A Cranial Vignette
Today, I had one of the most incredible experiences since I've started medical school - the dissection of the human brain. We didn't learn neuroanatomy, didn't focus on minute details - just took it out of the cranial cavity and looked at the cranial nerves and sinuses. It was hardly a dissection, took less than two hours.
I've been looking forward to this dissection for weeks now, and it was just as amazing as I was expecting. Since last night when I watched the dissection video, I was blown away that I was going to have the opportunity to hold a human brain in my hands, the essence of a human being. It's what makes the person who they are - allows us to see our world, feel emotions, make decisions, develop personality, form memories and so much more that cannot even be described in words. In some unimaginably complex form, I was going to get to hold a person's entire life and experiences in my hands. The hour before dissection lab, I felt as though I was meeting someone famous - someone who I had studied for four years during my undergraduate degree and was finally getting the chance to meet. I'm sure this sounds like unbearably overdramatic emotion for an anatomy dissection, but I am in love with the brain. I love how it contains so much more than just cells and macromolecules in an incredibly intangible way. I must've stood there holding that brain forever, fascinated and in awe. I will never be able to fully describe the feeling. I have not been so excited and fulfilled and touched by an experience in a long time.
We are so blessed to have the opportunity to study the human body with cadavers, and I thank the donors and their families for that. This was without a doubt the best dissection experience to date and likely will not be surpassed. I never expected to love anatomy, but it has thus far been my favorite part of this first semester of medical school.
I've been looking forward to this dissection for weeks now, and it was just as amazing as I was expecting. Since last night when I watched the dissection video, I was blown away that I was going to have the opportunity to hold a human brain in my hands, the essence of a human being. It's what makes the person who they are - allows us to see our world, feel emotions, make decisions, develop personality, form memories and so much more that cannot even be described in words. In some unimaginably complex form, I was going to get to hold a person's entire life and experiences in my hands. The hour before dissection lab, I felt as though I was meeting someone famous - someone who I had studied for four years during my undergraduate degree and was finally getting the chance to meet. I'm sure this sounds like unbearably overdramatic emotion for an anatomy dissection, but I am in love with the brain. I love how it contains so much more than just cells and macromolecules in an incredibly intangible way. I must've stood there holding that brain forever, fascinated and in awe. I will never be able to fully describe the feeling. I have not been so excited and fulfilled and touched by an experience in a long time.
We are so blessed to have the opportunity to study the human body with cadavers, and I thank the donors and their families for that. This was without a doubt the best dissection experience to date and likely will not be surpassed. I never expected to love anatomy, but it has thus far been my favorite part of this first semester of medical school.
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