i held someone's brain this week. i held it after i removed it from her skull. my lab group took out our donor's brain this week. wow, what a process. its way less messy than i thought it would be, but still not something you do everyday. and let me just say, bone smells reeeeally bad when you cut through it with a bone saw. the brain is very hard to get out of the head, which is rather comforting. and i have a whole new found respect for brain surgeons; taking it apart is one thing, but putting it back together is a whole different story.
it was so surreal to hold someone's brain. everything she saw, thought, said, knew, and cherished was in this reddish heavy jello chunk i was holding in my two hands. every essence of her being was in my hands. while it was a lab class and we are studying it for scientific purposes, i still couldn't help but standing back to think about how special of an opportunity i was experiencing. next year, for our neuro module, i will know the brain inside and out! we are just doing the basics right now for anatomy.
it was really neat, so i thought i would share.
