Cadavers...

[PaddyofNine]

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Damn but mine smells! Anyone else?

 

[bkmonkey]

Our fat's going rancid...pu!!!! 😱

 

[PeterGriffin]

mine smells...delicious! 😎

 

[DrBuzzLightYear]

Well, the smell isn't too bad... but my God, the taste is horrible!!

 

[doc erica]

Well, the smell isn't too bad... but my God, the taste is horrible!!

is it wrong to say i crave roast beef after lab....?

 

[Sean2tall]

is it wrong to say i crave roast beef after lab....?

😱 Haha!

 

[felipe5]

or creamed corn?

 

[v-tach]

Well, the smell isn't too bad... but my God, the taste is horrible!!

YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😱

 

[Brickhouse]

I heard formaldehyde was an appetite stimulant, anyone else heard that? Me and all my lab mates are starving when we leave there.

 

[chameleonknight]

I heard formaldehyde was an appetite stimulant, anyone else heard that? Me and all my lab mates are starving when we leave there.

Our labs usually run from 8am to Noon, so I would be hungry anyway. If I leave and get a snack, I'm ok though.

One of our professors will get on the microphone and say "paging Dr. Starbucks...." This is a clue that it's time for a coffee break if anyone would like to join him. 😉

 

[DrBuzzLightYear]

the worst is when you chew gum during lab... when you leave you realize that it tastes like formaldehyde, like you're chewing corpse juice.

 

[closertofine]

the worst is when you chew gum during lab... when you leave you realize that it tastes like formaldehyde, like you're chewing corpse juice.

Yeah, this is why I always spit my gum out on the way into lab (guess a lot of people have that thought, since there's a trash can right there)...never ended up with the formaldehyde taste, but I could imagine it happening...

 

[bkmonkey]

the gum thing is definitely nasty, i noticed that right away. as for the formalin being an appetite stimulant, i have to wonder too. i'm starving about midway through lab even when i eat a huge breakfast. i know the stuff goes straight through my gloves and then to my brain...

 

[Sean2tall]

I heard formaldehyde was an appetite stimulant, anyone else heard that? Me and all my lab mates are starving when we leave there.

I have definitely heard that, and lots of people comment on how hungry they get during lab. Not me though, I usually don't want to eat my lunch afterwards . .

 

[maiko82]

Yesterday, we sawed off our cadaver's leg to see her reproductive bits. You'd think such a huge step would be written in the dissector or mentioned in lecture, but no. . .

Who knew the ovaries in an 80 year old woman would be so small? They looked like lemon seeds. That cystic uterus reminded me of Chinese meatballs. Yum!

 

[bkmonkey]

ok, somebody's gotta keep you away from the donor...meatballs!!!!

 

[maiko82]

ok, somebody's gotta keep you away from the donor...meatballs!!!!

Heh, you mean the donor's family? The donor and I meet up at least twice a week. But no, I can control my behavior. 🙂 We're to have another luncheon with the family in a few months.

 

[Dr Turninkoff]

Heh, you mean the donor's family? The donor and I meet up at least twice a week. But no, I can control my behavior. 🙂 We're to have another luncheon with the family in a few months.

maiko, i have to ask you....when i toured OU, they bragged about their relations with the donor families and i thought the whole system was really strange. how does that work out? good, bad, weird??? does it make it harder for some people to dissect after hearing the life story of their cadaver?

 

[velo]

Heh, you mean the donor's family? The donor and I meet up at least twice a week. But no, I can control my behavior. 🙂 We're to have another luncheon with the family in a few months.

really? that's bizarre. Here they take steps to make sure we don't figure out who the donor family is and vis versa (i.e. don't talk about identifying marks, features, etc outside of lab). I was given the impression that it was like this at most schools.

I think eating lunch with the family would be a horrible ordeal. There's a certain amount of dehumanizing that you have to do, at least at a subconscious level, to do the dissection. Having lunch with the family afterwards would be a horrid exercise in trying not to say anything that would upset them.

 

[maiko82]

maiko, i have to ask you....when i toured OU, they bragged about their relations with the donor families and i thought the whole system was really strange. how does that work out? good, bad, weird??? does it make it harder for some people to dissect after hearing the life story of their cadaver?

You know, I thought it would be more difficult to dissect now that my cadaver had a "face" . . . and it is in many ways. The cadavers undergo many insults as we dissect, and of course, we are told repeatedly (for the slower ones) not to use certain buzz words around the donors' familes. We had a luncheon with the donors' families just after orientation. Elizabeth's daughter didn't show, as she was undergoing a chemo treatment, but she was kind enough to write a 3 page biography about her mother. Liz was a Cherokee tribal leader, an extra in SE Hinton's film, "The Outsiders," a rabid OU football fan, and a woman who loved her beer. We have another luncheon after the semester, so I hope to meet Liz's daughter by then.

But as cheesy as it's going to sound, I have a greater appreciation for Liz's amazing sacrifice. They always say the cadaver is our greatest teacher throughout medical school.

Many of my classmates who got to meet the families have similar stories. For them, the general consensus was, "It was weird, but got much better once the family started talking about the departed." Some families will even bake cookies for the students during subsequent test blocks!

 

[chriseli]

Wow...here at NEOUCOM, we only have a memorial service in the spring. We don't meet the family before and we definitely dont know the identities of our cadavers. Quick question...how bad are your cadavers decaying...we have one that is totally molded through...so much to the point that they had to give the group another cadaver. GROSS! Also, I don't think our school uses formaldehyde or whatever...its supposed to be carcinogenic (like everything else in life)

 

[maiko82]

really? that's bizarre. Here they take steps to make sure we don't figure out who the donor family is and vis versa (i.e. don't talk about identifying marks, features, etc outside of lab). I was given the impression that it was like this at most schools.

I think eating lunch with the family would be a horrible ordeal. There's a certain amount of dehumanizing that you have to do, at least at a subconscious level, to do the dissection. Having lunch with the family afterwards would be a horrid exercise in trying not to say anything that would upset them.

It was easier to have the luncheon at the beginning, because I had no idea what we were about to do to the cadaver. I hope the family doesn't ask us what we did to her in the spring.

My sister took an anatomy class at a local college. They used prosected, unclaimed bodies.

I think it's strange that other schools take these steps to prevent students from knowing their cadaver's identity. It's harder to be disrespectful to someone you almost see as a grandparent. Of course, I am not speaking for all my classmates. There are some extremely immature and vulgar students, but that's a topic for another thread.

 

[JunkintheTrunk]

we made a rule amongst our group not to talk about food during lab. we started saying stuff like "this muscle looks like tuna" or "roast beef" etc.

two bodies in our lab were carted away yesterday after a month of dissection.....they were completely mush when they opened up the abdominal cavities....EWWWW!

and you know how they put vaseline on the extremities....including the "goodies"? a girl in my group didn't hear them say they had done that, and said "i think ours has a yeast infection" hahahaaaaa

 

[PaddyofNine]

Hmmmm, I suppose people need to distance themselves mentally from what's going on. I mean, when I'm dissecting, the first day was admittedly, a bit weird. As time goes on, though, I get so caught up in looking for the M in the brachial plexus or whatever, I almost forget that it's a person I'm chopping up here. I dunno if that's a good or a bad thing.

In our school, they have a chart up with your cadaver's first name, age, general address (which I think is a bit weird, but however!) and cause of death. It does help a little, I think.