Panic attack

[tarigwaemir]

Sherman Fairchild, on the Feast of St. John Berchmans

My nerves are a wreck, a wreck. I have to run ten 96-well PCR plates by Tuesday, and that in itself isn't so difficult but I need to make up primers to the right working concentration, and that means 419 primer sets. I have ten 96-well plates of forward and reverse primers in their stock solution, and I've already given up on labeling 419 tubes all at once because I don't even have enough racks for them at the moment. (If I could label them something simple, like 1, 2, 3, etc., I wouldn't have so much trouble, but they have these stupid long names like INS101425939. Argh! Do you know how much I hate this nomenclature?! Hate, hate, hate it!) What is making me panic is that I have to do the PCRs in a certain order because our product sizes vary from 250 to 7000 bp, and the configuration of the plates in which I run the PCRs do not match up at all to the configuration that the primer plates are in. Furthermore, the primer plates aren't even labeled properly, so I'm making up the primers to working concentrations while referring to a printout of an Excel sheet in 8 pt font. I've already made a mistake once while transferring from the plate to the Eppendorf tubes, and I'm in constant fear of making a mistake again. My nerves can't take this. I keep measuring and re-measuring the volume left in the original plates to check that I didn't accidentally take from the same well twice. I think I'm going to go insane at this rate. I keep telling myself to go slowly, but I really am going to end up here all day. Plus, I need to do this for four more sets of 96 once I finish this one. Why oh why, didn't I have the foresight to sort the order form by the PCR product size before sending it in?! Then I won't be having this problem.

If you don't hear from me again, it's because I drove myself insane while making up primer solutions. But I will finish four PCR plates today. Even if I have to stay here until midnight. I will, I will, I will. (Ugh, I hope I remember to eat dinner. Actually screw dinner, I hope I eat lunch. Self-revelation: I am really prone to self-neglect when stressed. I knew this before, but I had some amount of self-discipline to fight it. At the moment, all my self-discipline is being expended on not mixing up these primers. And argh, what am I doing here posting in LJ when I should be making up primers? I've only done a fifth of the first 96!)

Yours &c.

Comments

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Never mind lunch or dinner, EAT. And rest your eyes.

[troisroyaumes]

Heh, thanks, I did end up eating dinner after all. ^_^

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

Poor Tari!!! ::HUG:: Oh man, and to think I'm sitting here watching Fargo with my grandma. ::HUG::
You should come back and let me show you my manga!

[troisroyaumes]

I wanna go back hooooome. [/childishness] Thanks, Tryo-chan~ I survived today after all (but I have to go back tomorrow to do more ;_;).

[karabana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, lab work sucks ...

... says the girl who's been doing IF after IF after IF.

*sympathizes*

(and why the hell are you doing 96 PCR rxn all at once? I can imagine reasons to do 96 PCR's, okay, but they could be split up.)

[troisroyaumes]

Well, I need to do at least 838 PCR reactions and the most logical way is to split it into 96-well plates. With a multichannel pipetter, setting up the reactions themselves isn't too bad. What was annoying though was having to dilute the primers to their working concentrations and match them up to the configuration of reactions I had set up on the plates. >_< I think that it'll be easier next time around though. Hopefully.

Thanks for the sympathies~! Hope you don't suffer too much at lab too. ;_; (We should form a support group...)

[delentyevox.livejournal.com]

:/ hang in there, and good luck! (i'm currently doing at least my 9th failed PCR optimization now, so i have a little 96-well envy ;)).

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks Tiffany! I survived after all, although I only got two plates done. >_< Hopefully it'll be easier the second time around? ::crosses fingers:: Heh, hope your PCRs work out okay; it sucks when your gels turn up empty.

[ldmoonflower.livejournal.com]

You can do it! Um, are you allowed to use your own temporary happy little code system with post-its with easier-to-track numbers/labels, and then fill in the stupid long numbers later?
Good luck!

[troisroyaumes]

No, I can't because other people have to use these primers when I'm away, and I need to label them in a system they can all understand. ;_; I was using labels, but I ran out so I resorted to writing on tape instead. Well, I did get about a third of them all labeled, and if I focus and work mindlessly all day tomorrow, it'll all be finished and I'll never ever have to do them again. (Thank goodness.)

Thanks for the encouragement, Tiffy! You're the bestest. XD

[ldmoonflower.livejournal.com]

Bestest, eh? What has your Harvard education done to you? You never would've said that in high school! . . . I kid, and I think you're awesome, too.

Any chance you'll be visiting home before month's end? I mean, I ran into MARYA today, and she's never in the city, so it must be possible to see other people too.

[troisroyaumes]

I'm coming back on the 27th and will be in New York until Sept. 15th or so. Will you still be around? I want to do things...I don't know what though. >_>

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<_<>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I'm coming back on the 27th and will be in New York until Sept. 15th or so. Will you still be around? I want to do things...I don't know what though. >_> <_< Oh, and I have a souvenir for you from Korea. ^_^

Harvard's corrupted me in a lot of ways. Reducing me to saying "bestest" is the least of it...it's even gotten me somewhat immune to <I>hugs</I>. O_O;; Oh will the horrors never cease. XD

[ldmoonflower.livejournal.com]

Aww. Well, I'm leaving the 29th, so I think we'd better make an actual, concrete plan to see each other.

[ayatsujik.livejournal.com]

Oh, maaan, yet another friend going through labhell.

*hugs* Steady now! YOU CAN DU IT. :o