Dinner Date...with a Twist

So my husband of almost eight years asked me out on a date last Friday. While going out on a date isn't completely unheard of for us, since we don't yet have kids, this seemed to be a special occasion, as he had the specific restaurant picked out and everything. (Note to those who are saying, "Oh you just wait until Baby Bun comes...you'll never go out again." Well, that may be true, but at present, we have complete freedom to dine out, catch a flick, or attend a social function whenever we feel like it. I know this will all change - but let us enjoy it while we have the opportunity. We have three very, very, short months left.)

So this date turned out to be a real whopper. It was dinner and...how do I say this...a 24-hour urine jug retrieval. That's right, the nurse from my perinatal doctor's office called on Friday mid-day (during my nap, in fact) and told Johnny that I needed to repeat my 24-hour urine test from earlier in the week due to "low production." First things first - how can a pregnant lady have low pee pee levels, I'd like to know! I feel like I'm always running to "powder my nose", and yet apparently, when I performed the test this past Monday, I didn't "powder" enough. The nurse was going to leave one of those glorious orange urine jugs (could they make it any more conspicuous?) at the admissions desk at the hospital where I go for my sonograms so that I could pick it up on Saturday. She said I needed to do the test on Sunday and then bring in my oh-so-fresh sample first thing on Monday morning. Johnny thought instead of me running over on Saturday morning to pick up the jug, we should make a "date" out of it and grab dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants by the hospital on Friday night. He's always thinking, that Johnny. Am I a lucky gal or what?

Now for those of you who aren't familiar with a 24-hour urine test - it's pretty self-explanatory. You're issued a huge, bright orange jug from your doctor (which seems to have grown even larger and brighter over the 7 years I've been doing these tests), you take it home, and every time you have to go during a 24 hour period, you tinkle into the jug. If you go to work, you have to take it to work. If you go out for the evening, you have to take it with it. It's quite a trip toting around such a jug...but one of my girlfriends from Lupus group taught me to just cinch it up (tightly, of course) in a cute backpack and carry it around like it's just another bag of "stuff". As long as I don't jostle it around, no one ever knows the difference!

Oh, the things we do for Lupus (and pregnancy!)

One small note - collecting one's urine into the jug is not very "big belly friendly", but the doctors have always included a handy-dandy, bedpan-like thing to assist in collecting your samples. For years, I swore I'd never use one of those things - but then, I was always agile enough to collect my own samples, thank you very much. Alas, I also used to be able to see my knees.

Ironically, my post today was going to be about the importance of staying hydrated, based upon some helpful hints I ran across in the latest issue of the Lupus Now magazine. I'll have to touch on that tomorrow, though. Right now, you'll have to excuse me. I need to go powder my nose.

*One additional note - The jug pictured above is one I found from a medical site online. Although it looks exactly like mine, it did not come from my own personal photo files. I know you're relieved.