HI! Oh and Chem LAB is not fun :(

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Hi!

I needed to know if any of you have any ideas about how to handle Chem lab? It's so loud, I get a headache and can't focus on my calculations. I could wear earmuffs and my husband has some that feels good when they press on my head. Helps the headache. But the sound keeps going and I can't take it......I have even been wondering lately if I should switch majors? I LOVE biology and I WANT to research the brain I LOVE how it works. I even took on honors projects at school, that dealt with lower level stuff but I LOVED it, took every chance I could to do more stuff, But..........I am not sure if it would be possible to wear earmuffs in lab. It could pose a safety risk. They are the plastic kind, not the fluffy kind. They do help cut out a lot of sound, the same as my earbuds do for music which I listen to often. Anyway sorry I kind of jump around a lot. I need the sound reduced though because BOTH times now in the Chem 2 lab I started to tear up when I got frustrated and got hyper...............AGAIN. I get so mad at myself. I can't do my work like that. It was the same when I worked in pharmacy as a tech, it pretty much cost me my job. There has to be a solution....isn't there????? Then at home, I have to go to bed almost immediately. I feel sick and ugh This won't do.....please ideas would help. Kind of a bit out of it now to be honest so this might sound weird sorry about that. Headaches can last for awhile.

i was a bio major in college. chemistry was the hardest group of courses. if you can handle chem, you can handle bio especially since you have a natural curiosity about it. i see no reason you couldn't wear muffs. i don't know if it's changed but we had to kill mice, frogs, rats, and turtles and in grad school, dogs. if that would be a big problem for you (solution is to see it as a sad but necessary sacrifice for learning what is needed to eventually advance science) it could hold you back. it bothered me at first, but we did it humanely (anesthesia OD mostly) and i was able to adjust to the compromise.

Ask the teacher if you can come in at another time to do the work. You may or may not need to explain why.

I could not do many of the biology labs because of the smells. The teacher allowed me to skip them, but I was still responsible for learning the information.

I wear noise cancelling headphones in my office.

Well, I self advocated. I asked about earmuffs. It was considered to be a reasonable accommodation. It actually made me feel better to see a bio major here as well. I was told to self advocate, not fight it or push through.

Nice job!

I see you were able to somewhat solve it, but just stopping by to say I'm a bio major as well (and we're close to the same age!) My biggest problem with labs is having to work with a partner. Not all noises bother me, and even then rarely ever if I'm into whatever I'm doing (like labs). But having to work in partnership with another student? Ugh. Just kill me!! ! I'd rather have to socialize with a Kardashian at a sold out concert than split labs with another person and pretend to be patient with them.