10-6-17 Ask A Mortician
9In this there is talk of death. Skip to the bottom for the musical choice of the day if that bothers you.
A lot of things fascinate me. For example, I recently got to watch up close, in person, a PICC line be inserted. (IV in the arm that goes all the way to the heart and can stay in for months.) Even though I’ve already helped administer medications into a PICC line before, watching it actually get done was so interesting. With the help of a special ultrasound machine that sits on the chest, they fish a metal wire into the vein and then use that to guide the tubing in. Neat!
Basically most things about the human body get my brain going. No surprise to me that I also find the end of life interesting as well. I actually thought for a while about going to school to become a Medical Examiner. Unfortunately a car accident in high school stopped my ability to intern with one for several months to see if I really wanted to do it.
Fast forward to today. I watch a lot of surgery videos, human and animal, and I also found a channel called, Ask A Mortician. She gives a lot of valuable information about what happens to us at the end. I’m going to share a few videos here.
Ask A Mortician - Death Questions From Kids
(Reading the comments from this one shows how weird children truly are.)
Why Don’t Mausoleums Smell
Or here’s a direct link to her channel because she just has way too many fascinating videos for me to pick from:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OrderoftheGoodDeath
For today’s musical selection I bring you something that brings me a lot of joy.
Gloryhammer
This is the entire album Tales From The Kingdom of Fife
My favorite song has to be:
The Unicorn Invasion Of Dundee
Who doesn’t like a song about undead unicorns?
Angus McFife
Rise Of The Chaos Wizards
Wizards in space? Yes, thanks.
- 7 comments, 16 replies
- Comment
When I was in school for for an allied health occupation I refused to do the animal vivisection part of an Anatomy and Physiology course. I had to go in front of the Dean and explain my position. After explaining, I was granted the right not to have to use the pig. I obtained a fetal pig model from the Anti-Vivisection Society of America tested with that the same as everyone else.
My professor was very cool and set it up so I could see a live human autopsy. I don’t have a problem with dead people - just dead animals. The autopsy was on a poor young woman who had been killed by a driver and the body was pretty fucked up.
The examiner kept me right next to him and after removing the organs had me stick my head into the chest cavity that had about 3" of standing blood to observe something. My professor later told me that he most likely had a bet with the State Police present whether or not I would toss my cookies. Good Times.
(condolences though to that poor woman)
@mfladd in high school we dissected cats. I owned three cats at the time. It was sad, but my thirst for knowledge outweighed the sadness. They let people skip it by hanging out in the library for a week and writing a ridiculously long paper about the anatomy of a cat.
I actually have photos somewhere of my group during the dissection.
The thing that really sucked about missing out on hanging with the medical examiner… I got stuck at a gynecologist office instead because I had to get rides with a friend. I mostly helped them arrange papers. I think in two months, I was in the room for ONE checkup because who wants to let a couple of students watch you get a speculum shoved up your vagina?
I do remember touring a hospital during my year long course, and they let us in the morgue where a bunch of people had donated their bodies to science. A bunch of college students were going to dissect themthem. So many people were creeped out. It’s just a part of life, no matter how much it sucks.
@mfladd Back when I was at Fort Sam Houston, they had an open house at the Allied Health School when they opened the new building.
The Pathology Department had an actual human cadaver lined with aluminum foil and filled with potato salad. Since the cadavers are refrigerated, the potato salad stayed fresh and they offered to serve some to any willing visitor.
I think the Statute of Limitations has long expired on this, but pathologists are still plenty weird. Uh, this is just one episode.
@2many2no if I donated my body to science, and someone used it as a cooling vessel for food, I’d be haunting them.
I think that’s pretty disrespectful to the dead.
@RiotDemon I wholeheartedly agree.
Disgusting is funny in a Louis CK sort of way. Gallows humor from a pathologist is bound to go wrong.
In college pathology, the prof was also the ME. He brought the brain from a body in the morgue to class and dissected it right there. He carefully sliced it in thin slices until he discovered a medullary clot slightly larger than a pinhead that he determined was the likely cause of death. Evidently it was in the respiratory control center.
Very interesting, but still weird.
@2many2no see, that’s a learning experience, I get that. Cooling food is just… Bizarre. And I love dark humor. There’s jokes that I share with my partner that I’d never share with other people.
@RiotDemon
I had a friend years ago who became a pathologist. He found it fascinating. He was sometimes on-site in the medical examiner’s department of NYC.
When people were one-upping each other in a conversational group, if he wanted to, he always won. No one could compete with dissection stories.
Pathologist are either rather odd, or they develop weird and notable senses of humor about it.
PS if you love dark humor, you might love medical school and residency.
@2many2no They are fucking weird and usually don’t possess certain bedside patient skills. That is why many choose forensics (not everyone @RiotDemon!).
The potato salad thing is definitely weird.
@RiotDemon I really enjoyed that, the retro metal sound, and the Power Rangers in Mordor video. Very impressive, something to explore further. Thanks.
Today, I want to move further north to Mexico
/youtube Mystica Girls The Conquest
@2many2no yeah, it’s funny how different the lead singer’s outfit is. I mean the drummer looks like he found his wizard robe at the local Halloween store.
Err… Maybe it wasn’t the drummer I meant. In the last video, the guy doing backup vocals at 2:40. The drummer actually looks like he’s just wearing almost like a hooded t-shirt in that video.
Love the dead cats in the opening credits! Cats: more likely to eat your eyeballs. Keep an eye on them. Not too close, though.
@aetris more in depth video!
Oddly, that is somewhat different than what she says under “Hey kids.” Mighty cute, though!
@mfladd Great guitar, guy knows his pentatonics.
CBS’s Sunday Morning is featuring “Ask a Mortician” right now!
@therealjrn awesome!
Nah. Too close for comfort.
Ok but when does she pull a rabbit out of her hat or something.
@ThomasF haven’t seen that yet!
@ThomasF Is that something you personally look for in a mortician?
@therealjrn @ThomasF
How does one pull a rabbit out of an “or something”?
Follow up question: What’s an “or something” ?
@gumtreertmug
Well, we have not yet completely planned the funeral…but let’s just say it will be “non-traditional.”