Sunday, June 05, 2005 I'm just plain lazy.
OK, I was going to come on and post here, right, but first I had to check on what's been going on with the internet during my last couple days' absence.
Licketysplit left me a comment on my last post that said: "How much does one get paid for this wire business? I want IN!"
I was getting ready to respond, in the comments section, but it was getting long. Read it and weep.
Licketysplit: Not much! I told you, this study is severely underpaying, especially when one considers how upsetting the idea of the neck wires is going to be to most reasonable people. It's at a hospital, for one thing, rather than a drug company, and it's also in Baltimore. People are poor enough here that studies can recruit them for less than they can in other towns. If I complete this, which is four nights (I don't have to stay there in the day, either, I just have to sleep there), I will get $500.
I'm doing it anyway. The tubes and wires and all will be uncomfortable, but!
-I'll get my own room.
-There are no blood draws.
-The only medicine required is a sleeping pill on one of the nights.
-I will be dealing with doctors and research assistants who are friendly and pleasant.
-Shit, I'll take $500. To sleep? Suckers.
Like, I could make $500 at this other place that's always running studies, and technically, it pays better, because they generally do two overnights with a week between them. On the other hand, there are no private rooms, although there's a men's section and a women's section, for what that's worth.
Generally, you're not in your room at all there, because they make you sit in either the room where you eat or the TV room for most of the day. Also, those studies are testing generic drugs against name brand drugs, to see if there is any difference in the way one's body breaks them down. To do this, they take blood constantly. Each visit, there are about thirty blood draws. They're all straight sticks, administered by phlebotomists who are working on a ridiculous schedule. To keep the timing right, they have to successfully take someone's blood every two minutes, and so sometimes they are imprecise. They are also a very angry people, the phlebotomists, and your comfort is not a priority.
One's study mates there tend to be crazy, and they tend to be angry, too. People fight. Everybody wants to be your boyfriend. One of my housies described it by saying it was just like riding the subway for 48 hours straight.
I don't know: maybe I'm selling myself short here, but compared to the other place, this sleep study sounds awesome. A housie who was going to do this one but backed out thinks the doctor decorated the sleeping room himself. There's a print of Starry Night on the wall, and she said she pictured him out shopping, finding it, and saying, "Oh, this is perfect for my sleep study room. Just perfect." posted by Frenz | 6/05/2005 02:51:00 PM
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