Sem Break... Soonish.

Its past 3am on a Monday morning. I don't usually have the luxury of being up this late (or early, depending on how you look at it) during school season but now that semesteral break is on (not officially though, we still have an hour and a half left for an exam) I can freely resume on my nocturnal habits.

No worries… I hope

I don't know if it was due to the stress of the day, my memory acting up on me, or I just had a bout of extreme stupidity :( It turns out that K.pneumoniae and E. cloacae do resemble each other in terms of colonial growth so there was really nothing to fuss about. Hehehe. I just had to make sure whether my bacteria is motile or non-motile because that is the only differential test between the two species I can do in our lab.

Here's a picture of the biochem tests I interpreted yesterday which I wasn't able to include in my last, hurried post:

[caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="from left: TSI, SIM, SCA, LIA"][/caption]

So anyways, when I got to school this morning I checked my SIM right away and after much scrutinizing, I realized it did become hazy as compared to the original clarity of an uninoculated SIM tube. I was focusing too much on the middle of the tube that I forgot to look at the over-all transparency of the medium.

So after yester-night's confusion, I was finally able to conclude that my final unknown bacteria in Clinical Bacteriology is indeed Enterobacter cloacae :D Whew... I just hope tama nga ako... toink!

Confusion!!!

Today I was able to interpret the results for the biochemical tests I did for my final unknown in Clinical Bacteriology lab. So far, from my last post, we already know that my unknown is a gram (-) bacilli, catalase (+), oxidase (-) with thick non-hemolytic colonies on BAP.

The biochem test's result naman revealed the following...

• Triple Sugar Iron (TSI) = A/A (lactose fermenter), gas production (+), and H2S (-)

• Sulfide Indole Motility (SIM) = motile (), indole (-), H2S (-)

• Simmon Citrate Agar (SCA) = citrate (+)

• and Lysine Iron Agar (LIA) = K/A lysine deamination (-)

If you noticed there's no sign on whether it is motile (+) or non motile (-). That's because I'm so unsure. Well, actually I was so sure it was motile when I left the lab this afternoon but when I got home, right now while I'm making my written report, I decided to look at pictures of Enterobacter cloacae and Klebsiella pneumonia online.

I stumbled upon a picture of K.pneumonia on BAP and its so similar to my unknown's growth on BAP.... which is unfortunate and is what made me hesitant because I was so sure it was E.cloacae because it's motile and K. pneumonia is non-motile. But now, looking back, I feel like it wasn't really motile on the SIM tube cause it wasn't totally hazy on the point of inoculation. Gosh...  To think that I even performed hanging-drop microscopic technique just to see the motility and because of a stupid picture online, I got confused. I hate this!!!

Clinical Bacteriology

Just wanted to put a record here of my progress in our final unknown in Clinical Bacteriology. We were given a bacterial suspension (the "unknown") yesterday and we inoculated it in Blood Agar Plates and Mac Conkey Agar media then incubated for 24 hours.

Here's what I came up with when we checked it out kanina...  As you can see on the pic below, it has gamma-hemolytic colonies which are very thick and aggregating... probably due to the slightly wet (really bad) BAP we all were using.

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="to be identified for Clinical Bacteriology"][/caption]

Don't ask me what happened to the one planted on the MAC... Halos di na makita yung streaking pattern dahil nag-swarm, again probably due to the wet medium plus sabi ni Sir Ems (our lab technician) baka na-contaminate daw. It has clear colonies sa gitna, then sa mga colonies sa gilid medyo nag-pink, so you cant tell anymore if it's a lactose fermenting bacteria or not. No worries naman cause we can determine that sa TSI.

So anyways, back to the BAP. I did Gram Staining as well this afternoon; twice actually. I had to make sure I really had a Gram (-) bacteria because it grew on MAC kahit papano. I think nakulangan ako ng decolorization the first time kaya may naiwang purple cells. Nung inulit ko, without pagmamadali and observing proper staining techniques, nawala naman ung mga false gram (+) cells and pure pink na silang lahat. If you observe the pic below, their actually rod shaped in... uhm... I'm not sure kasi may mga single, may magka-pair, may mga areas din na magkakadikit sila talaga so I cant tell wether the arrangement is single, in pairs, or in clusters. Sabi basta may nakita ka daw ilang humiwalay mag-isa na cells, single na daw yun. Oh well....

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="final unkown's gram stain"][/caption]

Anyways, I did the biochemical tests soon after staining. I did oxidase which gave a negative result (no purple end color), catalase positive (vigourous bubble formation), and the Enterobactariaceae tests namely TSI, SIM, SCA, and LIA; the results of which requires 24 hours of incubation so I'll get to that tomorrow.

So, after 2 days of action, the results for my final microbiology unknown are:

• Gram (-) bacilli with singular arrangement
• Gamma (non) - hemolytic bacteria
• Catalase (+)
• and Oxidase (-)

Will get to the rest of the biochem tests tomorrow and I'll see if I can make an interpretation by then. That'll be all for now. Ciao :D

The CMT Cheerios in Action

Got the 3rd place for this performance during the TUA Foundation Week Celebrations last Feb.1... can't complain, we deserve the place we got :D

I was appointed team captain this year and I was really proud of the squad because the newbies from last year, who are now on their 2nd year of service, really stepped up and improved themselves. We also got a lot of really good new members this year.

Here's the vid, enjoy :D

A Reason to Blog

RSCN0652

Gosh, sobrang tamad ko today, 3 out of 4 classes ko ang hindi ko pinasukan... haha! Ok lang naman I guess, di naman ako tagilid sa mga subject na yun. The 4th one is still to start by 4:30 pa pero I'm sure papasok ako dun. I mean I HAVE to attend.

Anyway, the pic above is one of my favorite pics. Sa likod yan ng canteen featuring my favorite dessert. Again, I'm blogging directly from my Flickr account. Addict nako. Haha.

Hay...

Whoa!!!

Wow! Wordpress has 3 gigs of memory. Wahahaha. This is so cool. Kaya lang, pa-isa-isa ang upload since di naman talaga siya meant as a photo gallery.

Anyways, took lots of pics with my digicam lately, the one above is during the championship volleyball game: MedTech Vs. Nursing. A long awaited victory for our college. Haha. Partida na kasi more than 15 players ang Nursing eh sa MedTech less than 10. Oh ha.

Anyways, once I figure out how to resize my pics, I'll post more and more. Guess that's it for now. Ciao!!!

It’s that time again…

The time when parang may topak lahat ng prof at sabay-sabay silang nagpapa-project, nagpapa-exam, nagpapa-finalize at defend ng term papers.

At sa di maipaliwanag na dahilan, sinasabayan din ng mga school officials ng kung ano-anong University week, MedTech week, recollection, symposium, dance contest at iba-pang mga events.

Yes, its that time again. Sa Trinity University of Asia. Semi-finals week. Tapos University week, na sinasabayan naman ng celebration ng ibat-ibang college through conducting symposia, ibat-ibang contest, recollection, at big night party, all the while eh may classes parin. Tapos eh finals week na. Ganyan kami dito. Sa TUA.

What's a student to do? Edi mag-cramming!

Grrroooaaarrrr!

the sleep deprived

Sleep, it's either I'm having too little of it or too much. I can't remember the last time I had a week of decent night's sleep. I get too little sleep on weekdays and way too much on weekends.

Like today, I went to bed at about 1am, but I fell asleep mga 4am na. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? To think na kailangan ko pang gumising ng 6am for my 7:30 am class, and unfortunately enough, 7:30PM din ang out ko. Kumusta naman yun? (I dont usually use that expression though :-x)

Hay. Oh well, everything else is quite ok today. Bangag-bangagan lang sa klase and labs dahil sa kakulangan ng kaukulang tulog. Hehe. I resort to stealing a few minutes of sleep nalang sa malamig naming library during breaks.

I have to go home na pala, may utos pa sakin ang Ate ko. Just posted an entry here for the sake of posting an entry.

Gotta go. Bye! :D