Inside Med School

I would have to say that Gross Anatomy is the class I’ve been looking forward too most. It’s going to be amazing to get up close and personal with all the organs of the body and see how they are all interconnected. However, along with the excitement of what I’m going to learn, there is also a natural sense of anxiety over the fact that I’m going to be cutting open a dead body. It’s a strange concept to think about, because the people who have donated their bodies have given us a tremendous gift. They have donated their bodies to educate a new generation of physicians who can in turn save many more lives. It’s a beautiful circle of life if you think about it. But at the same time it’s difficult to deal with the mixed emotions. One of my good friends, who is now a third year medical student told me that the first day of anatomy he actually passed out, and that mad eme nervous because he is a pretty tough guy. So I figured if someone like him could faint, I’m sure it could happen to me. And I definitely didn’t want to be one of the people who faint.

So yesterday, we had our first lab, and actually met our cadavers. As we all entered the lab, there was a mood of nervous excitement in the room. Each cadaver is assigned to a group of five medical students. So my group members and I gathered around our dissection table, and there it was…our cadaver. While I was listening for the instructions I couldn’t help but think that this moment has finally come and the only thing holding me back from meeting my cadaver was a big blue tarp. So after receiving a brief introduction to the lab and where all the tools and resources are, we were all allowed to remove our tarps. So I pulled out the scissors and started to cut open the tarp and there she was! While I was cutting through the tarp I almost didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t help it and the first thing I saw was her face. I told myself that I would try not to look at the face until I got more comfortable, because I was afraid looking at the face would humanize the cadaver too much. However, to be honest, it was actually a kind of anticlimactic moment. It was exciting to meet the cadaver, but I wasn’t that shocked. In fact I couldn’t help but think that the cadaver looked kind of fake. It sounds kind of inhumane and insensitive but the fact that the body had a yellowish tint to it (most likely from the preservation process) made it a lot easier to handle the situation. I think it was a similar situation for everyone else in my group because we all sort of let out a sigh of relief after seeing the body. We even gave her a name. Well I didn’t want to because I think that is disrespectful, but actually a lot of people name their cadaver and I really do think it helps people become more comfortable around the cadavers. I know personally, I don’t really want to know about the story of the woman’s life or anything of that humanizes the cadaver until I’m done with the class. And if that’s the case for others, I can see how naming the cadaver can help distract people and sort of give the cadaver an alternate identity while we have to dissect the body.

So for this particular lab, we didn’t have to perform a dissection. We just had to unveil the bodies, clean up the bodies with a sponge bath, and then evaluate the bodies for things like scars, lesions, trauma, and protrusions that could indicate medical devices. First thing I noticed was that there were a few tubes sticking out of her legs, which are apparently for drainage purposes. Other than that we found some scars on her shins. After that we all had to work together to lift the body up and turn it over so we could clean the back and inspect it. Lifting up the body kind of reminded me that we were dealing with a real body because it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. Once we flipped her onto her stomach, I had to lift her up a little and pull her arm out from under her body because it got stuck. Pulling out that cold dead arm was definitely a surreal experience that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

So over-all it wasn’t that bad. I think that getting a chance to meet the cadaver without actually doing a dissection makes it a little easier to transition into our first dissection. Speaking of which our first dissection is tomorrow! I’m really excited for that. One of the rules about anatomy lab is that the professors are there for any questions we may have. However, the one question that is absolutely not allowed is, “ what are we supposed to do today?” Basically what that means is that we have to do a lot of preparation before each lab in order to know what we’re supposed to do. Fortunately, reading the dissection manual and looking up all the structures in the anatomy atlas made me really excited for tomorrow’s lab. I can’t wait to make my first cut and observe the muscles and nerves I’ve been studying hands on.