A 24-hour urine collection plastic small gas can-looking thing. It says “comes with two tablets of sodium bicarbonate,” which the doc’s office didn’t supply. Website of Quest Diagnostics (huge US service) says use sodium bicarbonate. Doc, via secretary, says “don’t use sodium bicarbonate.” Done and done.
What’s up with that? It makes me feel like anything with the remotest chance to become chometz in an Orthodox house on Passover eve.
“Keep specimen cool.” Refrigerate? (Autumn in NY weather.)
This really intrigues me: you must, must not start with your first morning pee. Then the next time you have to go the 24-hour clock starts for the collection, which must have that next morning’s morning pee.
I’m guessing morning pee might be analytically useful in isolation (like, pee that the kidneys have had a good long time to work over–but that doesn’t make sense either, because it’s processed drop-by-drop anyway…). But in the 24-hour it gets mixed in anyway. Isn’t pee fungible?
Yes, the kidneys produce urine drop by drop. I think this is a simple problem of measurement. If you give them your morning’s pee, you don’t know over how many hours that pee was generated. By starting with the pee after that, you know that this is pee is a product from say 6 am to 8 am. (as an example).
You then keep producing pee specimens throughout the day. You go to sleep. All the pee your kidneys made during the night is now stored in your bladder. You deliver the pee at 6 am when you wake again. That’s exactly 24 hours worth of pee.
Example Pee timeline :
6 am - 8am : sample 1
8am - noon : sample 2
noon - 3 pm : sample 3
…
bedtime - 6 am : sample N
If you give them the morning’s pee, it becomes
??? - 6am : sample 1
You need the termination of data recording to happen at ???. Since you don’t know when that was, you cannot accurately do so.
In college, a friend was making extra $$ as a human guinea pig. In one of his studies, he had to collect every drop of urine he produced. He brought a gallon jug to a party, which he nearly filled before leaving. In his drunken state, he tripped on concrete stairs, tearing up one arm and squashing the jug, soaking himself with urine.
I would have hated driving the cab that took him home.
When I started having kidney problems the doctor told me to collect urine for 24 hours. I had bottles all over the place until I figured out he only wanted mine.
The test starts with an empty bladder and ends with an empty bladder. It doesn’t really matter so much what time you start- 6 am, 10 pm- as long as you start empty and end empty so that you have collected everything in one 24 hour period.
Most folks don’t like to keep the jugs in the fridge, so set them in a bucket of ice. Keeping the collection cool just helps reduce bacterial growth (which is not being tested) and odor.
I had one of those jugs on SEVERAL occasions during my pregnancies. To keep it cool I wound up setting a cooler in the shower, filling it with ice, and setting it in the ice.
You’re lucky - as a guy, some logistics are easier than with us girl types - and the doctor’s office didn’t think to provide me with a collection basin that goes in the toilet. Lots of fumbling with paper cups (sigh).