pee-pee time

Tomorrow is my big day at Weill-Cornell in New York. I will begin testing at 9am, and part of the tests involve yet another capture of urine for 24 hours. So, at 6:45am this morning I began the process of saving all my urine for the next 24 hours. I took a vacation day from work since I knew it would only make life a lot easier for this task, plus, I am so anxious about tomorrow that I felt being in the office would be counter-productive.

The last time I had to save my urine, the lab provided me with a container for this purpose. This time, I was out of luck since I'm working with the medical office in NY. I was told that I could stop in to any pharmacy and pick one up. They were wrong. So, on Sunday as I perused the aisles of Wal-Marts, CVS and the local supermarkets, I started to get a little concerned as to what the hell I was going to use to keep my golden liquid in... yikes! All I have here at home is a pickle jar and I dared not attempt to put anything in that since I felt like it would take nothing short of a blowtorch to sanitize it. My last resort was... are you ready?... a male urinal container! Oh. My. God. I don't think I would have been as embarrassed purchasing Depends. Not only did I have to purchase it once, I had to go back again this afternoon to get another one because I had already filled the first one. It must be psycho-somatic, because the last time I did this I swear I don't think I captured more than 2 cups. Today was more like 2 gallons. Whuh?

It's around 9pm and I will be hitting the hay soon, as I want to try to get a nice solid sleep tonight. I have to depart home around 5am to give me enough time to make it into the city for my 9am appointment. I am building in some time for rush hour traffic, construction and any accidents that might delay my arrival. Punctuality is my middle name! My niece and her boyfriend will be coming with me as my travel companions and this has made me so very happy. It's just going to be nice to have someone with me to chat with on the trip home, and of course be my chauffeur - woo hoo!

My exam itinerary for tomorrow includes:

• 24-hour urine sample and a blood test
• meet with coordinator
• meet with MD consult
• blood tests
• meet with social worker
• EKG
• chest x-ray
• CT of pelvis and CTA of abdomen
• meet with psychiatrist (boy are they in for a ride!) ha!

I have to say that the only thing I'm nervous about is finding the parking lot. Yep, that's it. I'm very excited and more than that, I'm very curious. Since I've been blessed with such good health my whole life, I have never been exposed to any extensive medical testing. This is all new to me an I am anticipating a lot of medical mumbo-jumbo that I will know nothing about, but that is exciting to me. I will be taking notes and asking a million questions so I can bring it all to the blog and share with others. The entire staff will be relieved when I finally make my exit at the end of the day - they will definitely earn their pay tomorrow!

The one thing I am dreading tomorrow is my fast. I can't eat or drink until around 2:00 or 3:00! What, no Starbucks?! Are you kidding me!!! I have packed up some snacks to munch on once I get the green light to eat later in the afternoon, and you better believe I will inhale every one of them. I'm prepared with all my paperwork, driving directions, magazines and a book. Hurry up and wait, right?

Time to sleep now and I will pray that I'm going to see some very positive results from all my tests within the next two weeks!

Until next time... turn off the TV once in while and get to sleep early. You will feel remarkably rested the next morning.