Brainiacs

My sister took anatomy last semester for her OT degree. At the beginning of the semester she came home stunned one day and told me that her class had been divided up into groups, and each group would get a body, which they would dissect over the course of the semester. The OTs are required to take the same anatomy class as the med students. She said they prepared everyone very well for the class. The instructor spoke about how the body was their teacher, more than anyone else. That the person who donated their body most likely did so because somehow the medical field had been important to them. The students should show that same respect for the body in front of them.

My sister's boyfriend couldn't stand to listen to her stories but I was fascinated. I was fascinated by the breaking of so many taboos: touching dead people, nudity, and cutting someone open. Yuck! And yet, at the same time, how amazing. How amazing to learn about the human body, the details of it's function and dysfunction. There is amazing variation from person to person internally, just as there is externally. My sister learned a lot from her body. I've even considered donating my body to medicine for the first time in my life.

This semester my sister is in neuroanatomy. "Ooh, wow. Do you have to dissect for this too?" I asked.

"Nah," she said. "It's just a bunch of brains on the tables."

"What about the spinal cord," I asked.

"Oh, yeah. Some of 'em have the spinal cords attached too. Just depends on how they were cut up."

I laughed and she realized what she sounded like. "Guess you do get a little desensitized after all." Yikes!