Head Like a Hole

Yesterday was awesome. We had a genetics panel in the morning, which was not nearly as interesting as the first one. We had a few patients come in whose children had various neurological disorders. In the afternoon we had what is now my favorite lab. After removing the scalp, we sawed open our cadaver's skull and removed his brain. The skull is much thicker than you would think, so it took a while to cut through it with a Stryker saw (same thing they use to remove casts). Once we got through, the brain was visible through the meninges (membranous sac) which we had to cut through in order to expose the brain itself. The brain was then pulled back and a special extended scalpel was used to reach deep inside the skull and sever the cranial nerves as far from the brain as possible. Eventually we reached the spinal cord, and once that was cut, the brain came right out. It felt somewhat like a plastic bag filled with Jello... it was much softer than I expected. It was an awesome feeling to hold it in my hands, and it will be one of the only times I ever get to do so (aside from neuroscience next year). All in all it was an intense and exciting lab, and it was unique in that all of the lab groups were present (it was pretty crowded). Also, due to the tedious nature of dissecting the facial muscles, we did not have to do it ourselves. There was a prosection set out for us already pinned and labeled... we will have to know all the structures for our test on Monday. This is going to be a crazy weekend.