Sounds dirty doesn't it? Like something immoral you might do with corpses.

On the way in today we passed the Atlanta Nephrology Referral Center. Lovely Wife asked me what "nephrology" was. My response was an unexpected "Duh...I don't know". That bugged me. I spent years drinking and partying studying like a dog to learn medical terms and here I'd gone and forgotten one. One big and important enough to have a medical referral center dedicated to it.

It bothered me on and off all day long. Every time I tried to think of what nephrology was the Isles of Langerhans kept popping into my head. Those are in the pancreas and I knew “nephro” is definitely not the Latin for pancreas so I was at a dead end. Then I got a flash and I remembered a little memory trick I used for a biology test in OR Tech school. It was a drinking song little poem we memorized to help remember where the organs are located (in relation to each other) inside the abdomen. The part that was sticking in my head was something about “harvesting kidney beans under the Isles of Langerhans”. That bit was to remind you that the kidneys are below the pancreas. As soon as I remembered that bit I remembered that “nephro” is kidneys.

I rock!!*

So Nephrology is science of and relating to the kidneys. Do not confuse it with Necrophilia** or Necromongers***.

* Yes, I am fully aware that I could have looked it up online at any time and saved hours of fretting. That wouldn't have told me why my brain was misfiring between "nephro" and "Isles of Langerhans". Besides, figuring it out for yourself is way studly.****

** To which it is only cursorily related.

*** Space age bad guys who wear leather dresses (yes, the guys) and mullets in Vin Diesel movies.

**** Seriously, it really is way studly. I'm half tempted to give myself some points for this one.

Posted by: Jim at 02:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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