Where do people come up with this stuff??!

I just read a news article from msn.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17246920/) about parents who are uproaring against the idea of having the HPV vaccine mandatory for girls to have before the age of 12. You might find it as amusing as I did to see the statment where they say that administering this vaccine will only increase the amount of premarital sex by younger girls. Apparently this vaccine can reduce a woman's chances of getting cervical cancer, and also has an added supplement to drive her into sexual activities that she would otherwise not have engaged in! My question: what happened to the parents that are willing to counsel/educate their daughter(s) about sexual practices??! Why are people so quick to blame other sources for their own children's behaviour instead of pointing the finger at themselves? This goes hand in hand with the cookie monster issue. Did you know that Cookie Monster is no longer named Cookie Monster? Supposedly he is "Healthy Snack Monster" because Cookie Monster was driving children to obesity. It, of course, had nothing to do with the parents that are allowing their children to BE cookie monsters!

Anyways, back to the Gardasil thing... I also found it slightly unnerving how uneducated the entire article sounded! I understand we want to be safe and make sure there are no side effects associated with younger children recieving the vaccine, but should we be so quick to completely dismiss the idea?? This kind of issue/article makes me a little more frustrated I think because scientists work so incredibly hard to get to something this important and then people start criticizing it for invalid reasons - such as the premarital sex thing. But yet, if any of those parents' daughters contracts cervical cancer in the future (after refusing the vaccine as a child) I'm sure they'd be the first to advocate its use across the country.

Any thoughts??

Will I ever be cured?

It seems as though I may never see the day when I can actually start taking accutane. For those of you who don't know, I have been planning for months to start taking this medication because I want to finally and forever(-ly) be rid of my acne problems. The unfortunate reality of this is that for women of child bearing years this is a royal pain in the ass (or 'bottom' for the mommies ;-)). For starters, I needed to pass two pregnancy tests a month apart from each other and in the mean time register online with this "I Pledge" website to officially promise that I will not get pregnant while on this drug. Also for those of you who don't know, accutane is supposedly extremely teratogenic (aka causes lots of birth defects) so it's heavily monitored by the FDA/Gov't and doctors alike. Anyways, my first appointment/preg'cy test was on January 16th and I was told to register online before my next appointment which was February 7th. Online registration consists of answering a series of questions about the dangers of getting pregnant on accutane as well as registering the two forms of birth control I plan on using. (Which, by the way, has to also be registered by my doctor, and match before any pharmacy will even consider filling my rx). Unfortunately, I have yet to be able to do that, even though I already had my second preg'cy test last week! The problem is that the doctor's office didn't register me until January 24th, and I couldn't do anything at all unless they did first. Well, to make matters worse, they can't complete their registration until February 24th because the "I Pledge" people require 30 days from the time the doctor first registers me to the time when I am able to start answering my questions. Grrr!! So now I have another appointment for another preg'cy test on March 6th, when I'm assuming I'll finally (hopefully) get started. Then I get to go through this mess again every month for the next 4-5 (maybe 6) months...

Sometimes I really wish I was a guy because all they have to do is say "I want to take accutane" and *poof* the prescription just appears and can be filled immediately. No "I Pledge" registration, though I'm not totally convinced that men on accutane don't pose a threat. I say this because there's a big note in my workbook (yes, they gave me a workbook) that states that I'm not allowed to donate blood during my time on accutane because if a pregnant woman were to recieve it her baby would be at risk for birth defects. Now I may be a scientist, and willing to admit when I'm wrong, but it seems as though if a man on accutane were to impregnate a woman, wouldn't that semen/sperm carry traces of accutane that could potentially harm the fetus?? I guess the chances are less likely because the semen doesn't stay around that long (especially as compared to when someone has a blood transfusion), but couldn't it carry some kind of risk?? The logical thing for me to do would be to do a pubmed search (www.pubmed.com) for any primary literature on the subject, but I already have so many papers that I don't, but should, read from there anyways. It's funny how easy it is to find cool and interesting papers on there, but how hard it is to actually sit down and read them all. You should see the pile I have going now... One of these days I'll get to them:)

Off topic, we had a snow day yesterday! Yep, Columbus had a whole 5.9 inches of snow and everyone (and I mean EVERYone) shut down for the day. Ohio State even called off classes and said that only mandatory personnel were allowed (and that was only in the medical center). So needless to say, I slept in. Only one person came into our lab yesterday and she was only there for about an hour I'd say. The funny thing is that it really didn't need to be as bad as it was - they just don't know how to plow anything here. For starters, it's best to actually LOWER the scoop on the city plows because that will aid in the removal of the snow from the street to the curb. Yes, I saw two (count 'em, TWO) giant plows go aaaaaaall the way down a fairly busy street with their scoops up!! And there was plenty of snow to be plowed. But I guess I can't complain too much because I got the day off. What sucked was the eventual work it took to get my car out of its parking space. I stayed at Nick's house because he lives close to campus and the night beforehand was already getting bad. It took him almost 45 min to get his car out, and that was with two other guys helping him. He ended up helping me later in the afternoon after the sun came out and sorta melted stuff a little. Even then it still took us about 20-30 min. I had to get out though because I needed to go home to get ready for Valentine's dinner. He surprised me with dinner at this really nice restaurant called "SpaGio's." Granted he didn't tell me where we were going because he wanted it to be a surprise, but I dressed up in nice slacks and a blouse. I thought a skirt would be too cold. But when I showed up at his house he was dressed up in a shirt/tie and suit coat!! Looked really really nice!! So naturally I felt really really bad when he had to get out and push his car to try and get it out of his parking spot again:( Eventually he and his roommate decided it was a lost cause so we got into my car... only to find that I was stuck too. Luckily mine wasn't stuck as badly as his, and he didn't actually get very dirty either which was good:) So we made it to our reservation on time at the restaurant and all was well. He was a perfect gentleman, and it was a very good night!

Okay, I'm getting rambly now when I should probably be working. I think I'm still stuck in "unexepected day off" mode which is making my motivation for work very hard to find. At any rate, experiments here I come!!

If anyone even still reads this I'd be surprised!

Sorry I'm a bad blogger! I keep forgetting or running out of time to blog, but it's not for lack of trying:) I don't really have much time today even, but I'll try to fill you in on the most recent events.

1). Lab stuff: My papers are still sitting untouched... Well, the experiments are ongoing, but the word documents stored in the computer are as of yet untouched. Larry and I met with another PI here on campus to discuss the possibility of us getting the embryology paper published and he pretty much shot it down. The good new is that he at least appreciated our model and offered up a slew of suggested experiments to answer the question "why" in terms of "why do the mice look like this" rather that our current explanation as to just what they look like. It was defeating at first, but uplifting knowing that the experiments shouldn't take too extrememly long (not more than a couple months) and I've already had experience with the procedures so I won't have to waste time optimizing protocols. ~~ On another lab topic, I'm quite proud to say that I actually wrote a protocol that works!! We have been trying to culture primary Schwann cells from our Schwann cell tumors, but had no luck in the past. Finally we heard a speaker talk about these kinds of tumors and he described experiments using cultured tumor cells. Naturally I asked him for the protocol, and his lab manager sent one along. However, when I tried it it really didn't work too well. Being that I really want this to happen, and that I've already cultured Schwann cells that originate from embryos, I thought I'd give it a try with a protocol I sort of modified as a convergence of the one I got from the other lab, and the one I've been using from embryos. And... TADA!! It worked!!! I am the new proud parent of cultured tumor Schwann cells:) So happy!

2). Stuff around the house: I finally finished painting my bathroom! I put one coat on a few weeks ago and thought at the time that it would be enough, but as it dried it became very obvious that it needed two coats. So last weekend I went ahead and did it - and if I do say so myself I think it looks fantastic!:) ~~ Fleegle is doing well, though I think he misses me a lot since I usually don't get home until after 9 or 10 every night. But that's to come in the next section...

3). Relationship stuff: (As promised,) the reason I usually don't get home until later is because I spend a lot of time with Nick. He lives just off campus so I usually find myself going to his house after I get off work - especially since he gets off a lot earlier than I do. He goes in a lot earlier than me too though, so that makes a difference. He at one point expressed some distaste towards the drive to/from my house which seemed understandable at the time, but lately I've been feeling stretched thin since I keep getting home so late. But if I were to leave earlier then we don't get as much time together since I usually don't get over to his place until around 6:30 or 7. At any rate, I talked to him about it last night and he seemed to completely understand and he offered to spend more time at my house. I think Fleegle will welcome the extra company, and I know I'll enjoy not having to drive so tired all the time - now we can share that experience. I'm super happy with things between us. He's a very understanding person, and drama-free! Things come pretty naturally and simply with us and it makes me feel good:) He even asked me to go to New York with him to go skiing!! But that may have to wait a few weeks because of a not-so-fortunate event last weekend.... He got into a car accident that totalled his car out:( Fear not, he is safe and healthy - the only injury he had was to his wrist from the chevy emblem on the steering wheel. When the airbag deployed it flew off and hit him on the inside of his wrist leaving a big bruise and a welt the size of a quarter. What happened was that he was going up to Cleveland to visit his uncle and they were having a snow storm as he was driving. When he changed lanes once on the highway he hit a big chunk of ice that flew off a semi, then hit a patch of ice, spun out, and ran head first into a cement wall. Needless to say, I'm very thankful that ONLY his wrist was injured! So, he just found out this morning that his car was totalled, which means car shopping this weekend. We're going back to Cleveland tomorrow to take his rental car back and grab some stuff from his car - cross your fingers there won't be any more storms!!

4). Misc: Not too much to tell in this section, other than I'm playing IM basketball again. I signed up individually with a friend of mine (Meghan) and our first game is tonight. Wish us luck! I'm certainly going to need all the luck I can get - especially just to make it up the court since I'm so out of shape!! Hopefully my hip won't blow out either, it's been acting up on my lately... But we'll see:)

Okay, that's all I have for now! I'll try to post again soon:)