Wows

In anatomy lab today, we found breast implants on our cadaver. Surprise! We started dissecting the front/thorax and as we started pulling back the breast we were like .. what.. there's mesh in here... and silicone! AAH! Everyone in lab came over to see it, it was the coolest thing ever. Unfortunately, we punctured both implants so they couldn't be saved. The silicone felt like bouncy, sticky honey/mousetrap glue. The lab prof said in 2-3 days it would be all over everything and gooier and stickier.

After we had gotten through much of the superficial muscle and saw the arteries/veins/nerves in the upper chest, I got to use a bone saw to cut through the ribs and reflect them inferiorly to see the inner organs. Our cadaver had died at 65 from ovarian cancer which seemed to have metastasized to the lungs because the left lung was stuck to the ribcage and the right side had parts that were quite hard. (EDIT: They messed up the descriptions of the bodies for the tables... our body is of a 70 year old female with emphysema and tobacco abuse). I touched the lungs of another table's cadaver where there was very visible lung cancer and the lungs had a lot of black spots and hard bumps. One lab professor also pulled out a lymph node to show us- that was interesting to see too.

Today was hard for me with the smells though. Since everyone was cutting open ribcages, the smell of formaldehyde was overwhelming the room as it spilled out of the insides of bodies. Also, I don't think a lot of groups were using the odor neutralizing spray (20% Infutrace, 1% phenol), and we have been dissecting for over a week now. The combination of the smell of the formaldehyde and some table's greasy yellow fat made me gag. I don't think I could handle surgery...

Dissection instructions picture from our book:

Yesterday was also really interesting. We spent about an hour and a half doing an exercise to learn about diversity. It was aptly named the "diversity shuffle" which upon reading I thought... is this a dance? But instead, our class showed up at the gym and all started on one side of the room. As a professor called out phrases, we would move into the center of the room if it fit us. "Step forward if you identify as... as woman... Asian-American... if you are under 30..." "Look around you. See who is standing with you and who is not. See how it feels. And step back." At first they were basic demographics. There were about 7 or 8 other multicultural people (is that my group? I don't know... maybe?). Then the phrases started getting deeper. "If you grew up poor...if neither of your parents went to college...if you were raised by a single parent... if you had drug or alcohol problems in your family... if you or someone in your family was incarcerated... if you know a close family member or friend with HIV/AIDS..." and finally "if you've ever watched someone die." So many people walked out on the last one- at least half. I know it was definitely emotional and hard for some people, and I felt it from the other side, especially when the same group of people walked out for a bunch of the same ones. My heart was breaking for them and their past, but was also feeling proud for them being here in med school. There were so many things that were called out for which we walked out to the middle of the room in silence, and without even speaking to each other, we all learned so much about each other.

We split up into small groups to discuss the exercise and how we think it will affect us in the future. Will there be prejudice against us? Will we have any towards patients and others in our practice? How did we identify and how did it make us feel? Sometimes it's hard to admit something sensitive, and we must be aware of that.