Crack a skull like an egg?

On Wednesday we had our first Anatomy lab for Semester 2. I must say that I am very excited about the rest of the lab. Our first session was to dissect a human skull and remove the brain. I was one of the dissectors of the group (of course I would volunteer to do anything that is even remotely morbid haha) and MAN was I happy that I did it. My lab mates were awesome and we really worked well together as a group. Alright, so to give you an idea of what sort of amazing things happened in that lab here are the steps of what we had to do with our body (cadaver...):

1. Make 4 cuts in the scalp of cadaver and peel/reflect the scalp as if you are peeling an orange. You may need a tool to help you detach the scalp from the cranium. I just took what was closest to me - a chisel.
2. Once you have reflected the scalp just below the supraorbital ridge, which is where your eyebrows are, stop. We then put an elastic band around the head of the cadaver just 2cm above the ridge. Marked it. And reached for the sharp-looking saw.
3. Yes, then we were sawing away at the human skull. It was hard! Our body had an especially hard head. Because sawing was a draining task, we got the only male in our group, Ray, to do it. He was good at it but sweating like mad nonetheless. He even had to take a few breaks. The burning smell of bones were everywhere due to the friction created. My eyes watered from the formaldehyde in the air.
4. So now we made a nice dent with the saw on the frontal area of the skull. How do we get to the sides and the back of the head? We tried turning the neck of the cadaver like other groups. Nope, our body had a stiff neck. Great! So we had to turn the entire body! It was dead weight and what a workout it was! Elisha gave an awkward laugh when the cadaver's hand poked her in the ribcage (and stayed in that position for the rest of sawing process). As we were trying to flip the body over to get to the occipital bone, something interesting happened. The body bag under the cadaver folded and made a crease angling downward aiming right at my right leg. The next thing I knew was the sensation of a cool liquid hitting the side of my right knee and flowing downward all the way into my shoe. Then I felt it cooling my toes down. Yes, it was the juice from the cadaver that had accumulated in the body bag. Oh well, what could you do? It was only half way through the lab haha!
5. Finally we made a dent all the way around the skull. Put down the saw and picked up the hammer and chisel. The anatomy lab sounded like a construction zone with all the groups hammering away at the human skulls. Yanking, chiseling, pulling. Eventually with a nice sound of tearing a bone away from the tissue attached, we opened up the skull of our cadaver. There it was - the beautiful human brain. It was breathtaking - not just because of the smell but because you could see all the complex gyri and sulci that directed everything we were able to do as human beings.
6. Then with much effort, we took the brain out and studied it, washed it and soaked it in a bucket.
7. As soon as we finished the lab I ran home to wash the cadaver juice off my body. Oh, did I mention that my gloves broke as well and my arms were covered in splatters of body fat.

It was an awesome lab. And it will only get better (or worse, depends on how you look at it) as the term goes on - can't wait for the labs on the gastrointestinal tract! Wooot! The photo above was taken when I borrowed a real human skull (and the rest of the skeleton) from the lab for studying. I never thought skulls/brains were amazing till now.

Today is the last day of week 1 of semester 2. Lots of things to study already but I feel calm. Before school started I made sure I had my share of island fun and went kayaking (1 seater) and sailing on a catamaran twice! Oh so much fun in the beautiful ocean! The water was warm and royal blue. The sky was wide and open. The sun was blinding but its powerful rays were masked by the wind blowing across the surface of the ocean. At the end of each day during the break I was tired but happy.

Ok this post is too long and y'all are probably falling asleep reading this. Anyhow I gotta get back to studying. Ciao!