Medical Pop Art

When I reflect on why I chose to enter the medical field, I remember having a fascination with the human body, its awe and wonderment. What amazing little systems and worlds we have inside us! When our bodies function well, it is spectacular to behold.

But the further I progressed in nursing school, the more anxious I became, as the focus shifted to disease processes and pathology. The sheer number of ways things can go wrong in the body was mind boggling, and I found it incredibly depressing.

The more surgeries I was in, the more I would dread seeing metastasized, decaying organs; often things wouldn’t look that bad, but my fascination had changed into borderline repulsion.

I started to imagine the body filled with fun, silly objects: puzzle pieces, candy, LEGO toys. There’s always a moment of suspense in surgery... what are we really going to find inside a person, that the scans didn’t show? The painting to the right should depict a thyroidectomy, but oh look! We found toys inside, how strange!

I’d like to think of the body as wonderous again, if only in my mind.