Module Two: Head and Neck Days 15-20

We jumped right back into things after Exam One was completed – and I’m reluctant to say, this has been a disappointing module thus far with few exceptions.

Tuesday marked day 15 and the superficial face dissection. Penny had some chubby cheeks and finding her facial vein and artery was like trying to find the hidden image in the magic eye picture http://www.magiceye.com/. With a little help from a TA we uncovered vessels towards the end. This was not an exception.

Day 16-18 we looked at the brain. I really looked forward to this part BUT the formalin solution that we keep the brains in is rather strong – one girl’s eyes water constantly and I just get instant migraine. I’ve had to take an imitrex everyday so far. Once again, not an exception. The general brain morphology is also difficult to judge due to discoloring post mordem – what was red is now dull grey-brown, what was gray is now dull grey-brown ad what was white is now – you get the picture. We finished each of these labs pretty quickly and I used the extra time for sleep. We were BORED – very much so. This was a bummer. At least we reached the halfway point!

Monday, day 19 was a different story however. It was eye and ear day. I got to use a saw and that made me happy. One girl took the chisel to the roof of Penny’s orbit chipping down so we could get a better view of muscles. Then, I took a handsaw to the frontal bone on either side of the orbit so we cut see the whole eyeball. Job well done and then I let another labmate differentiate muscles while I helped to find the lacrimal gland – also, no lacrimal gland – and amazingly, not much eyeball either! In addtion to donating her body to science, Penny donated her corneas. We wondered why her eyes looked like plastic with small little white rings on it – that’s because it was plastic. We lifted the plastic off to reveal cotton balls – her iris and lens was still there too, which explains why it still seemed like she could see. I peered straight into the back of the eye and we saw retinas (hey erin – “My retinas, My retinas!”) I shined a light from behind the eyes to let people see the ‘blind spot’ – oh, wicked cool. With the lack of structure to the eye, we were able to find both the inferior oblique AND inferior rectus muscle – I love having this freak of a body sometimes!

Same day was the ears – external morphology – blah blah blah – I have my own ears. It was those teeny-tiny bones inside that I was interested in. The professor said to take a chisel to the side of the ear from the inside and then pop it up from the top. So I did just that, not before asking if I ran the risk of smashing through all the good bits. He mocked me and said “Of course you run the risk, but do it anyway” – wack wack wack and a few more for good measure, I had removed the petrous part of the temporal bone (aka middle and inner ear). Then the professor said, “Uh oh, you may have gone too deep.” He and I explored this cave in her head and discovered however that I had not gone too deep and I had in fact produced yet another ‘text book’ example of anatomy – with plate 94 in Netter guiding us, we found the malleus (articular) incus (quadrate) and staples (oh how I miss you hyomandibula). Oh it was incredible! AND SO SMALL – I would love to sit in on a Eustachian tube surgery (kids who get ear infections a lot have this done) – it’s a miniscule tube and they put something in it??? I spent a bunch of time reviewing the ear with other groups coming over to see me “beat the tympani with the mallet” – after our quiz the next day, a student actually came over to say thank you for helping her cuz she was one of the few who was able to answer that question correctly ☺ I like teaching, especially stuff like that to people who actually care too. This class has been really good for me – I would totally seek a job with this as a major component.

And finally yesterday, the quiz and day 20 – not bad considering the lack of effort I showed last week during brains. Dissection should have taken 15 minutes, but fat blocked the way to her neck muscles and Penny’s nerve plexus in that region were weak. We relied on other bodies to learn that part.