Adventures in Cadaverland, Part I
While standing out in the hallway and slowly breathing in the lovely smell of the cadaver lab, I started to feel weak. My fingers were tingling and my brain felt fuzzy. I was given my scrubs, gloves and lab coat and it started really sinking in. I have always wanted to do a cadaver lab, but here I was moments before, and I thought I was going to collapse and/or puke. I went back to the locker room area and changed into the scrubs. I was trying to think of anything that would make me laugh and/or happy. My brain was going overtime and I started breathing slowly and gained composure. I told my professor and TA that I was feeling faint and didn't know if I could even walk in the room. I went in and found my group and sat on a stool. I had to close my eyes and try to focus on something else for a while. The smell seeped its way into my lungs and I stared at the bodies covered in cloaks.
I told my friend Adrianne to stand by me in case I fainted. Was this really happening? I had always looked forward to having this opportunity and was I now going to pass out and miss it??? I was so disappointed. The chaplain came in and did a prayer for the bodies and emphasized how these people had chosen to donate their bodies and they wanted us all to learn through them. Then some Dr. talked foreeeeeeever and I was just wanting to get to it before I passed out. He stopped telling his long story and my professor took off the cloak of a body and cut into the plastic bag. I didn't look for a while until I felt less queasy and then walked over to the table. The head was covered with a cloth thank goodness, I think that is the hardest part for me, I don't want to see their faces for some reason; can't wait until we cut into their heads! :/
She showed us how to make our cut into the chest and started ripping out fat. It was a lady who had quite a bit of glorious yellowness in her chest, the fat looked like a mixture of creamed corn and applesauce, just with a brighter color. We then split into our groups again and went to our cadaver. There were five people in my group and a few had done this before, so that made me feel better. One girl in another group proceeded to fall over and her arm went into a trash can and she got up and was so pale, that made me feel nervous for some reason. Another girl dropped to the floor and got into the fetal position and the lab tech came and carried her out. I was feeling better and helped cut the plastic bag that the body was in. My new friend is Norman, a 75 year old man who had ARDS, thyroid cancer and had a double hernia, among other smaller things. He wasn't overweight and I got a good aura from him (yeah yeah I am a hippy). We got our tools and Adrianne started cutting up along the sternum, wow neato. Maria started cutting a 90 degree angle at the bottom of the ribs and Adrianne cut another 90 degree angle from the sternum cut along the clavicle area. It took a while to chisel away the fat and all, but hello pectoralis major! Norman wasn't much of a weightlifter, so it was pretty thin.
We then cleaned off a lot of the fat and then cut around the pectoralis major so we could see the pectoralis minor. He has some staples in the muscle on the left side, he had some sort of lung surgery, but we weren't sure what. I was in awe, it was so awesome to see everything! I didn't feel sick anymore and wanted to discover more. We went up to the armpit area and dug in and found the bronchial plexus, I had no idea some of the nerves were so big. We were one of the last groups left and we kept cleaning off more fat and trying to get it as clean as possible. We decided to stop and cleaned up and got Norman situated back into the bag. Wow, I can't wait until next week!
I told my friend Adrianne to stand by me in case I fainted. Was this really happening? I had always looked forward to having this opportunity and was I now going to pass out and miss it??? I was so disappointed. The chaplain came in and did a prayer for the bodies and emphasized how these people had chosen to donate their bodies and they wanted us all to learn through them. Then some Dr. talked foreeeeeeever and I was just wanting to get to it before I passed out. He stopped telling his long story and my professor took off the cloak of a body and cut into the plastic bag. I didn't look for a while until I felt less queasy and then walked over to the table. The head was covered with a cloth thank goodness, I think that is the hardest part for me, I don't want to see their faces for some reason; can't wait until we cut into their heads! :/
She showed us how to make our cut into the chest and started ripping out fat. It was a lady who had quite a bit of glorious yellowness in her chest, the fat looked like a mixture of creamed corn and applesauce, just with a brighter color. We then split into our groups again and went to our cadaver. There were five people in my group and a few had done this before, so that made me feel better. One girl in another group proceeded to fall over and her arm went into a trash can and she got up and was so pale, that made me feel nervous for some reason. Another girl dropped to the floor and got into the fetal position and the lab tech came and carried her out. I was feeling better and helped cut the plastic bag that the body was in. My new friend is Norman, a 75 year old man who had ARDS, thyroid cancer and had a double hernia, among other smaller things. He wasn't overweight and I got a good aura from him (yeah yeah I am a hippy). We got our tools and Adrianne started cutting up along the sternum, wow neato. Maria started cutting a 90 degree angle at the bottom of the ribs and Adrianne cut another 90 degree angle from the sternum cut along the clavicle area. It took a while to chisel away the fat and all, but hello pectoralis major! Norman wasn't much of a weightlifter, so it was pretty thin.
We then cleaned off a lot of the fat and then cut around the pectoralis major so we could see the pectoralis minor. He has some staples in the muscle on the left side, he had some sort of lung surgery, but we weren't sure what. I was in awe, it was so awesome to see everything! I didn't feel sick anymore and wanted to discover more. We went up to the armpit area and dug in and found the bronchial plexus, I had no idea some of the nerves were so big. We were one of the last groups left and we kept cleaning off more fat and trying to get it as clean as possible. We decided to stop and cleaned up and got Norman situated back into the bag. Wow, I can't wait until next week!