Friday, February 26, 2010
H2O Overload
Last semester, in the homeostatis unit of biology, someone asked our teacher, "if your bladder is too full, will it explode?"
His cool response was, "Nope, the urine will go back up into your kidneys, and if that gets to be too much then you'll keel over from the pain long before you notice an explosion of any sort."
I thought the last part was a joke.
Today, I went to a medical examination where I had to drink a litre of water an hour before the test. A litre, you say? That doesn't sound like a lot at all.
BELIEVE ME, IT IS.
When I got there, I sat down and waited for my turn; I could feel my bladder filling up quite rapidly. I sighed and said to myself, "Okay, not much longer", I found the nearest bathroom and promised myself I'd make a mad dash after my exam.
Turns out, that last part wasn't a joke. They were 15 minutes behind schedule, and after a long wait I was put in this rather tiny stall and told to change into a long gown thingy. By that time, I couldn't stand up straight because my kidneys were killing me. Since I didn't have enough room in that stall to hunch comfortably, I stood outside, only to get yelled at by one of the technicians for standing outside.
Technician: "EXCUSE ME MA'AM. WAIT IN YOUR STALL UNTIL SOMEONE CALLS YOU."
Me: *whimpers*
And it didn't help that the guy in the next stall decided to start chatting to me. I probably sounded like I was having a tooth pulled.
So I think I was on the verge of tears when they FINALLY called me in. The first thing I did was tell the doctor "MY KIDNEYS ARE KILLING ME". It's a good thing she let me to go the bathroom to empty some of it out, or else something bad would have happened...
Next time, I'm cheating and only drinking half a litre. :(
I don't think I could drink a litre of water if I tried. I'm so used to only drinking a little bit at a time; when I drink water I only take a small sip.
But maybe I also have really low pain tolerance. :P
@Manda: Well, it's not the overindulgence that backs up your kidneys (although that's bad for your blood cells), it's the not peeing part. :P
To be honest I also drink a lot, like tons, of water, so I could probably get through most of it without to much trouble.
Also your bio teacher would say that, speaking of science teachers did you check out the physics teacher's blog, cause I did, he should update more often.
word verification: subbleos, that should either be a type of cereal, some sort of chemical, or bath bubbles
I could never do something like this. :| I don't know if it's that I have a small bladder, or my body doesn't absorb much water or what, but I pee a lot tmi. So I probably would have died in your situation.