Microscopy frustration - rant

I can't seem to replicate this stupid experiment my lab published. When I was originally trained, the lab scientist followed their own protocol and not the standard protocol for delivering fatty acids to cells. My PI showed me the correct way and I was able to find a few patches of cells that replicated the results. Now I am imaging cells I treated with fatty acid + inhibitor, but my wells that received only the fatty acid treatment look the same as the vehicle control.

I am just so tired of doing so much work and feeling like a failure. I almost dread going to the microscope room. Today I started with the fatty acid only slide and just cried for 5 minutes and moved on to image treatment + inhibitor. Even if the treatment and inhibitor slides worked, I can't compare them to the treatment alone to support that claim.

My PI is so supportive but I just feel like every week I'm wasting my time. I know she's going to find one image I took and say see, this is great! And have me repeat the experiment with some changes. But she had me submit an abstract for a poster this Thursday saying I'd be showing the results from this exact experiment. Which is stupid, I should have stood up for myself and said I'd prepare a poster with results we already had (I don't have any results of my own yet - see next paragraph).

I'm especially worn out as the scientist that was training me gave me incorrect information in almost every single protocol. When I would do things my way (after discussing the correct protocol with another labmate or from reading papers and making my own adjustments) he would get frustrated with me and stand over my shoulder and say things like "well it's your experiment you can do it however you want, but I'd suggest that you...." until I did things his way. If I didn't do things his way I would be emotionally worn out by noon. That's all handled at this point, he will no longer be working in my lab, but it took a whole year to alert my PI and have him transfered. I think this set me up to be more sensitive to burnout.

I'm just. Tired. And would like a win. That doesn't involve repeating experiments my lab has already published.