Sunday, July 20, 2008

Sunday 20
I finally get to sleep in, catching up after a 1.5 hour middle of the night sleep break!!!! Happy day!!! =)
It’s PEE DAY!! This is a fun one. For your 24-hour long urine collection day, you’ll need the following:
1. You.
2. A pee container, plastic and watertight, given to you by your oncologist’s lab peeps. It’s pretty big but not big enough if you drink tons of water, coffee and juices like I do. I won’t share those details, though. You’re welcome.
3. A “Hat.” A hat is a little white plastic wee collector that could make some kid really, really happy. If they so chose, they could put it on their heads upside down at Halloween and go trick or treating as a Cosmic Nun or a Gay Storm Trooper. You won’t find a more creative kid in the neighborhood. This item fits into your toidy, under the seat and nestled onto the rim that you just scrubbed the heck out of. You collect your wee in it and pour THAT into item #2.
4. An ice chest. Unless you want to put item #2 into your fridge. You really don’t want to do that, do you? Didn’t think so. Freeze some water filled soda bottles or milk jugs in your freezer a couple of days beforehand and you won’t even have to buy ice. Just put the container on a rag inside the ice chest and surround it with the filled, frozen bottles of water. Ta-da! Refrigerated wee, just what the doctor ordered!
Why might you be taking this test? http://www.labcorp.com/datasets/labcorp/html/chapter/mono/sc011800.htm
What you might expect when taking this test:http://www.carcinoid.org/pcf/docs/5HIAA.htm
No tomatoes, avocados, pineapples, aspirin, etc.
(These sites might be helpful but your doctor will have full details and instructions for you.)
Last night, as I was preparing to do the testing for today, I re-read the test instructions again, just in case I’m missed something. I had. Tomatoes. Oh, no, I did not see the part about the tomatoes. I had fajita nachos with Janet at lunch on Friday, Pizza w/ tomatoes with friends Friday night and Tex-Mex with my sis and hubby Saturday night! Will the few bits of tomato on my taco and the couple of scoops of hot sauce wreck the test results? I don’t want to wait longer to take the test ‘cause my appointment with my Cedar Park oncologist AND with MD Anderson are coming up and I want to have the results in time for those. HOW-EV-ER. Those results MUST be accurate. I decide to do the wee-thang and call first thing Monday to see if my tomato sins will nullify the test results. I am such a dork at times. What a bad patient.Can’t go far away from home and my hat, so today is filled with mundane chore type stuff like shopping and trying to find more good local (VERY local for today) sushi.
(Will fill in the blanks below some other time….No time right now!)Grocery Shopping and Bad SushiTarget and Home DepotPorkchops for dinnerCan’t find the movie Crazy Sexy Cancer, recommended by Patti Sullivan, a music friend of mine from Houston. Will check with the library tomorrow. More to come.