Day 12: The Human Body and All its Wonders

“Now take a human body. Why wouldn't you like to see a human body with a curling tail with a crest of ostrich feathers at the end? And with ears shaped like acanthus leaves? It would be ornamental, you know, instead of the stark, bare ugliness we have now. Well, why don't you like the idea? Because it would be useless and pointless. Because the beauty of the human body is that is hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man.” ― Ayn Rand

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Sanjana, Marina, and I scrubbing up for the anatomy lab!

Outside of clinical shadowing today has to have been one of my favourite days so far in Tier 4. Except for learning about the mountain of debt Im going to be in. That's just daunting.

Just like my first time shadowing in surgery I was unsure how I would feel going into the anatomy lab and learning about the human body with the donors. Through another program at GHS I've already been able to enter the cadaver lab and perform a dissection on a human eye but I knew that it was going to be a different experience this time around. Luckily for me we weren't thrust into the anatomy lab first thing in the morning. Instead, we started off slowly with the M2's giving us lectures similar to their own classes. The plan was that in the afternoon, after reviewing the different systems of the body we would go and see it in person. I'd have to say that out of the three powerpoints we saw the lower extremity one had to be my favourite. Seeing the complicated system of nerves, veins, muscles and ligaments that help do something as simple as flexing your big toe was just downright cool.

The rule for the anatomy lab was pretty simple: Don't be weird.

I can't imagine what its going to be like when I get to work on my cadaver in medical school but I would be lying if I said it was easy right off the bat. Being comfortable around the already dissected donors definitely took me a couple of minutes. Once the medical students started explaining the different mechanisms and body parts at each table it got much easier. Im glad that they had covered the faces of the donors though. Im unsure if I could have handled that especially since its the most humanizing part of the body. The medical students did tell us that that's how they usually start off with their dissections and that the face and head are the last parts that they dissect. Not only that but its also one of the most complicated sections in anatomy. One of the lessons they gave us was how to tell the different between a nerve, a vein, and an artery in the legs. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be at first. Up until now all I've seen have been colour coded pictures in textbooks and powerpoint slides.

There's a lot of respect and care that goes into treatment of the donors. All of them donated their bodies with the intention of helping students learn and keeping that in mind, I found, was really important. I still can't get over the fact that I was able to hold someone's heart and lungs though. It definitely beats any textbook!

Low quality pic, high quality people