Crap...

I'm so pissed! Where do I even start?!

Ok, so the story goes like this. CCRM requires that we do a CD 3 blood draw and send them the frozen sample (overnight, packaged in dry ice) so that they can do the tests in their labs. Which is fine with me. However, Doc insisted that (to save a bit of money) we not use their package, which came with the shipping paid for and the dry ice, but create our own package.

So, I agreed and we spent several hours calling all over town to find out no one, no where sells dry ice. We end up giving in and purchasing a dry ice shipping package online from a separate retailer. So far, so good.

CCRM provides us with detailed instructions on how to do the blood draw and how to separate the SERUM from WHOLE BLOOD. Mind you, I think that serum and whole blood are the same thing.

Doc and I go through the painstaking process of making sure the dry ice is ok and that the packaging is secure and everything will stay frozen because CCRM will not accept the sample if it has melted. We rearrange our freezer to make room for the blood. Doc talks to the Big-K phlebotomists to make sure they can do the draw for us and centrifuge the blood (as directed).

Alright, so on CD 3, I make my way down to the lab. I get the blood drawn, centrifuged in red-capped tubes (just like the instructions say). I carry the precious cargo in a cooler back home, freeze it and then we package it up the next day to ship overnight to CCRM.

The next morning I call CCRM and find out that we f***ing did it wrong. They want the serum only, separated in its own separate tube with the rest of the crap thrown away. Not knowing the difference between serum and whole blood, Doc and I thought separating and keeping them in the same tube was all that was needed.

Now, we have to do this all over again. M****f*$&er.