Day 12 - Patient/Cadaver Dissection

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

I really don't have the words or level of writing aptitude necessary to do justice for how grateful students, such as myself, are to have the amazing opportunity to fully explore the human body via dissection.  Nothing I have done, read or seen compares to the profound change I've had in viewing other people more so than human dissection.  

I would imagine if you were going to take your car to a mechanic to get fixed that most people would prefer to have a mechanic that's already been under the hood of a car and knows all the parts to the engine and what they all do as opposed to just reading about it in a book and looking at a few pictures.  With similar logic, I'd have to say that the best doctors, whether it be OD, DC or MD would necessarily come from schools in which cadaver dissection is part of the curriculum. 

I am personally working on a male patient, perhaps of advancing age and probably non-ambulatory since the fascia around the leg is so tough.  We may be able to get a cause of death as well as an age for the cadaver in due time which will help us better understand the condition of the body at the time of death.  

We are fortunate that we have around 40 bodies in our cadaver lab to study to help understand the variances in the human body from person to person.  

Today, I had classes in Biochemistry, Spinal Analysis, Cell Biology, 4 hours of Gross Anatomy and an extra hour of Biochemistry tutoring.