Gross!!

"What's a cadaver?" my brother wanted to know Sunday night. Trav explained that it's a dead body donated to science that they dissect in their Gross Anatomy Lab (Someone had that right when they were naming the class, haha) Well, my teenage brother is not very hard to disgust, but I think Trav succeeded. I personally couldn't wait to go see it. Doesn't seem to gel with my personality, I know, but nonetheless they let me come check it out Monday night during open lab. I got all gussied up in my scrubs and made Trav take a "before" picture, sure that I wasn't going to come out the same person.

Trav also got to pose :) Unfortunately they don't allow cameras inside, so I'll try to paint a picture! Well, the smell wasn't too bad because there were only a few bodies out. Everything seemed very sterile. It's basically a huge room filled with metal tables. The body lies on the table and is covered with a metal top that swings down and locks underneath. Ryan and Doug were studying theirs so we went to take a looksie. The face, hands, and feet were covered because I guess seeing those parts makes the body more "human". It was on it's stomach, so they peeled back the skin, fat layer, and various muscles to show what they've been doing! Yeah, kinda gross. But they had me put on gloves and pull at the skin to feel how thick it was, and after a while, I got used to the idea of touching it. Trav took me to his table and showed me his body. The man was thicker and I even took a peek at his face! Very weird, but if you've ever seen a BodyWorlds exhibit, that's kind of what it's like. It almost doesn't seem real. The skin is gray and when you touch or squeeze the limbs, they are very stiff. Trav said that a few days ago the TA came around with a saw and just hacked off an arm and gave it back to them. I guess they needed it separated to do their dissection. He said you could hear when he got to the bone. Yeeeesh! I couldn't have handled that!! Well, I stuck around for a while and figured I had seen everything there was to see. I do want to come back once they've dissected a little more and see organs and stuff. Rach said she would come too! Come on Megan, you know you want to! I will admit that while we were out with the gang eating wings later that night, I couldn't quite get the images out of my brain. Not very appetizing when you're gnawing on skin and meat on the bone. Well, no nightmare so far! I guess it wasn't so gross after all!:)