BRAAAAAAAAAAAAINS!!!
As the title of this post clearly indicates, we started work on the brain yesterday. Also, in a brilliant display of timing, yesterday was the day that we hosted pre-med college students in our anatomy labs to show them what anatomy is like and talk them over some of their apprehensions. Surprisingly, the ones I saw were mostly okay with what was going on before their eyes. Our student handled it really well, watching (from a distance) as we freed the brain from its housing and asking questions throughout, though he said that it would probably hit him on the ride home and he'd start getting nauseous.
It was definitely an oscillating-saw day. The skull, as any boxers out there might know, is a fairly effective protector for the jellylike brains within (to an extent). We really had to work at it to free the brain. We first removed the scalp, exposing the skull bones beneath. We then cut through the bone around the widest part of the skull (so we wouldn't have to squeeze the brain as we removed it) and then used our trusty scalpels to cut through the veins, nerves, and various other tissues still connecting the brain its underlying structures (I clearly have not studied yet). Anyway, we finally got the brain out, after about an hour of work. I guess it makes me feel better about my son running around the house and bumping his head into stuff.
All five of us at the lab table took a turn with the saw - it's a pretty unique activity, performing a craniotomy, and something that some medical students never get to experience (some schools do a "virtual dissection"). But I'll never forget that cracking sound as we chiseled apart the bones and got our first glimpse of the gray, wormy, vacsular brain. Nor will I forget holding the brain in my hands, cradling it like a newborn baby, its surprisingly heavy mass jiggling the whole time. Maybe that should've been in red. It was a pretty mind-blowing experience, holding someone's brain like that. No pun intended.
This was definitely one of those days where even though you've been dissecting for months, you're not fully prepared for how weird it is.
It was definitely an oscillating-saw day. The skull, as any boxers out there might know, is a fairly effective protector for the jellylike brains within (to an extent). We really had to work at it to free the brain. We first removed the scalp, exposing the skull bones beneath. We then cut through the bone around the widest part of the skull (so we wouldn't have to squeeze the brain as we removed it) and then used our trusty scalpels to cut through the veins, nerves, and various other tissues still connecting the brain its underlying structures (I clearly have not studied yet). Anyway, we finally got the brain out, after about an hour of work. I guess it makes me feel better about my son running around the house and bumping his head into stuff.
All five of us at the lab table took a turn with the saw - it's a pretty unique activity, performing a craniotomy, and something that some medical students never get to experience (some schools do a "virtual dissection"). But I'll never forget that cracking sound as we chiseled apart the bones and got our first glimpse of the gray, wormy, vacsular brain. Nor will I forget holding the brain in my hands, cradling it like a newborn baby, its surprisingly heavy mass jiggling the whole time. Maybe that should've been in red. It was a pretty mind-blowing experience, holding someone's brain like that. No pun intended.
This was definitely one of those days where even though you've been dissecting for months, you're not fully prepared for how weird it is.
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