Just needing some advice.

[dddalton]

Hey guys, I've been doing clinical research here, and there for years. I would do a trial then get some manufacturing job that I absolutely hated. I'm wanting to start doing studies full time because I'm not being successful at all with the work I'm doing. I want to do studies full time for a few years at least, but living in Tennessee it's tough to live off this alone, so I'm looking into moving. Where are the best places to move that has a lot of study centers. I'm thinking maybe Kansas City, Atlanta, or somewhere in Texas.

[ac]

I'm not aware of any clinic near Atlanta. Kansas City would be a good place to live. Texas is good but major cities can be expensive. Small Texas town between Austin and Dallas could be good.

[idoitforthepong]

Middle of Texas is good but lot of travel times. KC area yes also Southern cal or NY/NJ area... but some VCT there of course...so do your research on that so your not caught in waiting long periods to get in another. Could also consider southern Wisconsin/norther Illinois. Only one clinic VCTs (spualding) of the 3 big ones...though Covance is stuck with a lot of radio labeled studies these days. Good Luck

[ac]

Sept 19, 2019 12:12:15 GMT -5 idoitforthepong said:

Middle of Texas is good but lot of travel times. KC area yes also Southern cal or NY/NJ area... but some VCT there of course...so do your research on that so your not caught in waiting long periods to get in another. Could also consider southern Wisconsin/norther Illinois. Only one clinic VCTs (spualding) of the 3 big ones...though Covance is stuck with a lot of radio labeled studies these days. Good Luck

If you are going to consider the Wisconsin/Northern Illinois triangle then make sure you have a car with snow tires and/or AWD. Do not rely on public transportation or you will end up walking a lot in heavy snow/freezing cold. Not worth it. KC area is better.

[idoitforthepong]

Well KC area still gets snow and I must say after doing the Ill-Wisco circuit for many years, with a mid sized fwd car, I remember only one wishing I had a 4x4/SUV only once or twice and never had any snow related mishaps or missed a check in due to it. Sure it gets cold or the occasional snow storm and you wont have a beach to go play in after check outs but still very doable and I would say good paying studies if your patient. Most places are accommodating for late arrivals or even rescheduling (OPVs) for big snow storms from what i've seen.

[labrat1]

There are other things to consider. When I was new to being a lab rat, I had decent luck finding studies. I am in the NYC area and I did studies for CROs as well as Research Departments in Universities and hospitals but soon enough I found out that there was a lot of competition for the better paying studies, often if your labs are a bit off you are disqualified for the study. Sometimes you get in a study and the conditions are so horrible in some way, the beds, the food, and of course sometimes other volunteers are really obnoxious and bullies, so that you rather quit than ue etc etc.
So relying on studies even if you find them can be a big risk. Another thing is that as you get significantly older, especially past the age of 45 those studies will be harder to find. My friend when she was new to being a lab rat also had a bit of good luck earning some money at first but soon found out that she cannot hope to regularly make money at it.
She and I originally thought that "guinea pigging" would be soing we can basically rely on for money but there are a lot of road blocks. Currently she is staying with me in NY. There are some good study places in NY but I have to be careful about taking studies that have certain medications involved because I would only get very sick. Also there can be good paying studies in other states but traveling just to screen would mean spending money on a flight and often after the flight it would require several long hours of traveling by bus (and I have an aversion to the "new car smell" in certain buses) and I would have to already know of an affordable hotel to stay at for a night or two because sometimes the screening is two-part, you might have consent forms for the first part, and then another day have to come back to get a physical for the second part . It is risky to try and screen for such studies. You may not get chosen after spending money to travel and stay in a hotel. I have a flexible job but on certain occasion I had to take time off from work to screen and even if I got chosen I had to skip some work days and it reduces the amount of money I come out ahead by from the compensation. I often must think about how worthwhile it is to go through the trouble of travel and staying long days in a facility only to come out ahead maybe by $500. My friend has to avoid even well paying studies if they require certain medications or certain procedures. PET scans require being injected with a "contrast dye" and she says that for whatever reason she can feel the dye going through her veins into her head and it feels as if the veins in her head are going to burst. It is painful. Also though I am near some pretty good research facilities, I am lucky I have lived in NY all my life and years ago managed to get an apartment in a very decent building near Port Authority Bus Terminal and Grand Central Station and Penn station, all major transportation hubs, but also it would be costly if I did not get Section 8. I don't think I would have an apartment at all if it were not for that.

Some people live in their cars or vans which is pretty good too if you are a frugal and practical, responsible and resourceful person, but in NYC it is hard to find parking space.

So it is not easy to be a full time lab rat. It is best to have some kind of job on the side. My opinion.

[labrat1]

I tried to edit typos in my post to make it easier to understand but I can't. It is not the first time it happened. What is wrong with the JALR site? Do they have a webmaster?

[brat]

I concur with LAbrat.

This is NOT full time, stable, or even safe income. You'd be better off training to be a phelbotamist or answer phones in a study facility to pay the rent, and then there's the stress on your body and mental health to consider as well.

Would you really choose to move for a temp/freelance writing job...or live where you're happy, have friends, enjoy being, and find/make work there?  Waiting tables or cooking can pay the rent.

If you're healthy, it's a major gift in life. I refuse to consider many studies because of the drug class or procedures like spinal punctures, which can leave you in chronic pain for the forseeable future amongst other complications. The CRO and sponsor do not have your back if the symptoms pop up later (how can you prove it was due to the study?), and sometimes even when they happen in house. My veins got destroyed by terrible phelbotamists in a study and kept me from qualifying for others for over a year, so if I were depending on another study to pay rent, I'd have been homeless.

Most here are fortunate to be able to work legally at soing, so we're not forced into making this into our major income source like many who can;t legally work here, or live in other countries where there is less other work and study oversight.

 

This is a lot like acting (and a lot of actors do studies to make ends meet); you're always freelance, always replaceable, the auditions can be expensive, painful, disappointing, and having a bad day doesn't get you off the hook.  The producers stand to make the big bucks off your back, and they're not your friend anymore if there's conflicting politics or soing goes wrong...and VCT is no different than any other political vehicle: If you get a demerit, no one will hire you...

...but at least if you're an actor, you have a union...if you can stomach all that's required to get into it.

[labrat1]

Oct 24, 2019 14:28:46 GMT -5 brat said:

I concur with LAbrat.

This is NOT full time, stable, or even safe income. You'd be better off training to be a phelbotamist or answer phones in a study facility to pay the rent, and then there's the stress on your body and mental health to consider as well.

Would you really choose to move for a temp/freelance writing job...or live where you're happy, have friends, enjoy being, and find/make work there?  Waiting tables or cooking can pay the rent.

If you're healthy, it's a major gift in life. I refuse to consider many studies because of the drug class or procedures like spinal punctures, which can leave you in chronic pain for the forseeable future amongst other complications. The CRO and sponsor do not have your back if the symptoms pop up later (how can you prove it was due to the study?), and sometimes even when they happen in house. My veins got destroyed by terrible phelbotamists in a study and kept me from qualifying for others for over a year, so if I were depending on another study to pay rent, I'd have been homeless.

Most here are fortunate to be able to work legally at soing, so we're not forced into making this into our major income source like many who can;t legally work here, or live in other countries where there is less other work and study oversight.

 

This is a lot like acting (and a lot of actors do studies to make ends meet); you're always freelance, always replaceable, the auditions can be expensive, painful, disappointing, and having a bad day doesn't get you off the hook.  The producers stand to make the big bucks off your back, and they're not your friend anymore if there's conflicting politics or soing goes wrong...and VCT is no different than any other political vehicle: If you get a demerit, no one will hire you...

...but at least if you're an actor, you have a union...if you can stomach all that's required to get into it.

Interesting you bring up the part about being an actor. I have a friend who is an actor. She has done some low-key movies and has played characters on stage and the like and she tells me how she has to travel to other states just to audition for parts that could result in her being rejected or not chosen and it is a waste of travel money etc. When I told her that I am a lab rat, I did not tell her in the most direct way, I told her that I do "product testing" and gave the example of skin products because that is the most understandable. I explained that sometimes I apply to test a skin product and have the product applied on my skin and the researchers see whether the lotion or soap or cream irritates the skin or whatever. After a while I explained that product testing involves swallowing medication so that researchers can see if I get sick or develop symptoms etc. I have found that it is easier to explain to people this way. In the past I have told people I do clinical trials and they react by telling me that I am crazy to do it and they try to talk me out of it. My actor friend was understanding though and she said that it sounds very much like what she goes through to do commercials, or movies or TV series or a part on stage.

Of course most people cannot rely on being a lab rat for steady income. But I can understand why some people might want to do it as a "part time" job or as "Extra work" or "temporary work." Just soing to earn extra money just like you would do when you sign up to work in stores during the Christmas holiday which is a busy time of year and extra help is needed, or just like you would sign up to work as a voting clerk during election days to earn extra money and maybe some of you are familiar with being a voting clerk. It can be like doing a clinical trial. It is actually not so hard to be chosen for it according to my experience (but I have not done it in a long time and my sister who still tries to work as a voting clerk during election days says that now-a-days the system is such that after you apply you may not get chosen to work ). But being a voting clerk can be very tough just to earn maybe $300. You have to get up early to arrive at your polling place at 5 AM which means arriving on time to the school or church where you have been assigned to work, ( sometimes the city's Board of Elections sends you to a place near your home sometimes they send you far from home so you might have to get up very early to get to the polling place at 5 AM) but my experience has been that depending on whether it is a major election like the Presidential or a small election such as for city council or Public Advocate ( etc) there can be lots of voters to deal with or only three or four voters to deal with throughout the 15 or so hours you work as a voting clerk. Then there is being a Census worker which I have also done. You can sign up for it and you have to pass a certain written test and you get chosen. But you might be put to knock on people's doors to get information on their household and that can be dangerous in its own respect. Who knows if some serial killer did not answer the Census for his or her own reasons and you have to go to his or her home to ask him or her to provide information for the Census. At the Census training seminar the instructor said that as Census workers we are not there to report if anyone is an illegal alien or is dealing drugs in his or her own home or has more people in the apartment than s/he has told the landlord there is. It can be a strange situation if a census worker finds out that someone has dead bodies in his or her apartment, but Census workers are not police and only want to get information about the number of people in the household.
One "Census instructor" said that she has gone door to door as a census worker and never had any problem. Of course she was a large woman middle aged or slightly older who did not look weak and helpless.
I was lucky so-to-speak that since I qualified as a "Veteran" because I spent some time in the military, I was given " preferential selection" and I did not have to go door to door. I was instead put to just sit by a desk full of Census forms at the local library and wait for someone to approach me and ask for information.
It was boring tedious and the chair I had to sit on for hours was uncomfortable. I would sit and wait by the table with census forms and no one would come up to ask questions. Good in a way, but I certainly thought it was dreadful "work" for the pay.
Some people who signed up for Census worker quit in the middle and did not show up for work because it is too much trouble even if the pay is treated as income and you get a W-2 and taxes are taken out. At least that was my experience in 2010.

But I certainly did get carried away with explaining the other bothersome things a person sometimes finds himself or herself doing for extra money. I can understand why a person would want to do clinical trials for money. However for most people it is just not possible. It seems that if some people manage to do clinical trials as their main or only source of income, they may just be of the right age and have the right mobility and lifestyle (may be able to carry their belongings in a small suitcase and be able to stay with friends or family or friends of friends in different states or may have a car or van to live in and are able to drive around to certain locations for clinical trials or may be able to stay in cheap hotels near clinics etc etc) but if a person can do this, it may be or probably will be a matter of time until s/he finds that she cannot get into paid studies as easily as s/he could when s/he was a certain age. And don't forget women may find it hard to get in studies for being of child bearing potential but then when they get older and are no longer of child bearing potential they are not of the age range that is chosen for clinical trials so much.

I would hate to give up clinical trials completely. That is how I feel. I have done some pretty good studies. I have done some painful and difficult ones so that even if it paid several thousand it was not enough for what I endured. I have also done some pretty good ones that I did not experience side effects , nor were the procedures particularly painful or difficult and it was like being paid for eating and sleeping.
Having to share room with awful people is another matter.

But I would ultimately say that though a career lab rat has to be knowledgeable and prepared regarding what is involved, it is OK to do studies as you are able to , again just like you would do seasonal work in a store or soing like that.
But for best results you have to have access to other more traditional regular work, maybe as a temp.

I have been lucky that I never experienced "long term damage" by doing certain studies and I have done many, but there were individual studies that really were painful such as the spinal tap one I did some four years ago. It was the first one I ever did and will probably be the last. Some of you know that some people experience more pain than others with spinal taps. My other lab rat friend has done them and experiences nothing really painful. I developed a severe headache that lasted a week. The study doctor said that no other person who participated in the study experienced anything so severe.

And, forget Naltrexone. I did a study in which I had to be dosed with Naltrexone three times a day (usually) for each day I was in the research facility.
I wrote a long explanation of it in a different thread but unfortunately some moderator or someone else deleted it.

But I would not discourage you from following your "dream" if you want to be a lab rat, but you should have back up plans.

[sam9009]

Get a temp job. When the temp job is finished go study hunting. When the study is finish find another temp job. Go back and forth.
Maybe a little background extra work in between. A lot of background extra work in NYC.

[brandon]

I lived in Austin for years. I made a lot of money and did not have to travel much. However I made terrible lifestyle choices and blew most of my money. If I had done everything differently, I would have put my money in a business, or getting a decent education and I wouldnt have to be a lab rat. Now I live in Columbus Ohio and I have to travel everywhere and it sucks.

[mjeff]

Idk if you made your decision already, moving to another city is always huge stress, especially when you have no one to rely on. I remember I used to move a lot with the help of City to city movers and thanks to them it was not so stressful.