1) Make sure you have one. When you feel an infant’s milk breath on your skin, do you experience a seismic shift in your ribs? You are in luck. If not, place your index finger and middle finger in the soft spot below your jawbone.
2) Be a fighter of flatlines.
3) Your heart is about the size of a small orange. Do not let just anyone zest the epicardium.
4) Crochet your heartstrings into a casing.
5) Peel to the pith and expose to pathogens.
6) Stop before screwdrivers are pumped through your veins.
7) Red walls are bound to splinter and crack; sweep the dusty cells out; let oxygen paint over the blue.
8) Forgive the first time skin was unzipped and lungs were balloons in a child’s hands.
9) Do not take an oscillating saw to a sternum unless your fingers are trained in sterile gloves.
10) Model the zebra fish—they regenerate cardiomyocytes to patch damaged valves.
11) Scars are diffusions of tender precision. Undress them slowly.