Fun-a-day 6: Giardia

Again, Giardia isn't such a fun thing to have, but it sure is a really fun (a day) thing to look at under a microscope!  They look like little faces (feces faces ?!?! oh I'm going to get in trouble for that)  looking at you, almost cartoon-ish.

Giardia is the most common parasitic infection of people in the United States, as well as much of the world.  People become infected by drinking contaminated water, such as from streams and lakes.  Beavers are a common carrier of the parasite, so anywhere a beaver may live is likely to have Giardia.  Dogs and other animals can also become infected, and can spread the disease through their feces, or stool (so can people).

Sorry, the medical technologist's world is full of all sorts of "gross" things, as we regularly examine stool, urine, blood, sputum, and various other bodily fluids.  And indeed, Giardia is usually found during an "O and P", or Ova and Parasite stool test.

Stool certainly looks much better on a microscope under 100 power, but I decided to take a little creative liberty and just used a little pretty green thread as a background.  I was going to fill in the giardia with a pastel purple, but when I looked through all of my thread, I realized that I not only don't have pastel purple, but I do not own a single spool of any pastel thread!!  Hmmm  learned something about myself today...

Also, I have a few fun pictures to share with you too.  The local paper mentioned that there's now a huge elk herd that's come down very close to town with all the cold weather we've had.  I took a trip out to see them, and here's a few pictures the kids and I took yesterday!  (Beth, this is where your "manly camera" would have come in handy LOL).  Enjoy!