Crying in my Brain

We started our Brain and Behavior block this week. Yesterday we got to play with real human brains. I was really excited about it because brains are pretty cool - all gooey and squiggly with little nerves and arteries shooting out everywhere. My excitement quickly turned to pain when we pulled the brains out of their tubs. Apparently the standard procedure for the storage of human brains is to first fix them in formaldehyde and then to let them soak in water. Unfortunately, one of the esteemed faculty in the Brain Storage Dept. at KU left them soaking in the formaldehyde.

Here's a fun fact about formaldehyde: It can kill you :)

Anyhow....like the strong and brave future doctors that we are, we pressed on with the dissection. The formaldehyde was emanating from the brains, causing watery eyes, sore throats, coughing, and overall whimpering from the students. Every time I would try to get close to the brain to see an important structure (that I will no doubt be tested over), I could hardly breathe. It's hard to describe the sensation, all I can say is that it was physically painful. It got so bad that one of my friends had to leave because she was developing a rash on her face and her lips began to swell. The whole experience was awful, but the sight of medical students crying over their brains was really kind of funny.