Abra Cadaver or Cutting Up on Campus

I've thought a great deal about donating my body to medical school when I "depart the vale," "go to my reward" (or punishment, as it may be), "kick the bucket," "lie on a dirt mattress," well, you get the idea. Currently, as long as I wake up every morning, I want to hold on to every moment...that's why I never use "product" in my hair: it take precious seconds I can't spare. Anyway, I recently got a peek at what the "afterdeath" me would undergo, thanks to Abby and Andi.
I met both girls through my work at the university (though both are too smart to deal with me directly!) When Abby mentioned by chance last summer that she'd be dissecting an actual cadaver this semester, I was immediately intrigued. I mean, the closest I ever came to something that instructional as an undergraduate in kinesiology was a bag of bones which was thrown on the table for us to identify on a test. Naturally, I begged to watch for a bit sometime. Fortunately, their instructor was a professor with whom I had worked at freshmen orientation so she agreed to let me watch.
As it turned out, I got fitted with a lab coat, latex gloves and was handed a scalpel and tweezers. The task that day was a continuation of one the students had been doing; removing all the subcutaneous fat from the back of the cadaver's leg in preparation for studying the tendons, muscles, etc. on a personal level.
The procedure was so delicate that I demurred on the option to help out, fearing I would make a mistake and take out something I shouldn't. After all, the ex-person on the table was trusting that her remains would be handled professionally...and I was anything BUT a professional.
After 45 minutes or so, I doffed the lab coat and gloves and walked back to work with a greater understanding of just why it's important for medical students to have an actual body to study. There was no way I was prepared for the layers and layers of microscopic (almost) tissue that protected the vital stuff and kept the body functioning properly...and this was just the leg! I could hardly imagine what the truly vital areas encompassed.
Simply amazing.
Now I have to work on getting all that subcutaneous fat trimmed down so medical students aren't grossed out by the layers of fat on MY...um..."mortal remains."