thank you

saw this on postsecret recently and wish i could somehow reassure her grandchild that we actually do. 

dealing with a cadaver was a part of medsch that i couldn't prepare myself for, save volunteering in a morgue or funeral palour. i had thought it'd be nauseating, and expected to be completely freaked out by working on a preserved body. 

but our first anatomy session came and went with barely a whimper. the respect the body and tissues were handled with, and the professionalism of the anatomy teaching team, almost normalised what would ordinarily have been an uncomfortable situation. only the section being studied is exposed i.e. when we study the chest, the cadaver is covered from neck up and belly down. sure, there's hair and other surface features but not being able to see the face takes some of the eek factor away. 

part of me wishes more people would donate their bodies, so like in days of yore, each group of students would have a personal cadaver to work with but now we make do with pre-sectioned cadavers, and don't do any dissection ourselves. a bit of a cop out, if you ask me.