Twenty-four hours

I had high blood pressure when I went to the doc Monday (actually at 140/90, she said), so for the last day or so I’ve participated in the joy known as the 24 hour urine test. You get to keep all of your urine for a 24 hour period, then drop it off at the lab and let them do a blood draw (which I did this morning). You have to be sure to keep it all for the full 24 hour period, or the test is invalid (you start by emptying your bladder in the morning as usual and writing down the time, so you start with an empty bladder and an empty container, then from that point keeping all urine up to exactly that time the next day, and if you miss one you need to start over — from what I read they can tell by measuring creatinine levels whether they have a full 24 hour sample or not, so don’t try cheating, heh). In my case they’re looking for protein in my urine, to see if the blood pressure is having an adverse effect on my kidneys. (I suspect not, as this is a new phenomenon, but they can’t take my word for it.) They actually gave me an interesting device to catch it in, which fit on the toilet seat (I’ve read it referred to as a “hat” on some sites, and it does kinda look like one - upside down). Then you decant it into the special jug they give you (mine was orange) and you have to keep it refrigerated. Nothing like having a jug o’ pee in your fridge.

The worst part was last night about midnight when I filled the jug, with there still being about 9 hours to go. I googled frantically, but had a hard time finding a site that told you what to do if you filled the container, except to go on to a second container like the first one. Of course, I didn’t have a second container like the first one… (And why would you give a pregnant lady only one pee container? Sheesh. :))

So I have these plastic one liter bottles that I buy water in, and I rinsed and used two of those. (I think the original container was 2.5l, might have been 3l.) Luckily I was doing a test that didn’t require any special acid in the bottle. I finally found something at this site that suggested that what I had done would be fine (it says “In an emergency a clean glass or plastic bottle that has been thoroughly washed and rinsed with clean water will suffice for most tests”) and when I went in this morning they said that the water bottles I used were fine! Thank goodness, I didn’t want to have to do it again (now I can just hope I don’t have to do it again later in my pregnancy).

I think the gun was a bit jumped on prescribing me this test — they didn’t test any smaller urine samples for protein first (no dipstick test), and this is only one visit where I had high blood pressure (but it’s my only visit to them so far, so it could be higher now regularly, I don’t know). I also think that being nervous could cause a jump in blood pressure, and my 3 hours of waiting at the doctor’s office (broken into 45min or 30min segments between nurse or doc visits) certainly didn’t help that! But I suppose it’s easier or quicker for them to just skip to this step and do the analysis, even if it is more inconvenient for me. And if there is something odd with my kidneys, of course I’d like to know. (I certainly feel like it’s hard to keep hydrated right now, which may also have something to do with all this — I bet being mildly dehydrated doesn’t help the blood pressure any.)

I’m hyper-aware of my bladder now, though. I can’t wait for that feeling to go away. Still, glad my twenty-four is over.