Probably pretty sharp dust, though; I don't doubt he'll still need stents to properly get the shards out. (I've had laser-drill lithotripsy a couple of times myself.)

Reminds me of dialysis. "Make your arm straight. Straighter. No, like this. OK, now don't move for the next four hours."

Reader-added tags include "Cross-section", "Goodbye, Koishi", and "I'm so frustrated...! But...I'm turned on."

The survey needs you to turn your head and cough—er, choose:

What medical equipment makes your heart race?
• EKG instrumentation
• MRI
• Laser scalpel
• Telesurgery machine
• Heavy ion radiotherapy device

MRIs for me. As a kid, my first experience of me was problematic. Being a kid, I couldn't stay still for over an hour and they kinda made me go to sleep before continuing. One in my college years was better, but it was complete and utter boredom for over an hour. Most recent one I had a bad knee which couldn't stay straight due to a lot of pain, and they gave a cushion which helped but not by much. Most uncomfortable hour awake, at the end I cried uncle and asked for a break, and the nurse said that the procedure was gonna finish in a few minutes.

It did, but still I'd rather not go in another one for a long, long time.