A small triumph for biochemistry

I USED to be one of two people responsible for the biochemistry lab in the hospital. It served to confirm a doctor’s initial suspicions. We could get back with reasonably accurate measurements of a patient’s blood sugar or electrolyte levels; a chemical or enzymatic profile of a patient’s liver or kidney, etc. Nowadays, it’s automated but we had to do it manually with titrations galore.

It was mostly routine, but could be unpleasant if you didn’t care for the sight, or smell, of plasma, serum or urine. No one did but that was the way lige worked. I seemed largely irrelevant except when I drew up the monthly overtime lists – the lab ran 24/7. Then the staff paid attention.