TB in the level 3

So I've worked in the cell culture room before, but it really wasn't big a deal. But today I worked with living, breathing, killing M. tuberculosis. A level 3 biohazard. Dangerous stuff! First we gathered all the materials we would need to bring into the level 3 lab. After donning respiratory masks, lab coats, and shoe booties, with waiver signed, and boss's fingerprints we were finally granted access into the room.

Now usually just having the bunsen burner on makes me nervous (esp. after Loryn set her lab bench on fire). But then on top of that I was handling all these test tubes that containing something I knew could hurt me. My hands were sweating profusely, which didn't help when I needed to put on new gloves everytime I left the hood. Taking as many precautions as I could, I definitely made my mask so tight it hurt. But I didn't want any bacteria getting in! They gave me a TB test when I started, and I have to take another when I leave to make sure I didn't catch anything. Doesn't inspire much confidence. haha.

Four hours later we were finished with our protocol and had to dispose of everything in red biohazard bags to be decontaminated later. My boss gave me some chocolates at lunch. And then I finished off the day taking some immunofluorescent pics of bacteria upatken by macrophages while listening to Girl Talk. All in all, today was pretty exciting!