How cool is cadaver lab?

Do you know what I got to do today?  I was able to run my fingers along the surface of a  human heart. I saw the bicuspid and tricuspid valves, I observed a textbook example of LVH, I looked on as my instructor pointed out the coronary arteries as they crawled their way around the muscle .

Pardon me while I have a cardiac geek moment.

I held a human brain in my hands.  It weighs a bit more than I had anticipated, by the way.  I was able to compare an average brain to one of a 99-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s.  I was able to see the spaces left by cerebral atrophy.

I watched a pair of lungs inflate as they were ventilated.

I traced the routes of some of the cranial nerves.

I felt how thick an aorta is, and actually saw the points in the body where aortic aneurysms are most likely to occur.

I observed a human kidney, the spleen, liver, the gall bladder, the appendix…

It was one of the single coolest (and educational) experiences of my life.

And I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this had it not been for the fantastic people who gave so much to send me to Paramedic school.  I’m in the homestretch, ya’ll.  Just a few more short months and I’m done.

Thank you.  Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do this.