Corpse Bride
On Saturday morning, April Fools Day, us YTT students visited a cadaver lab to learn more about anatomy. The visit was optional, and most students chose to attend. I viewed and touched (with rubber gloved hands) 4 dead, dissected bodies. It was interesting and intense.
The smell of formaldehyde reminded me of when it was my assignment in college to dissect a cat for Anatomy & Physiology class. The faces and hands and feet of the human bodies (the areas where skin was still intact) reminded me of my first job in a hospital, on a cancer unit, when I was responsible for "post-mortem care". Basically, after a patient died we needed to prepare the body for the morgue, which meant we stripped the body, took out any IVs and catheters, tied the jaw closed, tied name tags to the big toe, and wrapped it in a plastic sheet. Sometimes it was my job to do post-mortem care for a patient who had been on the unit for many months, and so I had developed a deeper relationship/friendship with them. That would be sad for me, but I put on my practical nurse's hat and got through it. Sometimes I cried a little, but it didn't get in the way of completing my work. I remember feeling privileged to be responsible for the person's care. Death is a special time, like birth is. I felt honored to witness the passing, in a similar way that I felt honored in nursing school when I observed a mother giving birth and I was the first person to dress the baby. On Saturday, I felt honored to view the insides of these bodies, and I felt grateful to the souls who lived in those bodies for sharing with us. I felt myself wearing my practical nurse's hat as I held a heart in my hands. I held a lung and I saw a brain, too. I touched leg muscles and the sciatic nerve. The experience has helped me to process all the anatomy I've been learning during the past month. I have a clearer understanding of the muscles now that I've colored them in my Anatomy Coloring Book, and then saw them in the (dead) flesh. I also have a firmer understanding of my preference for vegetarian nutrition.
When I got home on Saturday after a day of YTT, Bob surprised me with a DVD he rented from Le Video. He said he got "Corpse Bride" because I'm his bride and I'd spent the morning with corpses.
The smell of formaldehyde reminded me of when it was my assignment in college to dissect a cat for Anatomy & Physiology class. The faces and hands and feet of the human bodies (the areas where skin was still intact) reminded me of my first job in a hospital, on a cancer unit, when I was responsible for "post-mortem care". Basically, after a patient died we needed to prepare the body for the morgue, which meant we stripped the body, took out any IVs and catheters, tied the jaw closed, tied name tags to the big toe, and wrapped it in a plastic sheet. Sometimes it was my job to do post-mortem care for a patient who had been on the unit for many months, and so I had developed a deeper relationship/friendship with them. That would be sad for me, but I put on my practical nurse's hat and got through it. Sometimes I cried a little, but it didn't get in the way of completing my work. I remember feeling privileged to be responsible for the person's care. Death is a special time, like birth is. I felt honored to witness the passing, in a similar way that I felt honored in nursing school when I observed a mother giving birth and I was the first person to dress the baby. On Saturday, I felt honored to view the insides of these bodies, and I felt grateful to the souls who lived in those bodies for sharing with us. I felt myself wearing my practical nurse's hat as I held a heart in my hands. I held a lung and I saw a brain, too. I touched leg muscles and the sciatic nerve. The experience has helped me to process all the anatomy I've been learning during the past month. I have a clearer understanding of the muscles now that I've colored them in my Anatomy Coloring Book, and then saw them in the (dead) flesh. I also have a firmer understanding of my preference for vegetarian nutrition.
When I got home on Saturday after a day of YTT, Bob surprised me with a DVD he rented from Le Video. He said he got "Corpse Bride" because I'm his bride and I'd spent the morning with corpses.
posted by Anonymous @ 11:51 AM
1 Comments:
At 4/04/2006 3:59 PM,
Julie said…
Well said, Jen. I felt privileged also that these wonderful humans left their bodies behind for us to see from the inside. What an amazing invention the human body is.
Post a Comment
<< Home