I’m a medical student, who is
just learning how to sight blood and wouldn’t shiver (as others would say-
stand the sight of blood).
Gross anatomy was a class I was
looking forward to, not because I was excited but I wanted to know if I could
stand the sight of a Cadaver.
No matter what course one is
studying, as far as you are a medical student you’d have to experience series
of Gross Lab.
Each time I go to the Gross lab
for Osteology I take a deep breath
at the door step, even when I know I’m going to see a skeleton and not a
cadaver because the lab smells like the chemical used to embalm the cadavers I always look at the bones as if they were
with flesh and begin to prepare my mind for the real thing.
The chemical used to embalm the Cadaver
is so toxic that it makes my eye itch and watery, it dries up my nose and makes
it difficult for me to talk fluently in the lab. The smell was quite repulsive,
which made me wonder how I would react on my first day of gross lab when the
covers are unwrapped from the cadavers, would I faint? Would my legs shake?
Would I scream out loud?
Let’s get this straightened out
for the record, I have never been interested in Surgery, but have always had a
positive mind towards it.
Those questions as well as the
feeling of uncertainty plagued me on the days leading to my first gross lab
involving cadavers.
On the morning of the lab, I
arrived very early for lab as usual. I was anxious with a mind prepared to
learn, no matter what I see.
Upon entering the gross lab, it
still hadn’t dawn on me that this is someone who could have being walking on
the streets not too long ago. It wasn’t until we took the plastic wrap off,
that I realized how real this experiment was going to be. He had nails, hair
all over and big eyes that made him become alive to me.
I closed my eyes and turned
around to face the wall, trying to gather courage to carry on. In the process,
I began to mutter the words; I can do this, several times I opened my eyes and
literally ran out of the lab, screaming I can’t do this.
Oh my! What a fast runner I am.
I thought I was facing the wall
but alas it’s another Cadaver.
