Well what is it? Good question. No-one seems to have heard of them. Mention it and you'll see eyes glaze over. My mother can't even pronounce the word! Well at the moment, it is the thing that is stopping me from having kidney failure and I suppose, keeping me alive. Have a look at my other blog 'Why I have a nephrostomy' that helps explain my story. This is what my nephrostomy looks like You can see in the picture that I have a tube that goes through the skin in my back and into my kidney. The tube helps the urine to drain out of the kidney (you can see a little bit in the bottom of the bag) and into a nephrostomy bag that is attached by adhesive to your back. You usually need a nephrostomy if you have a problem with your ureter, if it is blocked or not working properly. I had a hysterectomy and during the operation, my ureter got blocked. This meant that my left kidney couldn't process the urine in the normal way, as the ureter blockage was stopp...