For the Love of Science
For the past 13 weeks, I've been forging my way through the second term of the year, trying to maintain grades, a relationship, and a life. I've managed to keep all these in check (I think), and I've had the added bonus of getting to know someone new, a very wonderful person, someone completely devoted to the field of science and medicine. So devoted, in fact, that they have given their body up for the advancement of education.
My cadaver, aka lab table 7, is an 84 year old woman... cause of death believed to be a CVA (stroke) - and confirmed by yours truly. Frail, tiny, helpless, and lying on a cold metal table, I couldn't help but wonder what this woman's life was like. What were her dreams? Was she married? Did she have children, grandchildren? Did she cook wonderful homemade meals like all grandmothers do? What was her favorite christmas cookie to bake? How many brothers and sisters did she have?
I'll never know the answers to these questions, and I can only speculate that she was a kind old woman who was generous enough to donate her body to science. Would I be able to do the same thing? Since 2nd or 3rd grade, I've developed a profound respect for Science and its progress in the medical field. But I don't know if I could donate my body to the study, knowing that it could indeed be a cadaver for medical students. Not that there's anything wrong with that, the utmost respect is always utilized while in the lab. But I don't know how I feel about med students poking and prodding at my insides, looking at whatever "anomalies" I have compared to a normal body. Not to mention all my gut fat.
I guess once you're dead, you're dead, and you really don't give a crap what happens to your lifeless body any longer. But still, cadavers hold a special place in my heart after this term. It'll be sad to say goodbye to my old woman on Tuesday. I've developed a sort of bond with her. Before I leave, I'll be sure to say thank you.
3 comments:
Bicept, tricept, (obvious functions) quadricept lifts leg forward, quinticept... lifts the soul... i dunno.
The gluteus maximus if your but muscle and it's used for showing off your low body fat to chicks.
Yea, awkward? Sorry.
-Andrew (Who else)
i forgot 90% of musculoskeletal already. you will too. give it a few weeks. also, dissection is gross, and unfortunately at AMC it spans september-may.
The hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the foot bone...
What do you mean that's not the way it works??? that's the song I learned when I was a kid and don't you tell me that it ain't true!
Nice lady and nice family.
Who do you think would write this???
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