Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
Once I got home from that sweet vacation with my dad (which really is more like picking up from two posts ago (sorry!)), I had to have three blood pressure readings.
They could be self-reported. So, I went and took pictures of the monitor at the local drugstore. (Pictures weren’t required. But I took them to be thorough.)
One of my blood pressure readings was done at my gynecologist’s office, ’cause I happened to be getting my yearly pap smear in that time period – which is actually one of the requirements needed by the kidney people. So, that worked out nicely.
I sent those things in. I also had to send in some self-administered cheek swabs. And with everything looking good, I got to move on to some blood draws and urine collections (yee haw) at a lab by my apartment.
I didn’t write down how many times I had to make trips to the lab. It felt like it a million, but it was probably about 7-ish. At least one test was done while fasting (and I wasn’t warned that I’d need to be). Usually, I tried to go in immediately after waking up, to cover my bases just in case.)
I’m not sure what each different blood test was for, but I was definitely pricked multiple times. Of course, this was no big deal. When I was in the hospital they used to wake me up in the middle of the night to make sure they got blood draws every however many hours. So, once every few days is nothing.
I will say though, bring a book here! The lab didn’t take appointments, so I kept having to just show up and wait. And wait. And wait, and wait.
I got pretty good at kind of understanding what days/times were usually less busy than others.
As I mentioned, in addition to the blood tests, there were urine tests. Some were just in a little cup, but I had to do a 24-hour urine collection on 3 separate occasions. They give you this big orange jug. You take it home, and keep it by your toilet. And every time you pee in a 24-hour window, you put that pee in the jug.
I see how this could be an annoyance in someone’s day-to-day life. A lot of people are out living and doing some of their peeing at work or at other places that aren’t their homes.
Also, some people share bathrooms. (I am lucky enough to have my own bathroom.) But for people who don’t, it might be a little annoying to your roommates – “Uh, why is there a jug of pee by this toilet?” “Oh, good question. Funny story…”
But, a pee jug (or two if you drink a lot of water, as apparently I do) in your home for a total of 72-hours isn’t really that big of an inconvenience as far as I’m concerned.
All of those tests kept coming back great, and we’ll pick up here next time.