Day 1

So I'll take off from where I stopped Yesterday before doing today. We had to do a stress test which was just walking on a treadmill until our heart rate reached 120 and stayed there for a minute. This was a little funny in that the doctor underestimated how much exertion it would take to get my heart to 120. But anyway afterwards everyone had to lie in their assigned beds and have their blood pressure taken every 10 minutes for two hours. Well I noticed that almost every time the research assistant did my vitals she would put a little sticky note next to what she wrote down. Over the course of two hours there ended up being several sticky notes on my chart. I didn't really think anything of it until I noticed that no other chart had them. I should also mention that just before the stress test we were given our first dosing. I also find out that the sticky notes are called flags and that a doctor has to come to check the cause of each one. Naturally at this point I'm a little nervous that possibly I am already showing side effects which can be high blood pressure. Not until after the two hours do I get to look at the chart and see for myself. Even then I had to go online to see what range blood pressure should fall into. It is then that I see that my blood pressure is falling somewhat significantly below average. Which I could only figure was caused by the exercise because I also found out that for the first dosing everyone had a placebo. No one knows why but that is what the drug company wanted so that's what they did, they even wanted us informed of it being a placebo. Also adding to my theory that it was the exercise is that every time since then my blood pressure has been low but in a normal healthy range.

 That should finish yesterday. Today is the first day where people will actually be recieving the study drug and already it seems some are showing expected symptoms. One guy in my room that I mentioned before who's name is Jamail. I wasn't clear about his name before but what I meant was I don't know if that's how he's spells it but that's how it sounds. Anyway he was feeling really bad after dosing and so far he is the only one I know of experiancing side effects. The women are kept mostly seperate in the main room and I have not seen any doctors checking on them but they could be. What I don't understand is there should be more than one person in a group of 40 with the test drug. So why is he the only one experiancing anything. This is why I don't think I am out of the clear just yet, because he could just be more sensetive than most. Also he is a little scrawny so it could just be that it'll take a higher dosage for other people to experaince what he is experiencing. It's also a little unnerving that he said if it is from the drug and feels the same tomorrow he is going to drop out. So I really hope I am not getting the drug because I do not want to feel what he is feeling.

As I mentioned before today was full of procedures. I have had little free time and it was taken up by watching Dexter. I was also able talk to a couple more of the staff today who were, Ann and Yoko. Ann asked me what I was doing during my free time and I said watching Dexter. To which Yoko replied that she too loves Dexter, in fairly broken English. Which was pretty funny, but I was able to contain myself. After this small talk to fill in the time before the precise minute of taking the pills, I took the pills and they then searched me to make sure I took the pills. It's not really that thorough, it just consist of checking my hands and under my tongue. I don't really understand the search of my hands since both of them saw through the clear vial that the pill fell from the vial into my mouth. If I were some how sneaky enough to do a slight of hand right there, then surely I would be capable of at least putting in my pocket.

They also stuck a catheter in everyone's arm so they could take from us "our precious bodily fluids". No but really they just take blood every few hours or so. Even though I have another extraction in an hour and another at 5am I think today's post is done.