To the heart of the matter

Today was Alan's best day. Okay maybe not as good as his wedding, day but a close second. Today Alan saw a real live beating heart. In person. And it was amazing.

It all started because Alan's lab at the NIH began working with Georgetown University Hospital. GUH provides Alan with some cancer samples (AKA tumor just taken out of a person) that he analyzes and does all sorts of scientific things to in so he can help discover the cure for cancer. Anyway, this morning Alan had to go to the hospital to pick up a sample. Apparently the surgery was taking a little longer (shocking) than usual and Alan was escorted to the waiting room. After waiting for awhile, a nurse emerged and instead of a sample in her hand she had a stack of disposable operating room attire. She handed the clothes to Alan and told him that the doctor wanted to talk to him.

Alan quickly changed and followed the nurse into the OR. There lying on the table was a patient, chest open, heart exposed and beating. The doctor kicked over a stool, indicated that Alan should stand on the stool, then proceeded to give him a 5 minute anatomy lesson of the chest cavity and heart. And it was while Alan was watching a heart rhythmically roll and tirelessly pumping less than 2 feet away that he discovered Heaven on Earth.

When Alan got home, Ly was forced to listen as he recounted every single detail of the operating room/beating heart. And while she attempted to share in his enthusiasm, she couldn't help but wonder if a guy had ever run home to his wife as excited as Alan was after witnessing one of her many operations. Maybe just once.

Welcome to the NIH

Finally after months of planning and preparation Alan has finally arrived at the NIH in his new lab. He is excited to be the newest fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH and is ready to tackle cancer. In his first few weeks, Alan discovered that working for the Federal government is different than other jobs. For example, in order to be hired, Alan was required by Title 5 U.S.C., Chapters 11, 21, 23, 31, 33, 35, and 51 to submit a detailed background check requiring a complete and gap-free list of residences for the last 5 years with an accompanying list of contacts that can verify each address, a complete list of employers and verification of unemployment status for the last 5 years with supervisor contact info for each job and a non-family verification for unemployment, and a list of 3 friends that can vouch for his character in the last 5 years. In addition to the background check, Alan was required to be electronically fingerprinted and provide a comprehensive physical report. The entire process took Alan over a day to finish and there are still training courses that he needs to complete.

In addition to all the paperwork, during the 1st week at the NIH, Alan got completely lost several times. One day he got lost in the clinical center and spent 20 minutes stumbling through several construction zones, two patient surgical wings, and one abandoned cafeteria kitchen before finally finding an exit that wasn't an alarmed emergency exit. A few days later, Alan boarded a shuttle he thought was bound for his lab building, but much to his surprise, the shuttle exited the NIH campus, and drove 20 minutes away to another city before returning back to the main campus (stay away from the green line!).

After all the difficulties of orienting himself at a new workplace, Alan finally feels comfortable getting to and from work. He has a desk (but not a trash can, the purchasing department won't accept orders until October), an NIH email account, and a phone number. He is learning about the cancer stem cell projects that he will work on and is excited to prove that those cells really do exist.