Any tips for my human anatomy class? ?

Question

there are 6 cadavers that we will be working with beginning next week. i'm mostly freaked out about the smell and the splash of fluids. i'm wondering about whether this smell will soak into my hair, eyes, etc. i bought one set of scrubs, but does anyone have any tips for getting through the dissecting portion of this? i've made my mind up to not focus on the gross aspects and just get through it. any suggestions for cleanliness/health risks, etc.?

Answer 1

Very Much Good Advice Above.

Answer 2

We wore our regular whites- the smell permeates everything.

I can still smell it on one of my textbooks that was always on the table.  If you school has been kind enough to provide a place to change and store your stuff, you can just use one scrub set and burn it at the end of the class.   Don't know what they use to preserve you cadavers, but ours were in phenol.  No worry about catching anything, except perhaps Creutzfeld-Jacob because you cannot kill a prion.   I would imagine no Medical School would accept a case of CJD as a cadaver. So, no worry except about the smell.  Believe it or not, that odor identifies you as a REAL Medical Student, and gets the girls interested.

They smell $$$ not phenol.

Only 6 cadavers? For a class of?

Answer 3

The smell will get everywhere.  There's no getting around that.  Sorry.  You're going to be aware of that...distinct aroma...for as long as you're in the gross anatomy lab (particularly apt description, that).  Nothing quite eradicates it.  Some people used to bring Vicks Vap-o-Rub in and put it under their nose to try and block out the smell a little while they were actually in the lab; didn't work for me, but it might for you.  (I don't like that smell either.)

Okay, practical advice.  First, buy more than one set of scrubs.  *g*  Second, don't wash your scrubs with anything else you intend to wear--ever again.  Third, wash them in hot water and fourth, use about five dryer sheets when you dry them.  This brought the clinging scent down to tolerable levels to me.  When you store scrubs you're wearing in the lab, seal them in a plastic bag away from your other clothes.  During my year, they gave us special heavy-duty Zip-loc type bags to store our regular clothes in while we were in the lab (the lockers for your stuff were right there in the labs).  It helped a bit, but I took to changing elsewhere in the building eventually.  Do not, repeat NOT, wear any shoes in there that you intend to continue wearing anywhere else.  Plan on disposing of all of this stuff after gross anatomy is over.

As far as splash and fluids:  You can wear safety glasses if you want, and for some stuff they will make you wear them--if you're using a bone saw, for example.  There is no real risk of infection from the cadavers--they are preserved with fluids that would off anything really dangerous--but that may give you some peace of mind.  You can also double-glove, if you don't mind sweaty fingers and palms.

Oh, and change your scalpel blade frequently.  ;-)

Apart from all that practical stuff, at first I think you do just have to focus and not think about it.  It gets easier as you go along, believe it or not--you do get acclimated or inured or something along the way.  And someday you will look back fondly and say to another student who's just beginning, "First, buy more than one set of scrubs..."

*G*

Good luck!