Disclaimer: This thread is for the sole purpose of sharing my work encounters. This is not to shame, degrade, or discourage people from getting tested for fear of getting unsolicited judgment.
I had been thinking of making this post for a while, and decided today is the day to get started. Some of these are unbelievable, and believe me, I wasn’t expecting them until I experienced it firsthand. And yes, these stories are something even my crazy mind can’t make up. So here it goes.
#1: That’s Not What We Meant by a Sweet Sample
I was working a sideline job for a hospital inside the clinical microscopy section (the laboratory is divided into many sections, and clinical microscopy is the section that handles most stools and urine). The laboratory scientist duty for that day is on-leave and I worked as a temporary replacement for that section. My job is to process many urine and stool samples for annual physical examination of different company employees. When I say many, I was talking about hundred of samples for that day.
Our laboratory aide, who receives the tray of stool samples came in, while I was busy processing the samples with a look in her face that screams, “you won’t believe what just happened.” Sure enough, it was something crazy. She said that a walk-in patient submitted his stool sample as part of annual physical exam and she looked at it and was doubtful because the color and consistency is off. When she asked when did he collected it, he shrug and said “just this moment.” She stared at him and said, “Sir, we’ll process this one but, if what you submitted is a fake sample when we looked at it under microscope, we’ll be reporting an incident report. My time and yours will be wasted. So, tell me. Is this truly your stool sample?” She said he insisted that it was truly his stool sample and get angry at her for speaking to him that way and left. She did not spoke and just delivered the samples to me.
Bewildered at what I just heard, I immediately processed that sample and sure enough, it was nutella. I shared the reports with her and we laugh our stomachs out. From that day on, a friendly reminder is posted near the receiving area that says, “We don’t accept nutella or any other foods for a stool sample. Thank you.”