Monday, April 6, 2009

epiploic beauty.

*warning*
to those it may bother: there's anatomical talk in here...
but it's all about beauty.

today was the last day of lab for my anatomy course. the lab anyway. this essentially means that one half of the course is done (the hands on cadaver lab half). i took the final earlier today, and i was up early to study for it, so this is a short post, then time for a nap.

anyway (and no specifics because talking about the test can get me a zero), while taking the exam this morning, i was looking in a cadaver and saw what's called epiploic appendages.
they're essentially little sacs of fat that chill out in storage on various parts of your digestive guts. i've looked for a photo, but i can't find a good one that does justice, so you may have to do some further investigation to find out what i mean (if you have one, please leave a link).

well, the coloring of these things is pretty vibrant. they're all bright yellow (as they are concentrated fat) and especially flashy when stuck to the dark red of a large intestine. reminds me of a clown's flower that squirts water at you. it's weirdly enough the most visually appealing part of your digestive tract... in my opinion. everything else looks essentially the same to me, varying only in shape, consistency, placement and size. in a crowd of innards, epiploic appendages really are the shooting stars of the abdominopelvic galaxy.


it's interesting to think that really, if zombies were to ever arise and challenge humanity, they may not be as horrible looking as we think. sure... a little rotting flesh, missing pieces perhaps, but if i see appendages like i saw today, i'll probably ask for a photo (to put on this post). on top of that, even if zombies never come around, the fact that we've got such beauty literally hanging out on our large intestines is exciting in itself.

so if you ever feel like you're not pretty enough, or your hair isn't how you'd like, or even if you're just having a hard day. remember, it's inner beauty that counts, and inside your gut you've got plenty of beautiful yellow epiploic appendages. we're all gorgeous.

5 comments:

  1. I'll just be honest, I think they are absolutely disgusting and almost made the awesome cinnamon roll our TA made us digestible since the white-ish yellow icing kind of reminded me of them.

    To explain how gross I think they are, every time I see them I think of how awfully ironic it would be if I accidentally showed a certain reflex on the digestive system of the cadaver.

    Thus is life...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I feel so much better about myself... inside and out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. um....I think you need to add another box to check at the end of this post titled....hit my gag reflex....I knew was I was going to read when I read the title, but you described it well enough that my facial expression was one of total digust- congratulations!

    ReplyDelete