as doctors and nurses! We’re BEHIND THE SCENES (also thank you for letting me nerd out fjkjfkllkgjlkjlkgj)