Drink It Up

I've been working as an x-ray technologist for a couple of years now, and as time goes on I become more and more curious about other aspects of health care. In fact, this curiosity has more than once almost had me registering for more classes and going back to college. But that isn't where life has me right now, so instead I have decided to take advantage of every opportunity to glean knowledge from the people I work with at the hospital. From the ER to the Operating Room, I've been listening a little closer, asking a few more questions and keeping my attention focused on where I'm at for that moment (for a wonderer like me, staying 'in the moment' can be quite challenging sometimes).

Today gave me the opportunity for one such learning experience. I was called to the O.R. to help do a retropyelogram for a woman who was going to have a ureteral stent placed. Because I can already see my husband rolling his eyes at those words, that basically means that the doctor was going to inject some x-ray dye up into the patient's kidney through the tube that normally dumps the urine from the kidney into the bladder, and then he was going to reinforce that tube with a fake one that theoretically would work better. The woman also had kidney stones (like the little white dots pictured in the abdomen x-ray) which the doctor was going to use a laser to break up, eventually allowing the woman to urinate them out of her body. I think I began the conversation by asking if the laser was strong enough to cause damage if not used correctly (to which the answer was yes), and then was given a bunch more information about kidney stones. In one of the papilla (a part of the kidney where urine is secreted) there was what looked like lint, to me. Yes, lint. Little white specks that looked like belly button lint. Not quite. These were actually small calcium deposits that could potentially become large stones, like the nasty blackish-brownish-yellowish ones the doctor was eradicating with the laser. I asked if everyone has those. The answer was not necessarily, and that drinking water would help keep them away. Really? Water? Yes. Simple answer, drink more water. To combat kidney stones avoid high amounts of salt and protein in your diet and drink more water. For as much as I've heard kidney stones hurt, you don't have to tell me twice. Bottoms up!