jug o' pee..why not

So its been almost three month since I found out about my illness so I have some making up to do on this blog :) To help understand what my life has gone through in such a small amount of time I will try and give the jist of how I am coping,my family is coping, and my every day life now. I hope this blog helps people understand more about what an auto immune disorder can do to people and to maybe give hope to the ones who do have this same or similar situation. Ok here I go.... So after we discovered that I have lupus after three test and that my thyroid was not in good condition either. I was then sent to a rheumotologist..Dr Arkin is my Dr. I go to him and they take my blood a lot of it..to be exact 6 freakin tubes of my precious blood. ( if you know me you know I hate shots, yeah yeah I have a lot of tattoos but needles going all the way in and don't get me started on the shaky handed nurses who take blood and miss) but they take a lot of blood, some pee,and make do joint exercises. Nothing major I made them laugh and tried to keep everyone happy. I feel that if I have to get poked and looked at all day why not make the people poking me happy and let them know I appreciate them by being a nice and happy patient. So they get results back and they pretty much match to my other test from my primary Dr. So next step is to get down to why I'm having kidney failure. Is it from the lupus or is it something else basically. The thyroid they gave me synthroid to take once every day. So I go back to Dr Arkin and he presents me with this huge orange jug..the size of a gallon of milk and tells me to pee in this for three days. Ok yes, I was laughing just like you probably are rt now. I said what! He says yes you need to only pee in this for three days and check this out...and keep in a fridge! Bahahaha I laugh thinking about it. Oh goodness..so I started on Friday afternoon and luckily I don't work Saturday or Sunday but Monday morning at work...you can only imagine! So basically I made myself eat and drink two glasses of water before I went to work funny part to this is work at 5 am! I peed before I left and said a prayer that I didn't have to pee til 1pm when I got off. Well....Haha I was fine until noon and realized I was holding it and that was just wrong in so many ways..first off I have kidney failure duh Genn secondly, they need this pee to figure out what's Wrong with me and lastly, well it was just dumb to. So I tell my boss he better not make fun of my jug o'pee or I'll beat him up! I go out to my car bc thankfully it is January and freezing outside so that was my "fridge" I go out get it and run to the bathroom and feel so much better. After work I take the jug o'pee and say to the nurses who wants a glass I got a jug :) they all laughed and said I was probably the most energetic person to come in there. We took more blood and they sent the urinalysis and blood work to get tested. That was step two of this "adventure" step three go to a kidney Dr. Thats where I met a laid back man named Dr Morris. He says with the urinalysis results it shows that my kidneys are only working at 23% he doesn't sugar coat it he doesnt hesitate he just tells me it is not what you are doing so don't think its the foods or what not. We will get this solved ( meaning all three drs working together..how amazing is that?!) He also says he has talked to he other drs and is fully aware that we want to do this meds free if possible. ( now how amazing is that?!!!!!) Note this..through out all this testing going to drs almost once or twice a wk for two months I have never cried..I was never scared so to say. I was a little eh feeling but never just like oh shit what's going to happen..until now. I cried in this man's arms. I asked so many questions and he answered them all honestly and realistically. That day is when it hit me that my life can be taken at any moment. Here's the scary part of my situation..moat ppl with kidney issues have either pains or blood in their pee or even swollen knees or ankles...me I have none of that I mean NOTHING! So with this being said, I could be gone at any moment. So now the next step is ultrasound to make sure there are two kidneys and they are good size and all also to check my ovaries. Then its to get X-ray on my chest then more blood taken more peeing more questions. Yeah, it got old real quick! After all that was done then it was the major step..that darn kidney biopsy!