Question when doing labs and examining cadavers

Started by VelvetArt
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VelvetArt

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Hey guys, how do you manage to dissect cadavers without feeling sick? In high school we did some pretty basic dissections but never on a human body, back then it was an organ by itself and I could imagine it's just a piece of meat but when the full body in front of me I think oh **** this is a real person! 😱

Is it just a case of exposing yourself to it and eventually it'll just be like doing anything else?
 
Most everyone seems to adjust pretty quickly. You spend so much time in lab that you won't even really notice the smell. And cadavers look quite a bit different from a living, breathing person. It's not too hard to dissociate if that's one's coping mechanism.
 
Yeah the smell is still quite noticeable once you enter the lab, but you tend to get used to it after a little while until you get a headache from it (or maybe that's just me).

Dissecting a human can be uncomfortable at times, but the educational value is supposed to outweigh the inhumane aspect.

I personally get almost nothing from doing dissection. My specimen both has a lot of subcutaneous fat and is missing much of her GI system. Even so, I'm sure that the structures look nothing like you'd expect to see them in surgery.
 
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Wizard of Oz said:
I personally get almost nothing from doing dissection.
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I agree with this....One of my classmates put it best a few days ago when he said, "Well, today I learned what two muscles are in lab." However, some people love lab and get a ton out of it.

I read a book one time where Abe Lincoln described his mind as being like a piece of steel: very hard to scratch anything into it, but once it is there, it usually stays. That is how my mind works. It will take me FOREVER to beat those things into my head, so seeing something for two seconds in lab after I spend 30 minutes F-ing around trying to even figure out what is going on is not going to do much for me.
 
I get a lot out of lab.

BTW, we should make this a sticky because roughly once a week a premed pops in and says "Will Gross lab make me sick?"
 
it's not that gross, but it does stink the entire time. I wish it faded away! Albeit, the shock is greatest as soon as you walk in the lab.
 
The peculiar odor of Anat. lab is akin to automobile scent...once you’re in it for a while it’ll fade away from your smell. 😉
 
VelvetArt said:
Is it just a case of exposing yourself to it ?
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Personally, at our school, exposing one's self to one's cadaver was generally frowned upon:laugh:

However, I was never present for the late-night study sessions in the lab, so perhaps a little bit of exhibitionism would have helped me in the lab?😉 Although, nudity in the lab is probably not advisable, scalpels and all...😱
 
DocVirk said:
Personally, at our school, exposing one's self to one's cadaver was generally frowned upon:laugh:

However, I was never present for the late-night study sessions in the lab, so perhaps a little bit of exhibitionism would have helped me in the lab?😉 Although, nudity in the lab is probably not advisable, scalpels and all...😱
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Our cadavers have been quite the exhibitionists of late. One of the fellas had an audience of at least 10 looking at his fabulous spermatic fascia.
 
Wizard of Oz said:
Yeah the smell is still quite noticeable once you enter the lab, but you tend to get used to it after a little while until you get a headache from it (or maybe that's just me).

Dissecting a human can be uncomfortable at times, but the educational value is supposed to outweigh the inhumane aspect.

I personally get almost nothing from doing dissection. My specimen both has a lot of subcutaneous fat and is missing much of her GI system. Even so, I'm sure that the structures look nothing like you'd expect to see them in surgery.
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Ditto. I left lab today with a huge headache, which is pretty typical for me, but I don't think anybody really gets nauseated or emotionally freaked out about it after the first one or two dissections. I'm also with you in thinking lab's a huge waste of time.
 
Alright thanks guys.

Any tips on what to imagine so I don't feel sick when I begin?

Cheers
 
VelvetArt said:
Alright thanks guys.

Any tips on what to imagine so I don't feel sick when I begin?

Cheers
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First off, you aren't anywhere near to starting Gross lab so just chill out and don't think about it. Second, trust us when we say that 5 minutes into lab you wont even remember its a body. 2 weeks into gross the smell will become hardly noticeable and you won't care that its a body. 3 weeks and you'll be using the cadaver as a arm rest. 1 month and you'll notice a little bit of cadaver fat on your arm while you're eating - flick it off and continue eating without giving it a second thought.
 
just don't let yourself think about the cadavar as having once been a person. I got freaked out at first, but that did the trick for me. I was fine until we got to the eye dissection. that was creepy and disgusting, but I got through it! You will too! 🙂
 
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Why do people care that it was a person? It's still a person, just a dead person that smells funny.
 
surebreC said:
First off, you aren't anywhere near to starting Gross lab so just chill out and don't think about it. Second, trust us when we say that 5 minutes into lab you wont even remember its a body. 2 weeks into gross the smell will become hardly noticeable and you won't care that its a body. 3 weeks and you'll be using the cadaver as a arm rest. 1 month and you'll notice a little bit of cadaver fat on your arm while you're eating - flick it off and continue eating without giving it a second thought.
Click to expand...


Exactly how long do you use the cadavers, and are they semi-preserved so that you're abel to work on them for long periods of time
 
"Exactly how long do you use the cadavers, and are they semi-preserved so that you're abel to work on them for long periods of time"

we started lab in august and used the same cadavars until april! some of them were pretty moldy by the end!
 
I had a craving for beef jerky, so I got some. Anatomy lab makes me hungry actually. I'm sick, I know. 😛
 
i think the best thing to do is to take it organ by organ with facial dissection coming last.
some people use vick's vapor rub to "erase" the formalin odor.
our cadaver had a ton of subcu fat so the fatty odor is actually what sometimes got me alittle nauseous when i let myself think about it. eventually i got used to it- the whole experience just takes getting used to.
 
Nylesor said:
I had a craving for beef jerky, so I got some. Anatomy lab makes me hungry actually. I'm sick, I know. 😛
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I was actually told that some of the preservatives trigger hunger. Not only that, but I'm in lab until 4pm a lot of the time, so I'm hungry anyways.
 
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