Gross anatomy

My long awaited moment of truly becoming a medical student came yesterday at 2:00 pm, EST, in the gross anatomy lab. It was loud, and the smell: unmistakable.

I've always imagined what the first day cutting into the deceased would be like. I pictured a dried corpse. Something blanched, exposed, and like a Barbie doll stripped of her clothes, it would be barely human.

And then I met Barbara. She was around her early 80's when she died, possibly of hypertension and coronary heart disease. We had a moment of silence for her and all the people who gave us their bodies--it was the only silence we'd ever hear again in the lab.

I found a strange peace with the blade in hand. Her skin was so surprisingly supple to the touch that it still responded to the pressure of the knife. I thought I was sculpting, cutting away soft bits of clay to reveal the wonder beneath. I peeled back, layer by layer, the skin and folds of fat, scraping away at superficial fascia to reveal nerves and tiny blood vessels. I was lost in the motions: gliding the blade, carving at flesh. For a while, it was beautiful.

Barbara, as it turned out, wasn't going to reveal herself that easily. Her flesh still had tonicity; her fat bounced with our touch. In the words of a fellow labmate:" She's juicy." We soon realized that clearing away structures was going to be much tougher than we thought. Whatever apprehension any of us had about touching/dissecting cadavers flew out the window. Pretty soon, we were all elbow deep in subcutaneous fat, ripping, gripping with our hands at the layer of superficial fascia, digging the inner thigh for the ironically named saphenous (obvious) vein. I've been told that human fat had a distinctive odor. Mixed with formaldehyde, the smell and experience became unforgettable.

Two hours and one bucket of human remains later, Barbara finally gave in. We found the femoral triangle (correctly!).

Barbara wasn't dried, or blanched, or perpetually stiff. Her flesh was moist, and pink, and supple. She made us work, hard, and still there was much work left to be done for the next lab. But I was too tired to care at this point. I rushed home, took a long, hot bath, and still smelled the odors of the lab lingering in the air. Everyone in the dorm had dumped their lab clothes in the hall.

And I'm glad I have plenty of air freshener.