Gross Lab

For those of you who don't dissect dead people on a regular basis, "gross lab" just means "all encompassing." It doesn't mean "gross" as in disgusting or icky, although sometimes I think it should. Today was an icky day. Our cadaver is rather obese. We were dissecting to the gluteal and posterior thigh region to reach various muscles, nerves and vessels, but before you can get to the prize, you have to get through the fat. Oh my gosh. Have you ever seen one of those Weight Watcher's demonstrations where they hold up a big chunk of plastic, yellow fat and say, "this is what 10 pounds of fat looks like!"? That's what we were taking out of our body most of the day. I kind of felt like a plastic surgeon using really crude techniques to thin someone down. Fat is disgusting. It's yellow and greasy and slimy and it oozes and dribbles everywhere. Anyhow, I had my hands in the fat, trying to clean some away with a scalpel and the next thing I know, I've jammed the scalpel into my thumb. Stabbing ones self in the thumb with a scalpel isn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but stabbing ones self in the thumb with a scalpel and watching as cadaver fat oozes into your wound is pretty horrible! I'm happy to report that my thumb didn't fall off and I didn't die. I managed to get the bleeding under control and continue with my dissection.