*-[Cadavers]`+
If you're eating, you might want to read this later.
I had human biology from 4 to 6 today. and yes, I echo Su Ann's MSN nick strongly:
I saw & touched dead humans plus their organs!
There were 2 of them waiting for us in the lab, rumours had already been running around saying we'd see them today... and we did! Gary Whittaker, a nice and funny guy aka my tutor, told us in the last 15 minutes of class that we were going to walk to block 404. Nothing wrong with 404, aptly and concisely named biomedical science. It was the formalin smell. Formaldehyde, to be exact. And as we trooped in with our mouths covered, I had no idea what to expect. The smell was not half as bad as I had imagined. The rumours (as all rumours are) were rather exaggerated. And the first question I wanted answers to was answered the minute I saw it/her? She was skinned. Mm Hm, no fuss, no gasping, just matter of fact looks all round and a little squinting of the eyes. Muscle was bare in sight all over, and looked too much like the meat we all eat for me to have had chicken tonight. I heaped the cabbage on and gratefully swallowed rice. I kept remembering the muscles on the disphragm and how they looked like beef. No one had an adverse reaction to it, but most left as soon as they could. A few of us stayed back, however. Gary took out a lung, and noted it's sponginess. A cadaver lung is usually hard, but because the subject had had emphysema, it was soft and spongy. The cadaver happened to be an 89 year old lady who smoked, and had multiple health problems, judging by the mis-shapen kidneys, dark colored lungs (deep blue in patches from carbon and tar), and thin left-ventricle walls. The heart was cut into half to show the tendons and the cardiac muscle clearly- she must have had heart problems because the coronory arteries were strange and the heart muscle was not strong. The pericardium was still intact, although all fluid was already drained. Some tufts of skin were left on in order to hold the limbs together, and on closer inspection it was wrinkled and quite ermm, how do you describe these things? The hands, feet and head were covered and Claire the lab technician offered to uncover it- Me and Su promptly left and decided that could wait. As Speechies (the rather corny name for speech therapists) we would have to deal with cadavers of the head... sometimes ONLY the head, to inspect muscles and other organs involved with speech production. I don't think I was ready, and I'm pretty glad we left. Although Gary said the face was skinned, I could see hair from under the cloth, and I decided not to imagine how the face looked. What if somehow through some ingenious way, they managed to preserve the eyes, giving it some sort of haunted expression?? I didn't want to know for now. I told myself I'd wait till session 5. And when I have to, I have to. It didn't cause some sort of morbid facination, but rather an awe inspiring wonder of what it would be like to be a body donor and have people look at me and poke at my insides. I'm being terribly matter of fact about all this but I have no choice- I hope it doesn't dehumanise me or anything- It does seem terribly disrespectful to poke around other people's insides while they lie there stark naked- more than naked really... They don't even have the security of their skin. I wonder if I'm beautiful on the inside... Gary just removed her rib cage like it was a cover... and there it all was.. laid bare all her cards on the table. Claire lifted the liver and spleen and dug out a kidney. I vaguely wondered what I should do with my body... I think organ donation is much safer. at least someone uses my organs instead of inspecting them. There are cameras all over... not to make sure the cadavers run away as Gary suggested.. but rather to make sure we were nice to the cadavers. I wonder about this 89 year old lady. Did she really want to give her body to science? If she knew how people would take her apart, would she think twice? If she knew how the preservatives would be injected into her artery... would she still do this? Now that I've seen two cadavers, and more to come in time (I can feel my stomach knotting) I don't know about body donation. I think I'll stick to being an organ donor. =) I don't want people spending $400000 to $600000 on me just to keep me preserved like a comfy pickle in a fridge.
On a less gut wrenching note, I was victimised (or rather I volunteered to be tortured) as we did a simple experiment on homeostasis. I had Su measuring my breathing, Ashleigh doing my pulse and lucy taking temperature ALL AT ONCE. I couldn't stop laughing, as Su asked me to breathe harder.. and I though about this and I thought ashleigh might ask me to beat my heart harder... and I think we were sadly inaccurate because it was a dodgy experiment. I was such a lab rat. Fun though.
Went out with Yuuko and Chimari. Think we're going jogging tomorr. They're lovely girls =).. so politely japanese, finding out stuff about Aussie (like wearing short skirts and skimpy clothes) and loving life. I've got lots to learn from these two.. think they're just smashingly cool. =)
OkAe.. I should go finish my readings... for bio and psych. I hope it wasn't a pukable entry.. sorry guys! But I found it rather interesting. Not in a morbid way either. Just... amazing stuff. yeah. =)
Jaa~
[You painted a million stars.. that I might know your majesty...]
=Jesus.My.One.And.Only=
If you're eating, you might want to read this later.
I had human biology from 4 to 6 today. and yes, I echo Su Ann's MSN nick strongly:
I saw & touched dead humans plus their organs!
There were 2 of them waiting for us in the lab, rumours had already been running around saying we'd see them today... and we did! Gary Whittaker, a nice and funny guy aka my tutor, told us in the last 15 minutes of class that we were going to walk to block 404. Nothing wrong with 404, aptly and concisely named biomedical science. It was the formalin smell. Formaldehyde, to be exact. And as we trooped in with our mouths covered, I had no idea what to expect. The smell was not half as bad as I had imagined. The rumours (as all rumours are) were rather exaggerated. And the first question I wanted answers to was answered the minute I saw it/her? She was skinned. Mm Hm, no fuss, no gasping, just matter of fact looks all round and a little squinting of the eyes. Muscle was bare in sight all over, and looked too much like the meat we all eat for me to have had chicken tonight. I heaped the cabbage on and gratefully swallowed rice. I kept remembering the muscles on the disphragm and how they looked like beef. No one had an adverse reaction to it, but most left as soon as they could. A few of us stayed back, however. Gary took out a lung, and noted it's sponginess. A cadaver lung is usually hard, but because the subject had had emphysema, it was soft and spongy. The cadaver happened to be an 89 year old lady who smoked, and had multiple health problems, judging by the mis-shapen kidneys, dark colored lungs (deep blue in patches from carbon and tar), and thin left-ventricle walls. The heart was cut into half to show the tendons and the cardiac muscle clearly- she must have had heart problems because the coronory arteries were strange and the heart muscle was not strong. The pericardium was still intact, although all fluid was already drained. Some tufts of skin were left on in order to hold the limbs together, and on closer inspection it was wrinkled and quite ermm, how do you describe these things? The hands, feet and head were covered and Claire the lab technician offered to uncover it- Me and Su promptly left and decided that could wait. As Speechies (the rather corny name for speech therapists) we would have to deal with cadavers of the head... sometimes ONLY the head, to inspect muscles and other organs involved with speech production. I don't think I was ready, and I'm pretty glad we left. Although Gary said the face was skinned, I could see hair from under the cloth, and I decided not to imagine how the face looked. What if somehow through some ingenious way, they managed to preserve the eyes, giving it some sort of haunted expression?? I didn't want to know for now. I told myself I'd wait till session 5. And when I have to, I have to. It didn't cause some sort of morbid facination, but rather an awe inspiring wonder of what it would be like to be a body donor and have people look at me and poke at my insides. I'm being terribly matter of fact about all this but I have no choice- I hope it doesn't dehumanise me or anything- It does seem terribly disrespectful to poke around other people's insides while they lie there stark naked- more than naked really... They don't even have the security of their skin. I wonder if I'm beautiful on the inside... Gary just removed her rib cage like it was a cover... and there it all was.. laid bare all her cards on the table. Claire lifted the liver and spleen and dug out a kidney. I vaguely wondered what I should do with my body... I think organ donation is much safer. at least someone uses my organs instead of inspecting them. There are cameras all over... not to make sure the cadavers run away as Gary suggested.. but rather to make sure we were nice to the cadavers. I wonder about this 89 year old lady. Did she really want to give her body to science? If she knew how people would take her apart, would she think twice? If she knew how the preservatives would be injected into her artery... would she still do this? Now that I've seen two cadavers, and more to come in time (I can feel my stomach knotting) I don't know about body donation. I think I'll stick to being an organ donor. =) I don't want people spending $400000 to $600000 on me just to keep me preserved like a comfy pickle in a fridge.
On a less gut wrenching note, I was victimised (or rather I volunteered to be tortured) as we did a simple experiment on homeostasis. I had Su measuring my breathing, Ashleigh doing my pulse and lucy taking temperature ALL AT ONCE. I couldn't stop laughing, as Su asked me to breathe harder.. and I though about this and I thought ashleigh might ask me to beat my heart harder... and I think we were sadly inaccurate because it was a dodgy experiment. I was such a lab rat. Fun though.
Went out with Yuuko and Chimari. Think we're going jogging tomorr. They're lovely girls =).. so politely japanese, finding out stuff about Aussie (like wearing short skirts and skimpy clothes) and loving life. I've got lots to learn from these two.. think they're just smashingly cool. =)
OkAe.. I should go finish my readings... for bio and psych. I hope it wasn't a pukable entry.. sorry guys! But I found it rather interesting. Not in a morbid way either. Just... amazing stuff. yeah. =)
Jaa~
[You painted a million stars.. that I might know your majesty...]
=Jesus.My.One.And.Only=
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