Ok, this is for Caroline from Salt&Vinegar, who asked if she'd get headaches from looking into the microscope.
Hi Caroline! I read your blog too! Whaddya know, "it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small small world!"

Anyway, to answer your question while my two other readers click the "X" button (it's ok, go on and click, I won't know, because hello, I'm gadget-dumb. I don't know how all those people track their readers down, and I don't know why, I mean, get a life! PS: Please teach me how to do it. Ok, I'm going to shut up now, sorry Caroline.)

The question is:
WILL I GET A HEADACHE FROM LOOKING INTO THE MICROSCOPE?

The short answer is:
Yes, you will initially if you do it for long periods.

The long answer is:
I did. But I think it's like a rite of passage that most people first joining Pathology will experience. When I first started receiving slides to report(as opposed to just looking for fun)(they were like maybe 7 cases a day in the beginning) I got headache everyday for the whole week. Plus nausea too. And I just popped Panadols everyday. But I think eventually the eye and the mind will adjust, I think it took me a month, and it gets better and better with time. The posture while looking into the microscope is also important. The newer microscopes have adjustable eyepieces, and the chair height should be adjustable too.
The good news is, you can always take a break! Go have coffee or go disturb your colleagues. I usually just go to the loo.
In our department, we have cardboard trays and wooden trays where our slides are arranged and delivered to us. We have a phobia of wooden trays, because they can fit up to 75 slides, and sometimes for 1 single case you get that many slides(rarely though, thankfully)!
So the thing is, you'll probably get nausea after a full day of looking into the microscope, but not if you are just looking at say, 1 slide.

On a side note, Pathology used to be an unglamorous field, but now we are at the forefront of Medicine. We are no longer just diagnosticians, but we have become prognosticians too. Our report affects and alters the way a patient is managed, and we play an integral role in providing a guide to the clinicians.

(I quoted that last bit from my beloved Senior Consultant, in order to sound cool. I might have replaced the word prognosticians and diagnosticians wrongly.)

So there you go, Caroline. I'm looking forward to hearing your experience in Pathology! It's a really exciting field. All the best!

(Addendum: I just thought I better clarify that in my centre, the trainees are assigned a consultant on a weekly basis to sign out cases together. So the trainees will see the slides first and come out with a prelim report, then review them again with the consultant.)