Yesterday after school I headed over to Parkland to make up some quizzes that I missed for Anatomy/Physiology. While I was there, my teacher told me that I could go to the cadaver lab and study vessels and arteries for our test on Saturday so I took her up on the offer. the first time I went up to the lab, I had no clue what to expect. Yeah, I knew that there would be dead bodies up there, but it was still shocking being up there.
For one thing, it smells horrible in there. No, it isn't the smell of dead bodies, but some preservative to keep the bodies in decent condition. Usually when you are in a room that smells bad, eventually your nose will adjust and soon you don't smell it. Nope, not here. Here it's like a haunting smell that follows you, even after you have left the room. Luckily, my class quickly learned that if you put on Vicks under your nose, it will block out the stench so now somebody always brings it. Along the same lines, looking at the bodies is kind of weird. We have pictures in our Anatomy books of how the human body supposedly looks, so when I first went in I expected something closer to that. But no, these bodies are a mess. The diagrams in books are so perfectly laid out, but in an actual body things are all over the place. But maybe that is because in diagrams they don't show you everything at once, like you would find in a real body. They show you the body with only muscles or only veins, but in a real body they are all in there at the same time, making it exponentially more confusing.
Another creepy thing about the lab is that all of the bodies have names. No, not there real names, but names none the less. When I was in there yesterday, my teacher was looking for a body and she was asking, "where is Lou?". It was hysterical because clearly, he did not walk away because that would just be crazy. It all becomes so much more real because they have names, because then when you look at their faces you realize that these people were alive at one point, doing things that you do and just living their life. One of my least favorite things is looking at their faces, because those are always unique. The way their lips or nose are positioned just makes me think, what if they died with this facial expression? It's a creepy, sad thought.
Even though the cadaver lab is gross and disturbing, I still want to go back. It's fascinating looking at all of the things that allow your body to function normally and understanding how they all work together to keep you alive. I appreciate all the people who decided to donate their bodies to science, and although I think about donating my eyes or organs after I die, hopefully I don't find myself in that position soon!
