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After you have gone to the bathroom, the technologist will bring you into a large room where you will see a big machine over a high metal table. This machine is just an overgrown camera which is hooked up to a TV screen where you, your parents and your doctor can watch your bladder. You will also see a bottle full of clear liquid called contrast material hung on a pole at the end of the table; a thin plastic tube called a catheter will be connected to this bottle. First the technologist will ask you to climb up on the table and lie down on your back. The technologist will help you slide off your panties and ask you to pull your feet up close to your body sticking your knees out to the side like a frog. Then after putting on rubber gloves to keep you as clean as possible, he or she will wash the area between your legs with some warm, pink colored soap from a metal bowl. This is to make the area super clean, so until the end of the test you shouldn't touch anything below your belly button.
Then the doctor or technologist will wash off the soap with warm water and will put a very clean small blue cloth over you. Then he or she will gently slide the catheter a little ways into your urethra and the tube will be loosely taped to your leg so it won't fall out. After a little urine has been collected in a small cup, the stuff in the bottle will flow through the tube and into your bladder. You will be able to watch your bladder fill up on the TV screen. As your bladder is filling, you will feel like you have to go to the bathroom. When you don't think you can hold another drop, tell the technologist and doctor. They will tell you to hold it for just a few more seconds while they take a couple of pictures. Then, believe it or not, they will ask you to go to the bathroom right on the table! While you are urinating they will be taking some more pictures of your bladder emptying. When a picture is being taken, you must lie very still so that the film doesn't come out blurry.
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