Haha, no sweat,
is what I want to say. But I'm not too sure exactly what it would mean.

I think it's a pretty safe bet that your granddad was telling you a porky, though. Could have been to protect the dignity of your family friend.

Your friend of the family: what are his kidneys doing? If they're not doing anything, then he'd need dialysis. (Hint: people with kidney failure don't just "sweat it out" instead.) If they're working, they're producing urine, which is still going to be sent down into the bladder. It can't just be "sweated out" from there (how would that work?). It must be peed out.

Obviously, it's a bit difficult to pee it out without the necessary outlet in place. So, instead, the urethra, which conveniently passes through the prostate gland just in front of the rectum, is connected to the rectum. This means he pees straight into his own arse, internally. It then just comes out of his arse as he sits, lady style, on the toilet.

It's not hard to imagine that this undesirable necessity is just inviting insult to be added to injury. (What man wants people to know he has to pee out of his arse?) Rather than subject him to full humiliation, it's perhaps kinder to hide the gory details behind a little white lie: he "sweats it out" instead (which sounds kind of manly, in a way).
(Honourable Member is upstanding, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 4:32, 2 replies)

Wouldn't a urethra connected to a rectum be in constant danger of serious infection though?
And surely his anal sphincter wouldn't contain liquid without seepage. It's designed to hold in solids.

The real explanation is most likely a permanent catheter connected to a 'collecting bag' attached to his leg.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 13:19, closed)

I was making it up
in an effort to confuse spiderslut.
(Honourable Member is upstanding, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 20:46, closed)

Wait...
If he's lost all his external genitalia, surely a good portion of the urethra is still in place? All they need to do is make an 'exit hole' where it meets the skin, don't they?

I suppose it all depends on where the equipment to control urination lives (i.e. you wouldn't want to be dribbling everywhere all the time)
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 14:52, closed)