Question: would you say you have a gory job or would you say you are a horror crave

Sandra Phinbow answered on 12 Mar 2013:

Hi, the histology side can be really gory for sure. We see whole organs as well as smaller samples. So you do need a strong stomach, it’s not for everyone.

Some of the kinds of things we deal with are breast that have maybe been removed because the patient has cancer. Or perhaps a piece of the colon has needed to be removed. Maybe just a small piece of skin needs to be taken away.

Sometimes women can grow large fluid filled cysts on their ovaries. And sometimes these cysts are filled with hair! Ginger hair! And sometimes they have teeth in. And sometimes bone. And usually all 3 at the same time. And they can be really big and heavy.

We received a whole leg once, the patient had a form of cancer that was very extensive and a lot of the tissue died. So he had to have the whole leg removed. I’ve only seen 2 whole legs in 11 years.

Histology is amazing, you see some right crazy stuff sometimes. But I love it not because it is gory or mucky, but because it’s part of the body and the body can do some really strange things. But for sure the gory side is interesting and a little bit exotic sometimes when you see things that are rare.

And also looking inside organs is amazing too, we are very fine pieces of engineering. We should be quite proud of our inner workings 🙂