{"id":1587,"date":"2019-10-31T01:21:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T01:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=1587"},"modified":"2019-10-08T01:35:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T01:35:24","slug":"future-surgeons-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2019\/10\/31\/future-surgeons-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Surgeons by Rachel Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rachel T. Smith is an American creative writer and physical therapist living in Germany, temporarily. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Future Surgeons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smell doesn\u2019t seem to bother me, dries out my\nsinuses and burns my throat at first. Her face doesn\u2019t seem to bother me like I thought it would,\nlike it does my partner. The body, Her, has no name; an age and cause of death, but no name. There is\na clear rule about not nicknaming them, but we all do, give them nicknames. And we all get\nattached, possessive even. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the fifteen bodies, I dissect one half of Her body with\nmy partner. When we leave two more students share the same side of Her. Between\nthe four us, in the first few weeks, we make a real mess. Occasionally, I get to cross to Her\nother side for organs like the spleen and descending colon but for the most part this one half\nof a person is mostly mine for two semesters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel bad that I am not good at dissection. I severe\nHer cephalic vein before I can trace it down the arm.  I\napologize for it, a soft whisper under my breath I hope my partner doesn\u2019t\nhear. I take a needle and thread and sew the vein. My first\nsurgery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My partner cuts too deep with the bone saw, damages\nher right lung. Another first surgery. I apologize for this too. The needle and thread are not\ngoing to fix Her mutilated tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We trudge on, following the instructions, pacing\nourselves but not rushing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more I slice and scrape, the more accurate I\nbecome, the less apologies I make to Her. I learn I can grasp the edge of Her skin with my tweezers,\npulling, while sliding my gloved finger through her spider-web of fascia. No need to cut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t always rush to use the scalpel. I feel things\nbefore I move them, recognize the slimy worm of a nerve, the coagulated pebble of blood\ntrapped in an artery and I begin to say, thank-you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pearlescent sheen of Her iliotibial band brings\ntears to my eyes and I thank Her again. \nI keep thanking Her at every new discovery, every new\nrealization that I have read in a textbook but never really appreciated until she came along.\nReciting the instructions aloud, I perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My partner says she just can\u2019t when we arrive at the face. Her face. A towel my partner never worked without has been there since we rolled her supine. It is time I remove the shroud and expose Her beauty and Her boldness at allowing us our lessons. Her thin white hair is matted against Her cheek and I brush it aside. My partner, my\nfriend, is pale and shaking whispering, \u201cWhy must we do this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I tell her to\nget the guide, start reading. I stay focused knowing once we\u2019ve started, our deconstruction will be easier. Her face will become\nmuscles, nerves, landmarks to identify and be tested on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this part had been in the beginning, we would have\nmangled Her, made Her unidentifiable by bumbling fingers and careless use of the blade. But\nthis is the end, we are all better, skilled even, in our abilities to flay Her without\ndestruction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel T. Smith is an American creative writer and physical therapist living in Germany, temporarily. Future Surgeons The smell doesn\u2019t seem to bother me, dries out my sinuses and burns my throat at first. Her face doesn\u2019t seem to bother me like I thought it would, like it does my partner. The body, Her, has … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-pB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1587"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1590,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions\/1590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}