30 Something Baby Doc

As an Ob-Gyn I often recommend patients in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy to undergo 24 hour urine collections if their blood pressures are elevated. This is a diagnostic test for pre-eclampsia (A potentially severe condition in pregnancy that could result in seizures and death). My patients usually complain when they have to save up their urine in jug for a whole day. They say things like...."That's inconvenient"......"That's nasty"......."I have to carry that jug with me everywhere". I'm thinking to myself ..."Stop you yappin and just freakin do it!"

The other day I went to my doctor for a check up and my blood pressure was high. He order me to complete a 24 hour urine (damn!). I went down to the lab and they handed me this big brown jug. The whole process of saving my urine for a day was a pain in the ass.

First, I was on call the day before I had to turn it back into the lab, so I had to collect some of it while I was working. I had to keep it cold, therefore I hid it in the staff refrigerator (I'm glad no one confused it with apple juice). The hard part was to keep reminding myself not to piss in the toilet and use the jug only. When I got home I had to tape notes on all the toilet in my house that read "USE THE JUG DUMMY" After 24 hours and over a liter of urine I was all done. I turned it back into the lab without incident.

I think I'll have more sympathy for my patients in the future:-)