Forums » Smalltalk » Adventures of a Lab-Rat...

Those Clinical Trials.... You know the ones... where they get people to basically ‘experiment’ on with new drugs and vaccines and such? Yeah I’m one of them. Signed on to one from a Facebook ad that my wife saw and I went in for my screening Monday and had an ultrasound today just to see if I’m eligible for their phase 2 uric-acid medication study. I’ll find out next Tuesday if I’m in or not.

If I’m in, I’ll be pin-cushioned a bit over the six weeks and will be in one of six groups. Five of them will be given varying doses of this study medication and one is the placebo control group. I won’t have any idea what group I’ll be in. This will do a couple things for me. It will cut down my consumption of my beloved IPAs and Red Ale, and increase my water intake as they have strict instruction on that. I probably don’t drink enough water per day anyway so this will be good for me. I had to drink a liter of water a hour before my ultrasound today... that was a challenge as I got most of the way through the bottle and I got bogged down.

Whether I’m accepted into the study or no, I have had the most thorough physical in my life, 12-Lead heart electrocardiogram, renal scan, muscle tests, endurance, etc. and though they took five vials of blood and such, a good thing about it is they are paying me for my time! Got $100 deposited in my account for two hours on Monday.

I’ll let you know how I go...

Yeah, clinical trials are a drug company's make-or-break between crazy profits in sales or crazy losses in R+D costs so they have a vested interest in getting it right, hence the bazillion tests. Hope all goes well, come back with superpowers.

I did ask the cute doctor if I get my COVID-19 vaccine in the middle of it if I’ll grow tentacles or a third arm or such. Maybe I’ll grow hair on my head again....

Hey the whole full-checkup is a pretty sweet deal though!

It looks like all my tests came back good... well at least nothing was bad enough to put me out of the trial so I start my baseline on Tuesday.

I'm glad to hear your health is good!

Yeah, me too. I’m one week in and have been the most hydrated I ever been.

I go in for my week one baseline comparison check Friday morning. Have to fast from midnight and they will drain a few more vials from me. After that appointment, I go for two weeks with my Group 1/Cohort 1 2mg dose twice a day. Of course I could be taking placebo...

After the two weeks, I go in for an extended 10-hour visit to be sampled and monitored through the day. The next two weeks after that I have 6-hour monitoring visits, then after that, I have a concluding visit and I’m done. I won’t be going anywhere on these long visits so will likely be on RPR a lot.

Oh yeah, I was cleared to get the Covid-19 vaccine in the middle of this trial so will be getting my 1st jab next week (AstraZenica)

Rogue, you are so awesome. I want to say this loud, and proudly, you are a wonderful human, and we humans wouldn't be with all the advancements without wonderful humans like you, Rogue!

I'm glad you are okay and hydrated! I think it's great you sign up for this stuff. Kudos to you. I wish you IPA's for days when this is done!

And, from a purely creative RPR sort of hypothetical, if you ever get superpowers from it, or you can suddenly fly through walls or something, please let us know that too! I'm not saying that you will, but I hope that of all the good things you deserve, superpowers need to be in there somewhere. You are a super person, to begin with. I cannot imagine a better candidate. You already have a super heart.

You’re going to make it all go to my head Gaeilge.
Today I get to spend ten hours in observation as they tap blood every hour. Just goofing around on a favourite website of mine and working on some character stuff. Next week I do a six hour, and the week after that another six hour. Then another ultrasound and I’m done.

I hope your day of pin cushioning went well, Rogue. I'm totally okay if that goes to your head as well. You are a hero.

This week is my last week of pill-popping and logging my water intake. I go in Thursday to let the vampire suck a few out of me, then go the next day for an ultrasound, then come back the next week for a closing blood test for screening, then I do my exit interview. I think this has gotten me into a better habit of drinking water.

After this morning, I’m finished with this trial study with only one more quick visit next week for a closing blood test. It will be nice not to have to record times and amounts of water to drink. It’s been an interesting couple months. Met some interesting people!