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[msarcher]

We finished anatomy--I am so happy not to be taking scissors through muscle and fat cutting for exposure rather than to repair anything. I'm glad not to come home smelling like embalming fluids and seeing cut tissue when I close my eyes. It's an amazing thing though to be able to take apart a body. We're having our convocation ceremony where we

Comments

[aridice]

i'm sure they'll mention the organization at the ceremony. i used to know it first year. every state has its own organization. also, you prob won't meet the family of your particular cadaver during the ceremony. they usually don't use ppl that died recently for dissections.

[msarcher]

Interesting I'm not sure what this does for the grieving process. I don't know whether it's better to have all the grieving rituals in a shorter time or to have something later on where you might be able to receive the ashes or have some sense that the honor was specific. If the ceremony isn't tied to the specific people do the families then just receive the ashes in the mail a year later? Or do the ashes make it back to the families? I know surprisingly little about this process partially because many of the questions I didn't feel like I could really ask because I wasn't sure if I'd be ok with the answer. Part of my wanting to donate my body is that I find the use of unclaimed bodies pretty disturbing. Part of the reason that the recently deceased are not used is to allow time to make contact with sometimes distant relatives if possible.

[aridice]

yeah i think also they're afraid that families will change their minds, so they wait a while to make sure it will be okay. I get the sense that most ppl don't get the ashes back, but maybe they do because i think they tend to be pretty careful about keeping bodies separate... not sure...

[aridice]

and whoo! congrats.
(psst. you prob will encounter anatomy again. i say this smelling like crap--well, okay, formaldehyde--from my morning of random thyroid anatomy. felt so bad for the pts that I saw in the afternoon in clinic... oopsies)

[nightengalesknd]

I think you call the med school to which you want to donate and go through a bunch of phone trees until you find someone who wll put your name on a list? Or you write it in your will and the people who are left behind get to make those phone calls.

I'm sure not planning to donate to my medical school but I would gladly donate to the school where I'm currently doing residency. If they can't use my organs for living patients, my second choice would be to use them for med studnet education.

[msarcher]

yes, organs for living people first if possible then medical education. it's good that you like your current school well enough. i wonder why you have such a strong reaction to where you were before?

[nightengalesknd]

Why do I have such a strong reaction to my medical school

[msarcher]

I'm sorry you had to go through all that. Med school is hard enough as it is even without the administration fighting you every step of the way and a culture at odds with your own lifestyle. Many of the things you recount sound just horrific. Your stories about the culture at your school were definitely a significant part of my decision not to go there.

I've been fortunate here that even in anatomy lab some accommodations could be made-- my partner has knee problems and could pull over a stool to rest when necessary. (She also can't go up or down stairs which has been a source of some definite frustration since our exams are held in a lecture hall that is not accessible but she was eventually able to get accommodation and have her exams in a separate space--not sure what's going to happen for lectures next year though.)

[deanominator]

I like your anatomy posts :)