June 24, 2010

The Day I Saw a Dead Body

I’m taking Anatomy and Physiology, and with that comes the option of going to the “cadaver lab” throughout the semester. My school has a male and a female cadaver which we can go in and look at. More advanced courses gets to even take samples and such. I’m not there yet. I may take that course later though.

Today we learned about skin cancers and took some final notes before we have an exam on Tuesday. After that, we had the option to go to the cadaver lab. Anyone else see the irony in discussing skin cancers (during summer months no less) and then going to see a real dead body?

I was in the first group that got to go see it this morning. We were warned not to touch the sides of the cart because apparently formaldehyde stays with you for a long time and smells, oh yeah, and we were warned of the smell of that and fabric softener. They use that to keep the body moist. Interesting, huh?

So, we go in (my group was all girls) and none of us ran back to the door or passed out. Apparently, some people in the past have just walked right back out. We all made it to the end, so I guess we’ll make it in the respective fields we seek in that sense. Did you know some people going into these fields can’t stand the sight of blood? Seriously! How could you be a nurse and unable to stand the sight of blood? Something tells me they don’t last long as a nurse…

We get to go in again later in the semester when we discuss muscles in more depth.

The test on Tuesday is going to be on different tissues and skin. Then in about 3 weeks we have a mid-term on the lab stuff. This is what I’m stressing out about because it is so much information; I really don’t know how I can memorize it all in such a short amount of time (ontop of everything else). Wish me luck!


*P.S. – I didn’t post a picture with this post because well, I didn’t think many of you would want to see what I saw. If you want an idea of it though, type “Gross Anatomy Lab Pictures” into Google under image search.

8 comments:

steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com said...

Vick Ointment - the coroners' choice is supposed to overwhelm all many of nasty. Good for you sticking it out. It can't be the most pleasant thing. Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust
steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com

Anonymous said...

Wow, I dunno if I could see it. Well, I probably would because I'm so freakin curious.

Good luck on your test! I know you'll do amazing. =D

Sheri, RN said...

It was really interesting!

Anonymous said...

Eeek!

I had to go look at a cadaver for one of my classes too!

But I must've blanked-out the experience. Because I totally remember going. And I know that I LOOKED. But I can't actually remember what I saw. That memory is just missing.

So weird.

Sheri, RN said...

LOL that might be a good thing to have forgotten Sweet-Britches. :)

Anonymous said...

I have seen autopsy pictures before and they are not nice so not sure if I could see it in real life.

But it does seem your course is really interesting though!

Lucy said...

I am sure you found it interesting being that it is in your field BUT I know I would have RUN for cover guess that is why I chose another field (LOL)

Anonymous said...

I have worked around dead people for so long it doesn't even bother me. As a matter of fact I like it better. They can't talk to you! I also was given the opportunity to sit in an autopsy. The patient was murdered at a local convenient store. It was actually very neat. The cops were there taking pictures, my husband was there taking xrays (looking for the bullet), the pathologist was poking around. I really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, there are alot of people going into nursing that have no business being in it. My Mother has been a nurse for over 20 years. She's not real crazy about the attitudes of some of the new grads. It's very sad but it's the way it is.