In medical school we were given a box with a skull in it that we could take home. We had to sign our souls away for the privilege. Apparently human skulls generate an underground market. We were also given a bucket with a brain in it. It was, um, unnerving. We had to know every groove and hole and surface on the inside and the outside of the skull. The brain, however, was not so easy to work with. Very cool in the abstract, but in reality, the brain is rather homogenous. One has to fall in love with the idea of the brain. That is worth doing, by the way.
A living brain is much more interesting. I have never operated on a brain, but when taking care of trauma patients I would follow them (meaning patients with brain injuries) to the operating room when the braniacs were working on them. Mostly they (brain surgeons) were removing blood clots from around the brain after someone cracked their skull. What I loved to see was the brain pulsing. The whole thing looks like it is on a tiny trampoline going up and down. It is incredibly alive. We expect the heart to beat and, of course, anything that has an artery in it pulses, but the whole brain vibes with the rhythm of life. The liver and the spleen don‘t do that. I don‘t have any big point here, and I am sure if a neurosurgeon read this her eyes would be rolling, but for us lowly general surgeons, the living brain still inspires wonder.
A living brain is much more interesting. I have never operated on a brain, but when taking care of trauma patients I would follow them (meaning patients with brain injuries) to the operating room when the braniacs were working on them. Mostly they (brain surgeons) were removing blood clots from around the brain after someone cracked their skull. What I loved to see was the brain pulsing. The whole thing looks like it is on a tiny trampoline going up and down. It is incredibly alive. We expect the heart to beat and, of course, anything that has an artery in it pulses, but the whole brain vibes with the rhythm of life. The liver and the spleen don‘t do that. I don‘t have any big point here, and I am sure if a neurosurgeon read this her eyes would be rolling, but for us lowly general surgeons, the living brain still inspires wonder.
Oh I agree. I once assisted at a surgery where the surgeons were mapping out seizure foci, it was amazing!!! Love this post, again should be required reading at med school…
XO
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