Hi everyone! I was curious I'd anyone else had interesting stories to share of strange things being sent to their lab for testing.

I'm asking because I recently has a weird occurrence. I'm 99% sure I had dish detergent sent to my lab to test for the pH. It was two samples listed as a nasophargeal fluid but in the free text comments from the doctor it said "expecting alkaline result - dish detergent 1" for one fluid and "dish detergent 2" for the other. It was a case of a toddler biting into a tide pod. When we suspected it was not a body fluid we put a tiny amount in a pour off container, added some water, and mixed it. It foamed up just like dish detergent and had the thicker texture one would expect from detergent. Because we really had no way of proving it wasn't an NP fluid we went ahead with testing and reported the pH. It was just a wild experience. One of those "you can't make this stuff up" moments for sure.

The patient recovered as far as I am aware.