No way! I'm covered in blood....OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN!

Yes, as the title suggests (or explicitly states), I was covered in the blood of a random woman. Now, some of you who are more dirty minded, may have jumped to a different conclusion than the REAL story I was about to tell. But the dirty minded people reading this, don't worry, you are not the first one and certainly won't be the last.

Here I was yesterday afternoon, minding my own business, doing my usual tissue culture and PCR when I got a phone call from the hospital that they have an umbilical cord for me. I was kind of hoping the cord would come last Monday, not Wednesday, as that was what the midwife promised me. But anyway, I was having a relatively relaxed day and hoped to go home early for once before I was told I had to pick up "my cord" immediately. I was thinking, "That is not my cord thank you very much" (for the strange people reading this blog and don't know me, I'm not a woman). So, yesterday, as you can probably tell already, I wasn't really in the mood for a cord. But anyway, as one of the few people trained in the lab to extract endothelial cells from an umbilical cord in the lab, I had to do it. So, I scrubed up, put on my gloves, face mask and hair net (ok, not the face mask or hair net, those were slightly exaggerated), I went on and did the procedure. Afterwards, after I took off my lab coat and gloves, I have found numerous spots of blood on my hoody. Somehow, the blood went passed the plastic screen and my lab coat and have stained up my hoody. Sad times.

Here's a picture of an umbilical cord if you are wondering what it looks like (ladies, you may ask to see and keep your own when you have given birth).
P.S. It is very rubbery and slippery
I must say, other than that, the week hasn't been too bad for me. I went out to the vet school of bristol univeristy WAAAY out in the countryside (signal bar of my phone decreased as the journey went on, literally. I had no signal by the time I got there). Organised secret santa for after the christmas meal for my lab and currently in the thought process of what to buy this person. He's developed something called the lady gaga model for jokes, so I'm thinking of something Lady Gaga related. Any suggestions are welcome!