Dissection VI & Urine

This was a quickie dissection, a kidney, done in the midst of a renal function lab. What this entailed was urinating at 30 minute intervals and measuring the chloride concentration, specific gravity, and volume at each urination. Groups of five people each participated in a different "treatment" condition (salt, caffiene, 1000mL water) and the idea was to see what different effects these would have against a control (200mL water). Unfortunately our control group (myself included) was a complete mess so our results were essentially "we knew what should have happened..."

If anyone should be under the impression that "oh, you did something remotely medical", well, you're wrong. What we did was play with our own urine for three hours in a warm room next to preserved kidneys that reek of formalin having not eaten for several hours (requirement for the lab) while watching a beautiful sunny Saturday float by our lab room window. There was no diagnosis, no puzzle to solve, and I'm pretty sure we violated HIPAA (lab results being considered protected health information).

Normally I love lab, but this is one of those things that sounded better in someone's head than in real life.