Cool, but extra stinky, cadaver lab today

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I don't know what the deal was today. The smell usually isn't that bad and I have a great charcoal mask anyway but today as soon as you opened the lab door the smell damn near knocked you over! On to the cool stuff...

Our male cadaver died of leukemia and he has a permanent chemo line in, which is cool because you can see where the tubing goes. His stomach has a HUGE diverticula. He must have had some epigastric issues with it being that big. His spleen was forced around to his back because his stomach and the outpouching were so big. Then there's the abdominal aorta stent. His abdominal aorta is gigantic. You can see where the tissue had been thinned and how stretched out it was compared to the stent they put in. The stent was really neat looking too.

We're supposed to be focusing on veins and arteries, but since I just had my gallbladder taken out, I spent a nice chunk of class today putting our female cadaver back together to see why my incisions are where they are. I still don't quite get why I have such a big incision about a finger below my sternum but I'm sure I'll irritate my surgeon at my follow up visit with all my questions. :lol2: I thought the incision would be farther down.

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What class are you in that you got to dissect a cadaver? I don't think we have any classes like that at U of H, but I would definitely take it if they did!

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I would have like to had a cadaver instead of a cat. :uhoh3: You are lucky. I know it's sad that a person had to die to give you that chance, but it's not everyday (in every school) that a nursing student gets to have A&P with a cadaver.

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I would have like to had a cadaver instead of a cat. :uhoh3: You are lucky. I know it's sad that a person had to die to give you that chance, but it's not everyday (in every school) that a nursing student gets to have A&P with a cadaver.

I wouldnt mind watching someone disecting just to see how it REALLY is, but as far as me doing the cutting, I dont think I could. I have surprised myself greatly cause I wouldnt have thought I would be able to even watch someone cutting a cat open. I am even moving some of the parts around, which blows my mind to high heaven. I had someone tell me not long ago, they didnt think I had it in me. I showed them:lol2:

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Uh oh.....we've created a monster! :rotfl:

Next thing you know, you'll be buying whole chickens and explaining exactly what the parts are that are shoved up in it, and what their functions are. :chuckle

I wouldnt mind watching someone disecting just to see how it REALLY is, but as far as me doing the cutting, I dont think I could. I have surprised myself greatly cause I wouldnt have thought I would be able to even watch someone cutting a cat open. I am even moving some of the parts around, which blows my mind to high heaven. I had someone tell me not long ago, they didnt think I had it in me. I showed them:lol2:
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We don't do the disection, we just get to look around in them and see what it is we are attempting to memorize. The pre-med students do the disecting. We have had sheep brains and eyes to work on. I think it's next week when we get the sheep hearts. We also had baby cow thigh bones.

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I don't know what the deal was today. The smell usually isn't that bad and I have a great charcoal mask anyway but today as soon as you opened the lab door the smell damn near knocked you over! On to the cool stuff...

Our male cadaver died of leukemia and he has a permanent chemo line in, which is cool because you can see where the tubing goes. His stomach has a HUGE diverticula. He must have had some epigastric issues with it being that big. His spleen was forced around to his back because his stomach and the outpouching were so big. Then there's the abdominal aorta stent. His abdominal aorta is gigantic. You can see where the tissue had been thinned and how stretched out it was compared to the stent they put in. The stent was really neat looking too.

We're supposed to be focusing on veins and arteries, but since I just had my gallbladder taken out, I spent a nice chunk of class today putting our female cadaver back together to see why my incisions are where they are. I still don't quite get why I have such a big incision about a finger below my sternum but I'm sure I'll irritate my surgeon at my follow up visit with all my questions. :lol2: I thought the incision would be farther down.

OMG......I would just faint :uhoh3:

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Uh oh.....we've created a monster! :rotfl:

Next thing you know, you'll be buying whole chickens and explaining exactly what the parts are that are shoved up in it, and what their functions are. :chuckle

teehee:lol2: I am not there. I really dont think I could do the cutting. I am just going for nursing, ;) I'll just observe, or at least for now.

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OMG......I would just faint :uhoh3:

I think you could do it. Just my :twocents:

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You don't have to touch the cadavers...or really even look at them, but you have to come to the lab or the professor will drop 5 points off your overall lab scores for every lab you miss. We have one girl who cries at every lab and she only really ever looked at the cadavers once that I've seen. There are plastic models in the lab as well and she'll sit back there and look at them. I'm extremely grateful to have access to this lab. Well, I'm off to work and then play with the boys. Have a good day!

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Wow!! You are soooo lucky! That is amazing that you get this experience!

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Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

ewwwwww. I guess I"m the only one thinking this! :chuckle:

I'm so glad we didn't have to do cadavers or dead cats or dead anything in my A&P1 class. We saw lots of cadaver slides on the power point and memorized from there. Way better smelling! LOL

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