Schedule

This is the proposed schedule for the mice experiments:

No of mice injected with drug	Date	Approximate amount	Number of mice sacrificed on
			15-11-10	22-11-10	08-01-11
3 male mice	08-11-10	3-4 mg each	1	1	1
2 male mice	08-11-10	6-8 mg each	1	1
2 female mice	08-11-10	3-4 mg each	1	1

Totally 7 mice will be subjected to the study and I need 40 mg of the drug.
I am delaying it as I am going home on next week for Diwali

Got Gemita!

It was just like going to any shop buying an article. BK droped both of us, me and Santhosh in Bendur, near Dominos pizza shop. As was said Mediglobe, located just at its back. We walked in introduced myself, handed over my synopsis copy and within 2 minutes they put a small ampule in the plastic cover and handed over to me. We walked out. Some Rs 1400 saved.!

I will start the experiment soon..
probably tomorrow.

Drug procurement

Procurement

Drug required is Gemcitabine – 200 mg inject able.

I searched in the CIMS online and found 14 different brands of it with prices varying from Rs.1050 to Rs.1920. My intension is to go for the cheapest possible brand, obviously.

Long time back Sudha has promised me of getting it for free as she is in pharmacology, and as she can get to know the men at work selling this by some means and fetch it for free. She even called me when she was just about to enter the room of Dr. Krishna Prasad, the medical oncologist, for getting the drug called Dasatinib, for her presentation of a paper in national conference this December. I had denied the offer.

From the past week I have decided to start the experiment. The first part is over as the control mice dissection is done. I went to AJ pharmacy this Sunday, enquired about the drug, which they in deed had, but the costliest one. Its name is Gemicite. It would cost me Rs.1920. But the pharmacy manager told me he can order the other lower cost brands.

It was BK sir who told me to give a try in Gopal Kamath wholesale drug distributors as they are the largest drug marketers in Mangalore, supplying most part of the drugs prescribed here.

I went to the shop Monday, the day I was fooled by wrongly read news in Hindu about the 9^th chapter discloser by Swami Brahmananda in TMA Pai conference hall. They had the drug. It costs Rs. 1119. I didn’t have the money then. I decided to buy on the following day.

The next day I and Santhosh sir walked to the shop and got the bill for the 200mg drug paid the amount. Including the owner of the shop searched the whole godown and finally announced that the drug is not present with them. They gave the number of the Dabur pharma medical representative, Mr Ravikumar.

I spoke with him and as instigated by Santhosh sir, I asked the drug for free. He said they can give it – if I submit the letter by an oncologist stating that the drug is for the study or for poor patient. I agreed for the letter submission.

Later I found that the only visiting oncologist to AJ is Dr. Krishna Prasad and it is very hard to locate him. He comes for the rounds at 6am if he had patient(s).

When I said the story to BK, he said don’t get the drug for free and tell the medical rep that I pay for it for the reasons we cant go behind an oncologist (just) for the letter.

I called him and said I can give you my thesis synopsis and letter of registration with RGUHS. He agreed to give the drug by 2 noon!

By 5.30 pm today he called and asked me to collect the drug from some shop in Dambale.

I will go and get the drug tomorrow!

I found mice - dead!

Every day I and BK sir use to visit the animal house at least once, for giving oflox to the rat. After one set of rats were sacrificed, the new ones are fractured, drug is started in a week’s time. We failed to visit the animal house last Monday.

And that day- 4 of the mice were dead, for the reasons unknown. We got the news on the following say. I gave my personal number to the ‘akka’ incharge of the animal house and asked her to inform the news of any animal death in there irrespective of cause of death. She understood that people from anatomy department are after dead – anything dead!

This Monday I got the call at 8 am, akka said, “ 2 mice are dead”. I was relieved that I don’t have to kill normal mice on my own to run my control study.

I was getting ready for the dissection – found that Ajay too interested in the mice dissection. BK sir joined. We dissected both the mice. We took out the testis, pancreas and liver. Sperm extraction from the epidydimis was not possible as it was already shrivelled.testis is put in Bouins solution and rest organs in the formalin. It’s still with us now. Tomorrow will hand it over to pathology for the histological study.

This will be my first mice tissue sample collection.

Today I am going to get the drug Gemvita, from Gopal Kamath wholesale distributors. It will cost me Rs. 1150 for 200 mg amp. It can be stored at room temperature. But the problem is it said it has to be used within 24 hrs of reconstitution.

In our animal house there is no proper ventilation and temperature maintenance. This could be the probable reason for the death of the mice, as no one attends them on whole of Sunday. They are not given water and food, and not even fresh air on Sundays. A strict holiday. In 2 consecutive weekends we have lost 6 mice.  

Oflox experiment

It all started with BK sir's experiment of oflox on fracture healing.

We had fractured femurs (femora) of two 300 gm wistar rats on 19/09/2010, taken to Department of radiology - took X ray of the fractures and started them on oflox BD doses a week after. Rats recieved ofloxacin for 3 weeks.

On 20/10/2010 we killed  both the rats using KCl, dissected them and taken out the femur with callus. Along with that we have also taken other tissues - testis, liver, pancreas and normal knee joint.

We gave all the tissues for the histopathological examination to Department of Pathology. The results are awaited.