I helped embalm someone.
I still have no idea how to do it, but I helped...so, that's good?
I studied all week. I studied the arteries and veins, because I need to know where they are, and I wanted to be prepared if the teacher asked questions. So what happens? Not only do I stumble with answering his questions about arteries, he asks about muscles....and I do not remember any of that! Ack! More studying to do now! At least I have two weeks before I have to go back up there (I think).
Other than the fact that the professor (who is also the program director) helped me with everything (because I did NOT know what I was doing), it went pretty well. We were done with plenty of time to spare (unlike the other group, that we had to wait on -.-). The professor was very patient with me, but I could tell his patience was wearing thin.
Warning: long post. Also, I am so tired. I may have messed up some of the sentences, but I can't tell right now.
Before we started, we put on our PPEs (personal protective equipment). So basically, a long gown with long sleeves, long gloves, and a face shield. Shoe covers are optional--I actually bought a cheap pair of tennis shoes just for embalming...just in case. I don't want to ruin my good shoes. Also, the professors mentioned that the floor is disgusting and you don't want to bring them home to children, who like to mess with everything. My son LOVES to wear my shoes, so for his safety I just went ahead and bought a disposable pair that I will keep separated.
I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was for the very first class. I think it helped to think of what my mama had been telling me before I got there-- it needed to be done, and I could do it, and that it wasn't a big deal, they were dead and I had a job to do. So basically I was just gonna do it, because I had to. No big deal.
We had to bend the arms back (think stretching before an exercise , or when you yawn) to release rigor. It feels wrong, because it is basically set in place, but you have to push against it so the muscles relax.
I touched this dead man's hand. His rigor-hardened hand. It was cold. And ew.
The professor wanted us to raise the arteries and veins first before we started setting features, because he figured we would be digging around and moving him a lot, and it would be best to save that for later. There were 4 students, so basically one arm for each student at the top, one leg for each student at the bottom. I ended up with the left carotid artery and left internal jugular vein. Or what would have been the jugular vein had I been able to find it (note: professor also could not find it! It was hiding!). I had to use a scalpel to cut along the superior edge of the clavicle to get to the artery and vein. Just a small incision. I was not sure how hard I needed to press on the scalpel! Then I had to do some "blunt dissection"...or basically take an aneurysm hook and pull and stretch the incision so I could see down in it, and then use it to pull apart all of the membranes and stuff (GOOGLE: fascia. Thanks Google) I didn't need--remember, I am looking for 1. common carotid artery, and 2. internal jugular vein. Ignore everything else! Move it out of the way! Find the artery!
I couldn't find the artery.
After the professor found it for me, he told me I needed to run a ligature under it (to hold the artery up) and then tear off all of the fascia/membrane-y stuff on the outside (he did not say membrane-y stuff--I do not remember the term he used, if it was fascia or what. All I know is that it was membrane-like, and I had to tear it off the artery). After I had done that, I looked for the jugular, but never found it. He looked for it, pulled something up that he told me was the jugular. I cleaned it off, he comes back--not the jugular...so we basically just moved on.
I got to shave him. Which seems simple, but was actually very time-consuming. He had a neck beard. Took like 10 minutes just for that. And they re-use the razors like a million times, so it is no longer sharp. -.-
The other students plucked his ear hair with hemostats. They grabbed a big tuft and yanked. Went much faster than the neck beard.
Guess who set the mouth?
We used a sewing method. Sorry, I used a sewing method. With a curved needle and ligature, go up under the top lip (near gums on inside of mouth), come out through a nostril, go through the septum, then down through the other nostril and come out under the upper lip on the other side of where you started. In this version, the bottom was done by inserting the needle in the skin where the gum meets the inside lip, near the canine tooth, and then just curving the needle around until it comes out near the other canine tooth (basically threading the needle on the very front of the inside of your mouth right under your teeth). Then, you tie the two end of the ligature together, closing the mouth. I was bad at this, and also at hiding the ligature in the nose....that will be an acquired skill. I know the mouth setting sounds confusing--it is confusing to watch, describing it with no pictures if probably worse.
So, actually embalming. I had to cut a little hole in the artery to fit the the arterial tube (connected with the embalming machine). You insert the arterial tube then clamp it with a hemostat to hold it, and then pulse the embalming fluid into the body. This is done two times, once with the arterial tube pointed inferiorly and once superiorly to embalm the head (on both sides of the body of course). (I want to mention that basically the entire time the body was being injected with fluid, there was a giant pair of forceps sticking out of his neck on the right...not really sure why) The arms were being difficult, so the fluid was not reaching the hands well. We are supposed to massage the limbs to get the fluid to go in them, and to get the blood to drain out at the same time. Even after massaging, the hands still were being difficult. The professor basically tackled the arms and like super-massaged them to get the fluid to the ends.
Every time he went from the shoulder to the hand, he hit tendons, which made the man's fingers curl up.
Nope. Nopenope. Ech. jserhawdf *shudder*
The fingers were still not embalmed well, so I got to use a hypodermic needle on them. It had phenol/carbolic acid in it. It's a preservative, and it helped to round out the shriveled fingertips. That was actually pretty cool.
I had to suture the incision I made to get the carotid. I used an s-shaped needle with ligature (think cooking twine, big white thread) in a "baseball stitch". The incision was filled with a preservative powder, to help dry it out and prevent leaks.
Probably one of the grossest things during embalming is the use of the trocar. It basically sucks anything out of the abdomen that isn't solid. It's a GIANT needle that sucks gas, blood, and tissue. It makes a lot of slurping noises. Blehhhh. After this, they used cavity fluid, attached in a bottle via a hose to the trocar--gravity gets the fluid in. The hole from the trocar is closed by screwing in a trocar button.
Another gross thing: when we were injecting fluid, the professor pressed down on the man's chest to help get blood out......and the man made a gurgling, gasping, exhalation. NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE.
"Don't let that scare you" he says.
O.O
EWWWWW
