Ash Wednesday and Being a Lab Rat

So today was the second time I had to do the seretonin depletions for this medical study. For those of you who don't remember...I have no health insurance and working as temp employee, my contract company will provide me health insurance at the cost of $100 per week. That's a lot of money for me, so in order to get health insurance, I signed up for a medical study. This study requires that I take paxil for my symptoms of depression and every once in a while spend a day of hell on suicide watch, while they deplete the seretonin out of my head. I do it again next wednesday. Sounds like fun huh? So my day:


7:30 Arrive at hospital, park in lot and sneak my cell phone in.
7:45 Get the blood draw by Val...a sweet nurse that does a great stick. Figures the best "Prick" I get lately comes from a woman.


8:00 Drink chocolate shake of death. This is the worst tasting thing I have ever had in my life. Even hours afterwards, I still heave thinking about the gritty texture and bad taste, masked by Hershey's Syrup. Upon finishing this "shake" of death, I have to take 25 pills.

Would you drink this crap??

Does this mean I'm on the pill?

9:05 Boredom sets in. Take pictures of the city and some of myself. Having a bad picture day (I should have shaved.) Ask for a razor at which they laugh. This is a psychological study…

The rest of the day was spent sitting in a room, without any interaction with any people, sitting in lock down so I can be monitored. I think I fell asleep at 11 ish. Total work 8 hours. I get health insurance and $100. Not bad for a days work. Hope your day was better!