If my ear was a pancreas.

In my line of work (let's just call it cancer research), I have to read a lot of academic papers about specific research experiments. In many cases, these papers are brimming with anatomical terms that I find slightly difficult to say with a straight face. I'm not the only one that gets a chuckle out of this at the office. One of my co-workers started a game inspiried by "Three truths and a lie", except it's with three anatomically correct terms and one made-up term. [I'm taking a risk in blogging about this. For one thing, you all might think my dork-meter just skyrocketed: she plays anatomy games at work?! And let's not forget my boss might read this blog. Then again, I think she finds the game amusing herself...]

Yesterday found me in a similar predicament, reading about a pancreas with my fellow "gamer". As it turns out, pancreases (or is that pancreai?) have heads, bodies, and tails. Who knew? Upon discovering this, my peer asks "What does a pancreas even look like?" My efforts to make the shape of a pancreas with my hands fell short. So did my verbal explanation: "It's like an oval that's not really an oval and it's sort of bulbous on one side and, well, tapered on the other...". Eventually, the conversation digressed to using another body part to describe this most elusive of organs. Which leads me to the title of my post: If my ear was a pancreas. And if my ear was a pancreas, the tail would be pierced. And I'd want it to wear pearls.

But, if that description is not enough for you all to picture the head, body, and tail of a pancreas, here's a diagram. (You should thank me now that this is a simplistic artist's rendering - there are plenty of pictures of the real thing out there on the internet.)

Also, if you're looking for more information on the pancreas, here's a great informational video.