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Today was the anatomy lab at Western U, and don’t even get me started on how much I love anatomy and medicine because today I wanna talk about something close to that. I want to bring up the fact that it is very hard for native people to be in a lab like that. Up close to cadavers, also know as dead bodies given to schools or organizations for study. Our teaching’s usually don’t allow us to be around dead bodies, because they could still be caring spirits around and to avoid getting to deep I just wanted to bring it up. Especially, because we did protect ourselves with medicine before going in, but we also got to witness and learn amazing things today. If we didn’t use prayer to the creator, so he can protect us, we wouldn’t be given these opportunities. The ways of our people are changing, but it may not be a bad evolution. Our ancestors may have not approved then of these certain practices, but I know that they’re proud of us for building our futures. Especially because we are practicing in safe ways, with medicine and support from elders and our communities.

Thank you to Kaydee for being apart of this program, and being such a huge role model in my life. I will make my own path in modern medicine and traditional medicine, but just know that you’re another reason why I am following through with my dreams.

P.S. I want to be able to read the anatomy book in Navajo if possible Kaydee!

P.S.S. I love you so much! *tink*

Hysh’qe

Panamea

Thank you,

Katherine Jefferson (Kat)

Today we went to the Gross Anatomy lab. This was my second time participating in going in. Its a really cool experience its something where in moment your questioning yourself. But if you don’t do it you’ll regret it. I learned so much today, going to the anatomy lab has made me double take on what i want to be when i grow up. Actually no i still want to be a juvenile probation officer  but the medical field does sometimes interest me very much. We went able to take any pictures in the lab today sorry mom. Most people will be disgusted about this but how many people can say at my age. That they’ve gotten the chance to take apart the human body and replace everything back together. I would say that was the best part of today. I got a better understanding other than in books of the human body and it was super interesting.

Today was an interesting day. It all started with waking up at 6:00 and getting ready for indigenous games. After the games we had breakfast and then got ready to go to Western University so we can see the cadavers. When we got there were taught some of the protocol and some of the rules before we went into the lab. After we were taught the rules we went outside to get smudged by Vicente. The reason why we did this mini ceremony was to bless us and protect us just in case there was any evil spirits that were attached to the bodies.  After we were blessed it came the time to go into the cadaver lab. As I was walking to the lab I had a weird feeling about going into the lab. It was weird because I’ve been to a morgue before and I was used to it, but this time it seemed different. Well I still went through it and it was worth it. When we walked through the door the sight was interesting. There were steel tables in rows with white bags on them. At that moment I realized that they were the bodies. I really didn’t get scared, but I got interested. We got our gloves and then we got right into looking at the inside of the chest cavity. I got to see the heart, the lungs, the rib cage, the diaphragm and everything else in the chest cavity. In all together today was pretty interesting and intriguing.

07/21/17

The human body… Ahh! I absolutely loved the Gross Anatomy Lab at Western University. We got to look at cadavers and examined literally what is on the inside of us! This was my first time seeing a preserved dead body and in what most people would consider a weird way, I found it fascinating! This is something I have always wanted to do and that I am above and beyond passionate about. Holding that human heart and lungs in my hands was such a powerful and inspiring moment for me. At first I was a bit hesitant by the smell but, after the instructor reassured us that it was the chemical preservatives and not death, I felt relief! I can not express how grateful I am for this experience and how it has made me inspired to continue on in the direction of the medical field to educate people to take care of their bodies. We got to witness a body full of cancer and what it does to the body both internally and externally. The only thing I was a little let down about is that we did not get to do the cutting haha. I have always took a keen interest in the human body and to be able to literally hold a real human organs in my own hand is an amazing experience! Most people do not get to do that and I am so grateful the program incorporated this into the program. If I could, I would become a surgeon but that is way too much schooling for me. I am particularly interested in the heart because I just learnt about it a couple of months ago in my Biology 12 class! I felt a connection to this chapter and learning about the blood flow through the heart along with the anatomy of the heart. To conclude, this day was one of the best days at the program for me so far and I only wish that we had more time to learn about other body elements such as the brain!

-Sylena

Well today overall was a pretty interesting day. to start off the day I woke up in a good mood although I was pretty tired. As every morning we did our indigenous games which was really fun we got to work with some new moves and incorporate love with it. After breakfast we got to go to Gross Anatomy Lab to dissect a human body. I thought this was just amazing and really interesting because i have never seen a dead body nor touch a real heart and lungs. It’s just interesting that you can see all the diseases that a person had and what the inside of a body actually looks like because it is nothing like it is in pictures.  To end our day we got to have a social class thing that had us think about our feeling an write about them and i just thought this was creative cause i feel like we don’t really think about our feeling but more of brush them off so when they had us reflect on our feelings it made me more aware of them.

today was really chill and fun. we went to western u. we go tot look at some dead bodys. i got to learn how the heart works. it was really cool to actually hold a really human heart. that is something i thought i would ever do, nut i did an it was really cool. i don’t think i would ever be a doctor though. it was really cool to experience that.

The highlight of my day was going to WesternU to get to view and Examine a human heart and a corpse (that donated itself to educational purposes before death). It was definitely something new to me, it wasnt all that horrifying though, knowing that the person donated their corpse willingly. I learned a lot about the heart and the respiratory system today and i am thankful that I got to do that today.

Today i was unable to participate in the western college event, which sucks because i was looking forward to the event. Even though i may be 12 i don’t act like it. It also fun to do the virtual reality, but i wish i could’ve seen the body and felt the heart, especially because i’m looking into the medical field. I learned a lot about the heart, and how it cooperates with the veins and arteries.