Lab Woes

[tanarill]

So, I had a bit of excitement in the lab. Not much.

After dealing with bacteria, but before washing the glassware, it is standard to bleach stuff for twenty minutes, which is long enough to kill anything still alive. I was washing one thing, and I managed to knock over a glass graduated cylinder. Being a human, I reacted by trying to catch it - and managed to slice my finger open on a cut edge. After which I dropped the broken cylinder, and it smashed all over the floor anyway.

Then I freaked right out, because that is what I do when I start bleeding out of cuts in my hand. Fortunately, I have awesome lab-mates, who kept their heads. Ethan got the first aid kit, and Dave swept up the glass, and in somewhat less than half an hour, I was completely fine except there was a band-aid on my finger.

Total damage: one lost graduated cylinder and a bit of my pride.

If this is the worst thing I ever deal with in a lab, I am completely fine with it.

Comments

[everbright]

*whew* Yeah, god bless that's the worst accident you ever have in the lab. Did you have to worry about the bacteria setting up house in the cut, or is it not that kind of bacteria?

[tanarill]

It is that kind of bacteria (E. Coli) but I had bleached everything, so infection is unlikely even without the antiseptic in the first-aid kit.

[everbright]

Okay, good! I wasn't sure from the sequence of events whether or not the glass was still bacteria-y or bleached.