Dead on a slab, getting poked and prodded.

I was young and naive.  I have never even seen a naked person let alone a naked DEAD person!  The embalming room was a place of wonder, disgust and excitement.  The first thing you notice about embalming is the smells.  When a person dies all muscle control is lost.  Now that does not automatically mean you shit yourself when you die but it can happen.  If you have a meal that has worked its way through your digestive system but you pass before you shit well... It is very possible that the gases that build up inside your body from the bacteria living inside of you may push all of that de-lish last meal out.  You also lose bladder control.  If you have any IV sites they will not clot up and will continue to leak.  If you had eaten before you passed the gases may push the food up and you may vomit.  There is a huge variety of  "what-ifs" and they are all just as gross, giving off a wonderful bouquet for the nose to pick up.  Now, embalming fluid has its own unique scent.  If you haven't had the joy of smelling formaldehyde it is one of a kind.  You have that sterile medical smell mixed with an eye-watering sting of the strong chemical that can chase you out of the room.  Chromatech, Triton, DriCav, Manhattan all types of embalming fluids are used in the process.  Each giving the own unique smell, color and use to the fluid.  Mix all of those smells and you have an embalming room.  There is nothing good about it but it is a smell that comforts me now.  There were three stations in the embalming room and because the mortuary I worked at was always so busy there were always a minimum of two of the stations being used.  The loud "hmm" of the machines pushing the embalming fluid into the bodies was a constant in that room.  Although the radio was always belting out a loud array of music styles the noise of the work always took front an center.  The gleam of the stainless steel and the sharp objects being used are a whole other thing.  Trocars to remove the liquid from the abdominal and chest cavities, scalpels to make the incisions, cannula inserted into arteries, clamps holding in the cannula and the aspirator!  Embalming is an exciting process...