Body Worlds

A couple of weeks ago I bought tickets to Body Worlds for Matt, me, Daniel and Samantha. It wasn't cheap, but I thought it would be worth it. Last night we went. At first Daniel and Samantha could not grasp the idea that we were going to go see bodies without skin and that they were real bodies.

When we got there, I was really impressed by the ability to be able to preserve the body and show what is inside. Samantha loved it and wrote down a lot of the sayings on the walls. Daniel didn't say much, he wasn't thrilled.

Matt loved it and could have told us all of the research being done on the devices we saw. We were both impressed by the fetus's and how very small they are.

I realized how much I have actually seen of the human body. As a nurse, I see lots and lots of naked bodies. To me, a naked body is just that and nothing more. I try to maintain patient dignity while doing my job the very best I can. Fortunately for me, and somewhat unfortunate for the patients, I have seen the inside of many bodies in different areas.

I have watched both an abdomen and a chest opened up bedside and very emergent. I have been to the OR and watched an old heart taken out and a new heart put in. Granted I basically just watched the exchange from the anesthesiologists point of view, I can stay in the OR to watch for about 10 minutes and then I get bored. Unless something really great is happening, but that is a whole different blog.

There is something about seeing a human opened up emergent to save their lives that gives you a little extra bit of information on the magic of it all. I have seen limbs that were ripped off in car accidents and exposed all the inside of the arm. Many times we open up arms and legs that have compartment syndrome and it's like a lesson in anatomy.

To sum it up, I liked it, but realized that I've seen most of it. That the magic of the human body is a miracle I work with every day.