Only this time it wasn't for my body ... it was to see the Body Works exhibition at the Telus World of Science. Here's the link to Body Works in Calgary. (Hope the link still works after the exhibition closes. Here's a link to the main Bodyworlds site if not.)
Though this exhibit focused on the Brain, there was plenty of other information on the skeletal system, the nervous system, and the cardio-vascular system. I am even more amazed at what they did to me now.
The heart muscle is surprisingly small. About the size of a loosely clenched fist. For some reason I was imagining something a bit bigger, say, two hands worth. And it squirts blood throughout the body some 2 billion 943 million 360 thousand times during a lifetime (2,943,360,000 ... say, an average of 70 pumps per minute times 60 minutes per hour times 24 hours per day times 365 days per year times, lets be generous, 80 years.)! Wow!
Even more amazing to me is that the surgeon went inside that little muscle of mine and repaired one of the valves, something that opens only about as much as the diameter of my thumb at the first knuckle. Now that's some fine needle work!
For the exhibition, donated bodies are prepared by exchanging all of the water in the tissues for a synthetic polymer. The polymer, which hardens to about the same density and weight as the water it replaces, then essentially 'plasticizes' the tissues and preserves them. Body worlds is noted for artfully presenting the results by posing the figures in life-like actions that reveal the interior workings of the body.
The exhibition also displayed other plastinated body parts so that, though brain stuff dominated here, it wasn't the only thing to see.
I was, of course, drawn to displays which showed the heart.
And there it was. A heart which had suffered a heart attack. You could see where some of the heart muscle was damaged. Another was shown in cross section which revealed that an artificial mitral valve had been installed. Amazing to see the little flapper-valve in place. And to think that might have been my heart if Dr. M. hadn't been able to repair mine.
I was surprised at the number of little fibers inside the left ventricle. Those are the cordae tendinae that hold the loose ends of the mitral valve and connect it to the interior of the heart muscle walls. There were a lot more of those little fibers than I had expected. They looked almost like the stringy bits you pull out the inside of a pumpkin when you carve it up for Halloween.
I wonder what my heart looks like? Not that I'm ready to have it plastinated just yet. I hope there are still another billion or so squeezes left in the old pump.
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