I have just taken a piece of paper towel soaked  with warm water, put on
tissue block for about 1 min. then hold up a piece of ice for another min.
This always worked for me.
Marianne




On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Weems, Joyce wrote:

> 200-300 ml of ice water with 1 ml of 1% ammonia is a good soaking media
> for these kinds of problems! Or easier yet - soap water. It softens the
> collagen I think!
>
> >----------
> >From: 	Jim Ball[SMTP:xryhisto@ovis.net]
> >Sent: 	Wednesday, February 17, 1999 8:02 PM
> >To: 	histonet@Pathology.swmed.edu
> >Subject: 	Thyroid cutting problem
> >
> >Ran across a thyroid the other day that gave me nothing but problems when I
> >cut it. I have had very little problens with this type of tissue unless it
> >happens to be calcified. This particular thyroid cut like it had sand in it.
> >I checked it for microcalcification and found none. I re/embedded it
> >thinking there may be dirt in the wax, but alas this did not help. Other
> >than the sandy texture to the tissue it appeared adequately fixed and
> >processed. The staing was good once I got a section. this problem was not
> >isolated to just one block. there were a total of three blocks that cut this
> >way. I even tried decacify in the block again no dice. Is there a particular
> >condition that might cause this to happen. Thank in advance for any light
> >someone may be able to shed on this question
> >
> >
> >
>
>