Mr. X-acto knife and I are not friends anymore.

At work one of the tools we use is an X-acto knife, the other is a water-soluble maker. The marker is for making notes while we inspect the components, and for marking that we have inspected the components.

I make so many notes on my desk that when I get to a new lot, I wash my desk…so I have room for the next set of notes. I don’t like to waste the paper towels so I try to reuse a towel a few times before throwing it out.

Well…. yesterday I dropped my knife…. and it stuck into my calf. Ouch. I was sitting there for a few seconds stunned and staring at my leg in disbelief.

Then in an epic-lly stupid move…I pulled it out of my leg. So I immediately get a huge bloom of blood on my jeans… and it keeps getting bigger.

F***!!!!!

So I rolled up my pant leg and grabbed the first towel I could find and put pressure on the cut. So yes I grabbed the dirty maker rag.

I calmly called one of my Technicians over to help me. She got me a bandage and taped me up. We went into the supervisor’s office so she could clean it and bandage it.

Her first question was why my leg was all green. (Marker-rag) The second questions was what the heck happened.

Then she asked when my last tetanus shot was.

Uhmmmm…. I don’t know?

So I had to fill out an incident report and all of that stuff. I was told to go to the emergency room after my shift to get a tetanus shot.

I am just embarrassed at being so klutzy!

By the way, my boss was really nice and let me go home to change clothes…so I wouldn’t have to wear bloody clothes the rest of the shift.

Thank goodness!!!!

My walk through of Bodies The Exhibition

I recently walked through Bodies… The Exhibition. I was a bit hesitant to see the exhibit after learning about the controversy surrounding it. After walking through most* of the exhibit, I can say that I wish I had not paid to see it.


The controversy is due to the murky origins of the bodies. The bodies are from China, and questions have been raised as to whether the bodies were willingly donated.

“None of the people who once inhabited the bodies in Bodies gave their consent to be used this way, and that has made some folks profoundly uneasy. Their doubts are compounded by China's record of human rights abuses, including the harvesting of transplant organs from executed prisoners. “

-Post Gazette October 16th 2009,
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07172/795948-115.stm

The exhibit begins with the skeletal structures, followed by muscular structures, and the nervous system. Then the circulatory system is shown followed by the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. The exhibit closes with the “Fetal Gallery”

I had quite a difficult time walking thought the exhibit. I kept wondering where the families of these people are; do they know where they ended up? What about the religious beliefs of these people?

I found some of the dissections and poses distasteful. One display cabinet held what my husband refers to as the slab of breasts. I was greatly upset at the way it was displayed.

At the end of the exhibit is what they label The Fetal Gallery. *I chose to exit the exhibit before the Fetal Gallery. I found the idea of looking at preserved and malformed fetuses quite distasteful.

I am not saying that I cannot see the educational value of a body exhibit. I just think there is a more respectful way to treat the subject matter.

Our bodies are a vessel to hold our essence/mind/soul…what ever you choose to believe in. I think it deserves to be treated with a level of respect. I feel that flaying muscle tissue off the bone and preserving it that way depreciate the dignity of these people.

Link to exhibit site: http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/


Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BODIES..._The_Exhibition

You tube video of the exhibit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kJmypE1DGQ