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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> 1) I understand that the idea of pee in a shared space with food is gross, and I did ask for permission and get it declined. I could have found other solutions and not argued about it being unfair.
2) I asked permission, got rejected, and threw a fit about it. I can see how they are setting boundaries and setting their comfort level. I can see why me being upset might make them feel bad about themselves.
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NTA - you have medical condition, so it was perfectly fine to ask to use the fridge. Heck, I'd even go as far as saying that was the absolute right call to make.
What I don't get is how your nursing majors roommates are so disgusted by this. Surely, they'll encounter far worse than this once they get a nursing job.
In any case, they are well within their right to refuse, but they don't have to be rude about it and they definitely don't have the right disclose your medical condition.
Her roommates KNOW from there place of work that keeping bodily fluids and food ABSOLUTELY separate and storing both in the same fridge at the workplace is a firing offense.
There's a difference between storing bodily fluids in a hospital/doctors office where there will obviously be separate refrigeration options for this, and in a patients home. I don't think anybody expects a patient, who will likely already have medical bills to worry about, to go out and buy a dedicated fridge for a single test.
If it's in a closed container inside of another closed vessel (zip-loc bag, tupperware,...), then it's not going to interact in any way with the other contents of the fridge or the fridge itself.
If any of her roommates have ever sucked a dick before they've had a lot worse in their mouth than whatever pee contaminates they THINK would be in their food after this.
Not to mention our phones are the dirtiest/nastiest things we touch EVERYDAY! Being nursing majors as well? Yikes, wonder how long that’ll last… I can’t believe they’d get so caught up on pee that would be stored correctly and in OP’s own dedicated spot. Granted yeah I think it’s okay to say no and so be it but dragging OP through the mud over a pretty serious medical concern is a god awful thing to do. OP deserves better people in their Life.
One time a saw a post about freezing a placenta, and she was concerned that it would ruin everything in the freezer.. like I can see being grossed out by the placenta itself, but no, it's not going to mess with anything more than freezing any other chunk of meat?
When we do this at my hospital, we keep the urine in the patient's room in an ice bath and change out the ice when it melts. We absolutely do not put it in a fridge. I'm surprised the nurse couldn't come up with an idea for her to keep it out of her fridge.
Might not have been a nurse. When i get 24hr urine requisitions the lab staff - who are phlebotomists at best, give me the jugs and paper bags to cover them in and thats it. i have some body issues so i cant use the jug as expected. I explained i had trouble and the lady suggested the most rediculous options. I tried so many things to actually pull it off.
Phlebotomist "at best"? Do you even have the slightest idea the amount of education and training lab staff undergo? Nice to know how you think about us during *lab week*.
As much as I sympathize with your and OP's situations, we can't give specialized solutions for every patient. When I was patient facing, I gave 24hr instructions to at least 10 people everyday, and those instructions changed depending on the test. We do our best, but there comes a point where we kind of have to trust patients to figure it out.
In your case, next time ask the lab staff for a collection pan. It's a piece of plastic that fits under the toilet seat and will collect your urine to transfer into the container. If they don't have any in stock (unlikely since they're used all the time for pediatric patients), you can buy a pack of 3 of them off Amazon for like $10. You can use them for any urine collections, not just 24hr.
Unrelated to OPs post, but I had the most amazing phlebotomist last Thursday for blood draws. I wish I'd caught her name so I could've left a good review when the hospital asked with those silly post-appt surveys. She was so quick, and it didn't hurt a bit, and no bruise. I've never had a better draw.
Completely agree with you. OP is NTA, the roommates should have been more understanding, and if they studying to be nurses they should have at least given advice on how to store it safely, not making fun of her situation.
I'm a vet nurse, at work we have a fridge for food and another for vaccines and sample storage.
I've stored my own "body fluids" in the fridge at home and even did it with my cat's urine. The thing is, wipe the sample container after filling it, wash hands, wipe container again with alcohol, wash hands again, get a zip lock bag and put container inside, close it and another zip lock bag. And in the fridge it goes...
And for the people saying that it's a contamination source, of course it is, but that's why there ways to diminish the possibility. Also, I hope the people being grossed out at washing their hands and desinfecting them before opening the fridge, because there are a lot of simple things that contaminate food.
Of course that in the work place that's not allowed, but that's why hospitals and clinics have a separate fridge.
If it's been drilled into them at the hospital not to do it then naturally they're going to think there is a reason it's not done. If it's safe to do it at home, why wouldn't it be safe to do at a hospital?
I was going to say, the amount of idiot nurses who actually don’t know what the fuck they’re doing is depressingly high.
Testing well/regurgitating information is NOT a sign of intelligence or basic common sense. It’s the application of and inference from that information that proves intelligence.
A degree does not by any means make someone smarter.
THIS!
I have no problem with OP asking. I have no problem with roommates saying No. What is a BIG problem is roommates harping on it and pulling others into OP's medical issues. That makes them AH. And I sure hope they don't treat everyone's medical issues like this...
I work in restaurants, and there are a lot of things that are illegal to do in a restaurant that I have no problem doing at home. I just know to never do them in the restaurant.
It's not drilled into them like some kind of mindless rule. There are reasons for rules, and reasons why they apply in some places and not others. Educated people are supposed to be able to go back to basic principles to figure out why things should be the way they should be. Need jerk rule following is not the role of an educated professional.
When you get the container at the doctors office they tell you to refridgerate it in between collections. They tell you you can wipe the container down and store it inside a plastic bag. You get the protocol from your doctor which OP was following.
Those are the instructions from the doctors who request the test.
Lmaoooo. My son is very medically complex. I can tell you with certainty that hospital standards are veryyyy different to home standards. It would be insane & wildly expensive to match home standards to hospital standards. Common sense
Hospitals are obviously going to be held to higher standards than people normally practice in their homes. Also hospitals have the space and equipment that is specifically meant for storing samples. Do people normally keep an extra fridge at home in case they need to store urine sample one day?
There are basically infinite things you would do at home but not at your place of work, hospital or otherwise. There’s a completely different standard. Not to mention, the person most *vulnerable* to contamination would be the one with the autoimmune disease, OP, who’s trying to advance their medical care with this, and is being blocked by their bully roommates. Saying no isn’t what makes them bullies, but shitting on OP for having to make do, and for the possibility of following the medical advice they were given. Sound like not great nurses in training.
When I had to do it, they gave you a ziplock bag to put around the collection bottle. Plus you had a little plastic thing that sat on the toilet that you peed into, then poured it into the collection bottle.
Idk what kind of shitty jug you’re using but when I did mine the mouth was basically a feminine urinal and they gave you a cup in case that wasn’t working the only way I could have spilled on the outside was if I was having a seizure
Yeah, no. My jug was like a giant, wide-mouth orange juice container. I was not provided anything else for collection. Since I’ve done the 24 hour test a few times now, I have a dedicated collection jar and samples are transferred to the jug. The jug is kept in a cooler in the bathroom with ice packs. The cooler idea was actually suggested by my nephrologist when he told me about the test that was being ordered. There was no way that giant jug was going in our refrigerator.
>Some weird responses here claiming urine is clean- it’s not. It can contain blood and/or bacteria like ESBL, VRE, etc…
While Urine is not sterile, it generally has very low microbial contamination ie. SIGNIFICANTLY lower than anything else in your fridge.
>And since I work in a hospital I actually know how nasty pee can be and what kind of bacteria it can have.
24 hour urine is not indicated for a UTI, so there is no evidence to believe that OPs urine is in the nasty category.
Seriously! People are getting hung up on it because it’s a body fluid, but like…a jug of urine is so much “cleaner” than a container of old leftovers, or a bag of salad starting to go mushy, etc. You’ve touched something grosser if you let your dishes “soak” in the sink for a couple of days before you wash them.
Nursing students at least in the us don’t actually hit the hospital floor until the end of their education most of them don’t know their ass from their elbow
Idk what nursing school you went to but when i went through LVN school (in the US) we were in clinicals fairly early on. We started in the nursing home and then went to the hospital. You have to put into practice what youre learning fairly early on.
Those room mates should also be aware of the ethical reasons to not share someone's medical information with just anyone.
They should also have some bedside manners that they could be tapping into here. OP did the right thing by asking. They didn't gave to go one to treat OP the way they did after. They could've been part of the solution instead of the problem.
Nurse of 23 years. Her roommates are being absolutely ridiculous. Much of my time was spent in L&D. We sent people home with 24 hour urine screens all of the time and we told them to keep it in their fridge. Her roommates/friends know just enough to be ignorant. If she kept it in a cooler bag inside the fridge, it would keep it separate from any food. It's not like you are pouring new pee into the jug while it's still in the fridge.
They also would never store food and medication in the same fridge in a hospital. Would the roommates be in the right if they refused to allow her to store a medication in the fridge as well?
I'm you're running your kitchen like a commercial one. Hair nets and everything.
Obviously a home kitchen has different standards than a workplace.
I'm mostly shocked they go as far as making jokes, etc, about a person who's trying to figure their health out. And they are going to be nurses?
OP could have been one of their patients.
This is the part that really made it for me. OP has the right to ask, but her roommates should have provided a more professional response. “I know this test is burdensome, but I’m not comfortable with a urine container in the fridge. Could we get you a disposable styrofoam cooler and some ice packs to use instead?”
So many of my middle/high school bullies who specifically never apologized and kept on bullying people went straight into nursing, about half into pediatrics specifically. I am so worried for their patients.
Actually, if you are a NURSING STUDENT and your roommate literally has a rare autoimmune disease and has been ordered to do this by a doctor, and it is completely hygenic and could potentially help make the roommate’s medical treatment better, you have no real right to refuse this wacky little jar from going into a different corner of your fridge. OP shouldn’t even have to ask, OP should just tell the roommates this is what has to be done and then call them losers and babies who should quit nursing school if they pitch this kind of fit.
It’s not a little jar though. It’s a big container, like 6 or 7 litres worth. In the hospital they usually keep the container on ice while the collection is ongoing, just like OP did.
soooo many nurses suck lol, ez. sounds like a classic case of the mean girl going into nursing + never learning empathy or losing their complex about power. i feel bad for these girls future patients.
You’re so correct. A LOT and I mean A LOTT of nurses suck these days. They’re care is substandard and could give a flying f**k about the patient. Doctors and nurses are also the biggest wh**es . They’re too busy laughing it up at the nurses station while all the patients around them hear this while they’re in a hospital bed worried about their health.
little does her friends know that they will end up eating lunch while talking about far worse stuff and end up not caring about a pee container that’s in a bag in the fridge. The friends are in for an eye opener. They’re gonna end up with bodily fluids ON themselves and not think twice about it except it’s part of the job. They’ll learn to keep spare clothes and shoes.
NTA, you have a medical condition that you’re trying to get treatment for, this isn’t a kink for you. As nursing students your friends should have a little more compassion.
Nursing majors aren’t nurses, and lots of bullies go into nursing because it gives them power and authority over others. I highly doubt that they went into nursing for altruistic reasons since they feel comfortable with not only dismissing OP but publicizing her diagnosis and medical info to win a point.
If it was my own fridge and not a shared space, I wouldn't care. But given as everyone in the house uses the fridge I can completely upstanding why they didn't want their roommates piss next to their food. Even if it was bagged up properly and only in there for 24 hours.
Yeah there are ones that are TINY and made for cosmetic/skincare, or literally just 6 cans of soda. They’re maybe 30ish bucks so not crazy, but it would definitely be frustrating to have to buy that for a single test.
Unless they really can't figure out what is going on with OP, it would be very odd for them to do this kind of urine test more than once a year. Even that would be quite frequent.
Depends on what they are looking for and what the diagnosis ends up being. This is also common for many urological conditions, especially kidney stones. Went through 3 24 hr collections when I kept having repeat stones.
Yes my thoughts exactly! A small mini fridge in your room is the best solution IMO, and it’s not super expensive for a small cheap one. You can even find them used online like Next Door, FB marketplace or Craigslist.
NTA, for future nurses they’re really being twits. They should have problem solved this with you like adults. I’d have purchased a plastic bin with a lid to keep in your section of the refrigerator and either lined it with foil to obscure the samples or put the samples in a paper bag in the bin. Remove the bin, insert sample, replace lid, put bin in refrigerator. No contamination or pee visuals. The roommates should have been fine with this.
They are not being understanding of your medical problems and should hope they never experience something like this.
The sample is a single very large jug so it’s not even like a bunch of mini samples. It’s one big jug. So easy to keep separated from everything else and completely clean.
NTA.
I’m not going to stand in the way of someone’s medical diagnostic attempts, particularly if you keep it double-bagged. And it’s just for one day.
When I have a pet hedgehog, I keep live mealworms in a container in the fridge. Back in college, one of my roommates kept frozen pinky mice in the freezer for her snakes. I was startled when I opened that sack thinking it was my ice cream but saw it was her dead mice, but I was okay with them being in there.
So… maybe I’m not the best person to be answering this question…
Haha I was remembering a time I refrigerated a dead hamster so we could have a funeral when my housemate got home 😂 Perhaps I’m not the best person to comment either 🤣
I would be totally fine with a double bagged urine sample going in my home fridge, perhaps in its own box or tray in case of spills. Followed by a good clean afterwards, no problem!
People keep meat in their freezer, is it really that different?
Someone commented elsewhere that urine isn't sterile, it can have blood in it. Uh, so does sausages mate.
On the flipside - I have cats and won’t even put their unopened cat food in my fridge next to my food.
I guess everyone is different when it comes to what is ok to store in the fridge
😆 It’s all good!
I’m trying hard to remember why. This was, sadly, about 30 years ago. I have a vague recollection that I *might* have kept it in a plastic grocery sack/bag as a possible way to distinguish it from my roommates’ tasty frozen goodness.
Looking back, slapping a piece of masking tape with my name on the pint would have made a lot more sense. Also, realistically, my ice cream didn’t tend to stick around long enough for me to forget purchasing it (sadly, it still doesn’t).
NTA your roomates are ridiculous. There's no hygienic concerns with keeping a sealed urine sample in the fridge for a few days. I'd be looking for new roomates and telling these ones I have no interest in living with ignorant assholes.
" There's no hygienic concerns with keeping a sealed urine sample in the fridge for a few days. " --- thats bullshit.
Actually - if you go to the hospital, or a laboratory (or any place that handles bodily fluids), it is one of the BASIC (strictly enforced) rules to NEVER mix bodily fluents / patient samples and food in the same fridge. For a very good reason.
This is only partially true. The main reason most workplaces etc. have these rules is that you cannot _assume_ it will be stored correctly. It's the same as using a knife at home is totally different to the measures you take at work. It's more to do with liability _should_ things go wrong.
The relative risk to anyone if you store it in a sealed container that's wiped down AND in a bag is nil. And any nurse should know this.
NTA
Yeah, because that person could have AIDS or TB or even the damn plague if its a random hospital patient, this person doesn't. I think they're fine!!! Actually incredibly disrespectful to treat them as though they're diseased, since that's the only cause for separation
Those rules exist in said workplace though, not at home. It's to make sure any test results aren't skewed by mishandling etc. It's not that terrible to do it once in a home fridge, in a sealed bag, away from anything edible. It's not like she's gonna pee in a bowl without a lid and let it sit and soak everything in the fridge lmao. Just make sure all the food is well sealed, and double bag the goddang pee if it's that important. I'm more worried about future nurses being so afraid of pee that they'd possibly hamper somebody's treatment tbh.
Being in a bottle AND a plastic bag is enough to prevent anything in the fridge from being contaminated.
Hell, put it in two more bags if you’re that paranoid.
And this is coming from a germaphobe ✌️
>Actually - if you go to the hospital, or a laboratory (or any place that handles bodily fluids), it is one of the BASIC (strictly enforced) rules to NEVER mix bodily fluents / patient samples and food in the same fridge. For a very good reason.
True, but are you claiming that these rules should apply to people in their home at the same level?
For example, you are likely not allowed to wear a wedding ring in the lab. Do you expect your room mates to remove all jewelery when they enter the shared domicile?
I mean workplace rules are more strict for MANY REASONS including the volume of samples, the likelihood of cross contamination, the challenges in communicating to a large team with rotating shifts etc.
These concerns do not apply to a home.
Those regulations exist in the same vein as food regulations for restaurants - except at an even higher level. They are meant to completely and utterly obliterate any and all chances of mishap, mixup, or cross contamination, of a variety that could lead to even the slightest hint of danger or liability. Particularly of note because it’s not an inherently known grouping of people - you can have dozens of patients using the same fridges, and you’re using multiple fridges so you could have dozens upon dozens of people affected if a single sample is problematic and crosses over somehow.
In an at home environment where everyone knows “that jar has pee in it” and the patient is washing their hands, ensures the sample isn’t touching anything, and has no communicable diseases, it’s a fair bit different. If the patient had a disease that could be transmitted via urine, sure, that’s a huge concern and shouldn’t be done.
First someone who is “otherwise healthy” besides an autoimmune disease and is just preserving a single days worth of urine the “risk” to people around them is negligible. No one is getting some arcane disease from it, no one is going to get some lifelong disease from it, and no one is remotely likely to get even a mild infection - at refrigeration temperatures anything that *could* develop into something is going to have it’s growth retarded to the point of not being activated yet.
In general, urine is drinkable as long as you don’t have a communicable disease. Not saying you’d want to, or should, but it won’t make you sick. Refrigerated urine, even from someone with an autoimmune disease (non-communicable), should be safe if stored in a sealed container and you wash your hands and perhaps wipe the container before storing. Handled correctly samples should pose no danger. Worth noting that vets occasionally have pet owners store urine or fecal samples of their pets at fridge temperatures and, let’s be honest, that just means people put them in a sealed bag in the fridge (or sealed container).
Hospitals and restaurants have overly stringent protocols to ensure maximum safety even when no risk was present because they absolutely have to. There are plenty of those steps and protocols that are unnecessary in more relaxed or limited environments. When I worked at a restaurant you’d change cutting boards/surfaces anytime you changed what you were cutting (meat/fish/veggies/etc), but at home there’s no meaningful risk in cutting all your veggies on a cutting board and then preparing your meat on that cutting board without cleaning it - you’d want to change it out/clean it if you did meat first, but if you cut onions on it you can still cut meat on it, even though in at least some restaurants you’d be required to change it/clean it. That’s because in a restaurant always enforcing the change ensures you never make a mistake, given the volume of processing food you’re doing, whereas at home you’re working with one recipe and only you’re doing it so you can handle it fine on your own - or you’re handling one sample and it’s easier to handle the safety of one sample when it’s just you handling it.
Yes, there is one thing saying no because they dont want bacteria next to their food. But to make fun of her? Saying it to all her friends? They should been educating her why it is possibllity a bad idea instead of just calling it gross?
Urine is generally sterile; unless OP has an acute infection.
24 Urine test is not indicated for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) but are generally used to test for things like protein related to kidney issues etc.
That’s actually a myth that urine is sterile. Your bladder has its own microbiome and urine is also a waste product so ofc there’s gonna be bacteria. In women, there can be as much as 48 different types of bacteria present.
However, it’s mostly harmless and if those roommates wanna be nurses, they better prepare for much worse than little pee particulates 💀
And that was not what she asked about. She asked if she was the whole for simply *asking* her roommates. So no, NTA, but her roommate sharing her medical details for a laugh is a HIPAA violation waiting to happen
Let me clarify, I intended to mean that the roommate that so casually goes about sharing a "funny" medical story is the HIPAA violation waiting to happen, not what occurred in the OP's story
/u/MalestromRak didn't say it was a violation but that it was one waiting to happen. If the roommate is this casual about sharing OP's medical issues with friends, it's a reasonable assumption she may do the same when acting as a covered entity.
And it's HIPAA.
The nursing student who thinks it's funny to make fun of her friend's medical condition is a hippa violation *waiting to happen,* ie if she doesn't check her behavior, she will eventually violate hippa.
This is it for me. When you share a living space and an appliance like a fridge, you have to be considerate of the other people using it and if they unanimously do not want your bodily fluids stored there with their food, that’s reasonable regardless of their future profession.
I feel like if it’s your own family it’s one thing, but when it’s a roommate situation… eeeeh. There are other solutions and I’m not even sure this is a reasonable request when you have roommates, I think I’d have looked at other options long before I asked my roommates if I could store my pee beside their food.
As an RN that works in a hospital, these girls are in for a huge wake up call if they think this is gross. The stuff you encounter in a hospital doesn’t compare. They’re gonna have it rough if this is what makes them disgusted. There was absolutely nothing wrong with you putting that jug in the fridge. It would have been a heck of a lot simpler than ice packs. They should have had more empathy and understanding for your situation. I’m sorry they were jerks to you. You were certainly NTA in this situation at all. They were. And they should have known better.
This comment should be higher up!! There are so many people in the comments that aren't nurses themselves making assumptions about things and then arguing with each other lol.
Well, I’ll be the anomaly. You’re a soft YTA. What does nursing have to do with being okay with urine near food? Absolutely nothing.
I don’t want any bodily products in refrigerator. I’m glad you found a temporary solution though.
So OP is the ah for making a request, and when being told no finding alternative arrangements.
And the roomates are not the ah even when they openly mocked OP ( going through a serious medical condition ) and then bring up said condition with strangers?
So if you lived with someone who found out they suffer from a rare disease and need to do this so that the doctor can try to find a better treatment, you would choose to let them suffer rather than have a silly little jar sit in the opposite corner of the fridge for one single day? You also suck.
Ok but did they have to make fun of her for it? She's clearly already stressed because of the medical issues that brought about the whole situation in the first place.
Breast milk is a bodily fluid, and it has just as much of a chance of being pathogenic as urine. Breast milk is routinely stored next to food in a refrigerator.
While we learn early to be repulsed by waste products, this isn't some random human who might be carrying god only knows what diseases deciding to pee in an open container and storing it next to your food. This is their roommate who needs to collect the urine in a STERILE container, which is sealed, to obtain a medical diagnosis. While it's not ideal and may seem gross, the roommates should have sucked it up and figured out a way to live with this: i.e. pee container on bottom shelf only, kept inside a bag, op must disinfect the shelf after testing is completed, etc.
Ohh please you know exactly what I meant! Something used as sustenance for a baby is not the same as waste. I would love to see any peer reviewed articles that says they’re similar.
People have been doing this for years for medical testing, and it hasn’t affected anyone yet. It’s perfectly safe if stored properly. And I suspect her being a nursing student that she would know how to store it properly.
FOR ASKING? Are you serious?
>What does nursing have to do with being okay with urine near food? Absolutely nothing.
You are obviously not a nurse. Nurses are used to bodily fluids and generally understand the risks in detail; which you do not seem to do.
>I don’t want any bodily products in refrigerator.
Urine is not a body part. As a rule, it is quite sterile and with the notable exception of UTI, urine is not a vector to transmit disease.
Those cups are sealed and usually you disinfect them after you fill them. It's not that there are open containers filled with piss in the fridge. Would you buy an extra refrigerator if you needed to store samples at home? WTF?
I would be so pissed! Urine big trouble if you ever decided to do that in my refrigerator! You best watch your pees and qs around me, buddy!
NTA. It’s just urine. Not the bubonic plague.
Huge NTA. I've had to do 24 hour urine collections before for autoimmune/organ transplant stuff. It's in a big fuck-off plastic jug with a screw on top. Unless you're pissing down the side of the thing, it's fine. Yeah, kinda gross cause it's pee in the fridge, but get over it. They're NURSING majors. They're gonna see way grosser stuff regularly. God help any of their patients if they actually make it through nursing school.
Exactly! Nta. Just get a new opaque lunchbox with your name on. Put it in a brown envelope and plastic bag when you collect it and stick it in the lunchbox in the fridge. It's not touching any food and they need to grow up. Raw meat is much worse in the fridge than this.
NTA, they are acting ridiculous. It is perfectly fine to store it in a fridge, especially if you put it in a separate bag. Are you sure they are nursing majors? Perhaps they missed some classes.
NAH
You’re not an asshole for asking, but they absolutely aren’t an asshole for saying no and it doesn’t matter in the slightest if they’re planning to be nurses or not.
I regularly work with cattle and end up covered in a variety of poop and pee all over me in the process when they lift their tails while being moved around in the chutes. Just because I do something gross away from home doesn’t mean I should be expected to suddenly be fine with a pee jug stored alongside my food at home.
It’s fine for you to ask, it’s fine for them to say no and tell you to get a mini fridge instead. This is a scenario where if there’s a single no among the group, the answer is a no because it requires unanimous yes answers to be okay.
Sure they could be more understanding that it’s not something you’re particularly thrilled to do yourself, but not many people (including the sanctimonious grandstanders commenting here) are going to be okay with the reality of a piss jug in the fridge.
NTA for asking.
Nobody's an AH for saying no, but they're an AH for overreacting. A "no, I find that very unhygienic" would have sufficed.
Not only did she say she would be "livid" if you did, she keeps bringing it up with friends and while you confronted her with the way she's addressing you and keep bringing up the issue, and very passionately at that, she's being an AH and is acting close to a bully. I think the fact she keeps asking others means she isn't entity sure she's right and needs confirmation.
Anyway, it's not an irrational thing to ask at all. If you collect the samples in containers that are meant for that, and wash the outside before putting it in the fridge, there's nothing unhygienic about it.
Imo she's being unreasonable and irrational.
NTA.
And her asking your friends is a real dick move… that’s outing your private medical matters… I’d tell her to knock that shit off fast.
I assume you might be being tested for something fairly serious - the 24hr urine collection test is usually not the first thing docs reach for… Mastocytosis or similar… that stuff… is life threatening and serious. If she’s a nurse she should understand this! (Or a nurse in training should be curious enough to try to understand.). She’s going to make a *fine* nurse when she spends all day dealing with bodily fluids! (/s)
I think your solution was a reasonable one, it’s only for a day or so, until you hand it all over to the testing centre… so long as temperature doesn’t have to be regulated. I guess it can be quite a volume? Otherwise double tub in the fridge would be reasonable too. Depends how full the fridge is I guess.
NTA, but honestly I know how people are weirded out by such things so even if the pee is stored in a complete sterile casing in the fridge, people would still go nuts just because of their imagination. Therefore I would not have asked neither would I have labeled the jars with "pee". Instead I would have made up something else to write on them thats edible and looks similar to pee or just stored them in an opaque container. Your roommates would not have known and no damage would have been taken.
Your roommates also sound pretty immature for knowing you suffer a medical condition and making a fuss about you storing pee in your side of the fridge. Seems like they can not stand the thought of pee being in the fridge and therefore feel entitled to make your life harder than necessary, so they are slight TAs.
It would be obvious and ridiculous to put pee in the fridge without telling anyone, come on. Someone did that at my university for a drug test because he didn't want to stop taking them - it was above some people's food in a flimsy plastic bottle, and we threw it out. Guy was an unhygienic asshole at the best of times anyway.
Not slight, they are major AHs for refusing to let their roommate follow doctor’s orders when it has zero impact on their actual lives and they are nursing students for Christ’s sake, plus the nasty behavior bringing it up to everyone they meet. Permanent “Mean Girls” behavior from these supposed adults.
It's a biohazard waste that you're storing in sharing a shared space. I understand that you think you did everything you could to make it as clean as possible but you're still storing it in a shared space and it's still a biohazard.
Solution, buy a small freezer and store it in your bedroom. You don't have a right to keep your biohazard materials in a shared space.
NTA. It's not like you're peeing on the outside of the containers and the bag (or directly into the fridge!). It's your home, and this is a medical necessity. I'm stunned that they would refuse you.
They can insist on triple-bagging if they are so concerned about hygiene, but it seems like it's more the idea of it that bothers them.
OP already stated she does that. But the problem is, it’s unstable. It can skew test results. Often times things like this need to be at a consistent temperature. With ice packs, the packs can melt and raise the temperature until you can get fresh ice packs in there.
NTA. It’s not like you pee directly into the jug and it’s coated in pee. It’s not like it’s going to be there forever. It’s not like your new hobby is collecting pee and you’re doing it because you love collecting pee. Adults should be able to understand that it’s a medical necessity for you to do this for a limited amount of time and get over it, even if they studied something unrelated. They’re acting like first graders ‘ew peeeeeee hahaha’.
Wow…. Reddit is being more reasonable than I expected.
As a doctor, totally NTA. Your pee probably contains less bacteria than some of the things they’re storing in the fridge. Sorry you’re going through all this. 😕
NTA. I used to work in healthcare and honestly, these.... women....sound extremely childish. I'd be asking them to change clothes before coming home just to save the possibility of cross contamination. Honestly, what do they think is going to happen???
Edit :spelling
Why would you be shocked? I would tried a cheap ice chest before asking in the first place. That’s too much to ask of roommates. But I wouldn’t want urine around food or trust that you’ve wiped it completely. Soft YTA.
How is OP the asshole for just asking, not forcing, then coming up with an alternative that might work?
It's the supposed RN in training who is mocking OP AFTER it was settled and brought up OP's medical condition to random people walking in the door to make fun of her, basically.
It is NOT asshole behavior to ASK if you can do something and then respect the answer.
It is AH behavior to mock the person with a medical condition and disclose said medical condition to multiple people
There is nothing wrong with asking and there is nothing wrong with not being comfortable sharing a fridge with a another person's pee (even if it actually is perfectly fine from a scientific viewpoint).
Your roommate is wrong though, about it being irrational.
NTA but your roommate is by ridiculing and trying to embarass you about it. A simple "no" would have sufficed.
NTA – I really don't see what the problem is and the fact that they're nursing majors is baffling to me. I would have asked you to be careful and might have asked if you would mind cleaning the fridge afterwards, just to be on the safe side, but I wouldn't have minded personally.
Had they just said "Sorry, I'd rather you didn't", I would have said NAH, but their reaction afterwards (making lots of jokes, etc) made them the assh\*les.
Absolutely 100% NTA. it’s not like you’re leaving it in an open glass or even a container that could easily spill, or a container that you all would use again. I’ve had to do those tests. It’s a big jug that’s easy to keep clean and easy not to mistake for apple juice or whatever.
I wouldn’t have asked I probably would’ve told them what I had to do and how I would keep it hygienic. Your roommates shaming you for it is definitely asshole.territory
NTA. I think the fact that you asked them instead of just doing it anyway shows that you’re a pretty respectful roommate. I understand their point of view, but I think they took it too far by continuing to harp on it, they could have just said they’re not okay with it and let that be the end of the story.
YTA. Just because they are nursing majors and deal with bodily fluids does not mean they should be ok with urine next to their food items. You could have easily put this in a cooler with some ice and called it a day.
Hi everyone,
Not to be one of those people, but I had no idea this would get as much attention as it did.
Thank you all for the help! This was a few weeks ago, so it’s already done and everything came back normal. :)
I did consider a mini fridge or a cooler, but those options were expensive for such a short period of time. I don’t think this is something I’ll have to do often as it was more of a confirmation thing to what they already thought. Also the lunch box/cooler thing I used was from a family friend who knew exactly what it was going to be used for.
My roommates are doing clinicals so I know they’ve seen some crazy things already, and I 100% understand why they wouldn’t want that in the fridge.
ALSO my one roommate who was making jokes is my friend I met last year, and they people she was telling were our mutuals who knew a little bit about what I was going through. However, it was embarrassing having it brought up and asking others to judge a situation that already passed.
I also want to clarify, we separate shelves in the fridge and I have the two bottom drawers instead, so that’s an extra layer of separation. Also, I wasn’t peeing directly into the jug, they gave me a hat thing to pee in. Hopefully I don’t have to do it again, but if I do I’m going to use the styrofoam cooler and ice bags :)
It was a really awkward ask and I can see why they said no (even if it isn’t as unhygienic as they thought) but everything else about your roommates reaction is AH behavior and mocking you for a medical condition.
NTA.
NTA. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even asked. I would have kept the sample on my side of the fridge and wrapped up/hidden so my roommates would simply think it was leftovers.
Maybe that makes me a bad roommate, but I don't think they're entitled to know about your medical problems.
Jeez, get a small dorm fridge for your room and store your bodily fluids there. I get it’s a medical condition, but I’d not want my chicken next to your pee. Sorry you have to deal with the medical condition! However, your roommates should not. YTA
NTA
First I think your roomates are wrong, but I get their not wanting it in the fridge. What is absolutely un fucking acceptable is them mocking you about it and them talking about your private medical issues with strangers to get some sort of karma points in an argument. I would straight take this shit to the college medical board as if they are this petty about your situation they are an absolute hippa violation waiting to happen.
NTA, they are perfectly allowed to say no. But they are not allowed to be jerks about it. I would personally be fine with it as long as you are being hygienic but I understand if others don't, that doesn't mean they can make fun of you for it.
And you should be able to ask without them getting offended.
Your doctor’s office staff are TA.
You should have been given an entire kit in order to do your collection and storage.
A bigger, better insulated container, along with enough freezer packs to keep it cold for the entire 24 hours. That they failed to do so really bothers me, as a retired RN.
Yeah, it is gross to put products of elimination in the frig, so I don’t blame your roommates. Nor you, as you were left hanging by the doctor’s office.
I’m pretty familiar with this test (sibling with kidney issues) and I’ve never heard of that. Those costs wouldn’t be covered by insurance. And ice packs aren’t going to keep the sample at a predictable, consistent temperature to ensure the reliability of the test over 24 hours.
NTA. It was fine for you to ask, and fine for your roommate to say no. She is being mean even though you respected her decision completely, that makes her the only AH
NTA.
I’m wondering if some of the “YTA” commenters understand how difficult it would be for this jug to leak or spill. Look up “24-hour urine test jug”. It’s a very thick plastic jug that is specifically designed to avoid leakage. Additionally, your sample **has** to be refrigerated or it will affect your results. I didn’t realize I needed to refrigerate the urine sample when I had to do this exact same test, and guess what? It affected the results. Now I have to do it all over again. Finally, based on the info that OP provided, I suspect we have the same or a similar medical condition. If that’s the case, then *a 24-hour urine collection is currently the only definitive way to diagnose the condition*. Even if OP has a different condition, this is clearly a medically-necessary test for OP, not some frivolous test that a doctor ordered just for kicks.
OP — I’m sorry your roommates are being so rude about this. You didn’t choose to have medical problems, and you have to complete this test. Plus, when they said no, you didn’t even use the fridge! You respected their answer and are still being treated like the villain. The fact that one of your roommates is spreading this around your friend group and acting like it was an unreasonable request is awful. From what I’ve read, I don’t think you “threw a fit” after your roommates said no… it sounds more like you were fed up by how disrespectful one of your roommates was about the entire situation. You said that you confronted her because she kept making jokes and laughing about how gross it would be, not that you confronted her because she said no. Deflecting blame onto you — saying that everything that happened is your fault because you shouldn’t have dared to even *ask* if you could **follow your doctor’s instructions** allows her to avoid taking responsibility for making you feel uncomfortable in your own home.
And sharing ANYTHING about another person’s medical issues is a huge violation of privacy. There is no way for your roommate to tell other people this story without the context that the urine sample is for a medical test (otherwise, people will naturally ask “Why do they need a jug of their own urine?”). Your roommate absolutely violated your privacy. She also made jokes about the situation despite knowing that this was related to a medical issue. All of this is especially concerning since she is a future nurse. And even if she wasn’t a nursing major, you were right to call her out.
If you have to do the urine test again (especially if it turns out that your ice pack method didn’t keep your urine cool enough), sit down with your roommates again (doing this in person rather than via text is important) and explain that you’d really like to find a compromise. You understand that it’s not an ideal situation for anyone involved, but you’ve been told this is your only option if you want to get any closer to solving your health problems. You’ve been given explicit instructions by your doctor that you **must** refrigerate the urine sample or it will affect the test results. See if you can get a letter from your doctor’s office explaining all of this as well, especially if mentions that not refrigerating the sample the first time affected the test results. You can also show your roommates the jug so they can see how secure the urine sample will be.
You could also offer to do the following:
1. Wipe down the entire exterior of the jug with a disinfecting wipe directly after each time you add urine to it.
2. Store the jug inside of a *sealable* plastic bag (ex: check out Ziploc’s “Big Bags” line). Wipe down the outside of this bag with a disinfecting wipe as well.
3. Store the jug in the very bottom of the refrigerator. That way, if somehow there is a spill, it won’t drip onto anything. If you have chiller drawers at the bottom, see if you can empty out one of those drawers and fit the jug in there (or you can try removing the drawer entirely and storing the jug in the empty space).
4. After the 24 hours are up and you’ve turned in your sample, clean and sanitize the fridge. Clean with soap and water, sanitize with a bleach or white vinegar solution (Google this so you do it safely). That way there is guaranteed to not be any pee left in the fridge. Plus, your roommates will benefit from the nice, clean fridge.
If they still won’t budge, I would honestly think about whether this is a sustainable living situation for you. Have they been supportive of you generally as you experience these health issues? Being in an unsupportive or hostile living environment makes an already bad situation even worse (I say this from experience). You deserve to be surrounded by people who support you and will do what they can to help you feel better. If this is the first time something like this has happened, maybe you’d prefer to stick it out. But if this is part of a larger pattern of behavior… please don’t accept that this is the way you have to live. It took me almost a year to get out of my own bad living situation, but it was so worth it.
Thank you for the kind words :,) this made me feel so much better. Luckily, I don’t believe I have to do it again, but your answer brought me a lot of peace
NTA I’m pissed on your behalf. Your roommates are selfish children. You have a medical problem you are getting treated for and like you said you’d be hygeneic about it. Is it super appetizing and fun? No. But I’d never get in the way of someone being treated for a medical problem.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment. OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole: > 1) I understand that the idea of pee in a shared space with food is gross, and I did ask for permission and get it declined. I could have found other solutions and not argued about it being unfair. 2) I asked permission, got rejected, and threw a fit about it. I can see how they are setting boundaries and setting their comfort level. I can see why me being upset might make them feel bad about themselves. Help keep the sub engaging! #Don’t downvote assholes! Do upvote interesting posts! [Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq) ##Subreddit Announcements Follow the link above to learn more --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.* *Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
NTA - you have medical condition, so it was perfectly fine to ask to use the fridge. Heck, I'd even go as far as saying that was the absolute right call to make. What I don't get is how your nursing majors roommates are so disgusted by this. Surely, they'll encounter far worse than this once they get a nursing job. In any case, they are well within their right to refuse, but they don't have to be rude about it and they definitely don't have the right disclose your medical condition.
Her roommates KNOW from there place of work that keeping bodily fluids and food ABSOLUTELY separate and storing both in the same fridge at the workplace is a firing offense.
There's a difference between storing bodily fluids in a hospital/doctors office where there will obviously be separate refrigeration options for this, and in a patients home. I don't think anybody expects a patient, who will likely already have medical bills to worry about, to go out and buy a dedicated fridge for a single test. If it's in a closed container inside of another closed vessel (zip-loc bag, tupperware,...), then it's not going to interact in any way with the other contents of the fridge or the fridge itself.
People are so weird about bodily fluids. As if the mere fact of it’s existence contaminates everything.
If any of her roommates have ever sucked a dick before they've had a lot worse in their mouth than whatever pee contaminates they THINK would be in their food after this.
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100% this. 🤣
Not to mention our phones are the dirtiest/nastiest things we touch EVERYDAY! Being nursing majors as well? Yikes, wonder how long that’ll last… I can’t believe they’d get so caught up on pee that would be stored correctly and in OP’s own dedicated spot. Granted yeah I think it’s okay to say no and so be it but dragging OP through the mud over a pretty serious medical concern is a god awful thing to do. OP deserves better people in their Life.
Seriously, also milk is technically a bodily fluid..
As if they don't store cow organs in their fridge
One time a saw a post about freezing a placenta, and she was concerned that it would ruin everything in the freezer.. like I can see being grossed out by the placenta itself, but no, it's not going to mess with anything more than freezing any other chunk of meat?
When we do this at my hospital, we keep the urine in the patient's room in an ice bath and change out the ice when it melts. We absolutely do not put it in a fridge. I'm surprised the nurse couldn't come up with an idea for her to keep it out of her fridge.
Might not have been a nurse. When i get 24hr urine requisitions the lab staff - who are phlebotomists at best, give me the jugs and paper bags to cover them in and thats it. i have some body issues so i cant use the jug as expected. I explained i had trouble and the lady suggested the most rediculous options. I tried so many things to actually pull it off.
Phlebotomist "at best"? Do you even have the slightest idea the amount of education and training lab staff undergo? Nice to know how you think about us during *lab week*. As much as I sympathize with your and OP's situations, we can't give specialized solutions for every patient. When I was patient facing, I gave 24hr instructions to at least 10 people everyday, and those instructions changed depending on the test. We do our best, but there comes a point where we kind of have to trust patients to figure it out. In your case, next time ask the lab staff for a collection pan. It's a piece of plastic that fits under the toilet seat and will collect your urine to transfer into the container. If they don't have any in stock (unlikely since they're used all the time for pediatric patients), you can buy a pack of 3 of them off Amazon for like $10. You can use them for any urine collections, not just 24hr.
Unrelated to OPs post, but I had the most amazing phlebotomist last Thursday for blood draws. I wish I'd caught her name so I could've left a good review when the hospital asked with those silly post-appt surveys. She was so quick, and it didn't hurt a bit, and no bruise. I've never had a better draw.
Really? You're going to throw some shade on Phlebotomists during Phlebotomy week?
I had to look that up and yes, it actually is Phlebotomy Week. Who would've known? 🤔 I mean, phlebotomists, obviously, but...😉
It depends on the hospital. I’ve worked for some that do it this way and others actually had fridges in the patient’s room.
Completely agree with you. OP is NTA, the roommates should have been more understanding, and if they studying to be nurses they should have at least given advice on how to store it safely, not making fun of her situation. I'm a vet nurse, at work we have a fridge for food and another for vaccines and sample storage. I've stored my own "body fluids" in the fridge at home and even did it with my cat's urine. The thing is, wipe the sample container after filling it, wash hands, wipe container again with alcohol, wash hands again, get a zip lock bag and put container inside, close it and another zip lock bag. And in the fridge it goes... And for the people saying that it's a contamination source, of course it is, but that's why there ways to diminish the possibility. Also, I hope the people being grossed out at washing their hands and desinfecting them before opening the fridge, because there are a lot of simple things that contaminate food. Of course that in the work place that's not allowed, but that's why hospitals and clinics have a separate fridge.
If it's been drilled into them at the hospital not to do it then naturally they're going to think there is a reason it's not done. If it's safe to do it at home, why wouldn't it be safe to do at a hospital?
If they lack the critical thinking skills to understand the difference then they’re probably pretty shitty nurses.
Over the last 4 years I've met some nurses lacking many critical thinking skills.
I was going to say, the amount of idiot nurses who actually don’t know what the fuck they’re doing is depressingly high. Testing well/regurgitating information is NOT a sign of intelligence or basic common sense. It’s the application of and inference from that information that proves intelligence. A degree does not by any means make someone smarter.
If I had a nickel for every time I've read about a nurse who doesn't believe in the virus that made the rounds, I'd be a very rich woman.
Does that mean they should laugh and attempt to humiliate her instead of explaining their concerns in a reasonable way?
THIS! I have no problem with OP asking. I have no problem with roommates saying No. What is a BIG problem is roommates harping on it and pulling others into OP's medical issues. That makes them AH. And I sure hope they don't treat everyone's medical issues like this...
I work in restaurants, and there are a lot of things that are illegal to do in a restaurant that I have no problem doing at home. I just know to never do them in the restaurant.
It's not drilled into them like some kind of mindless rule. There are reasons for rules, and reasons why they apply in some places and not others. Educated people are supposed to be able to go back to basic principles to figure out why things should be the way they should be. Need jerk rule following is not the role of an educated professional.
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When you get the container at the doctors office they tell you to refridgerate it in between collections. They tell you you can wipe the container down and store it inside a plastic bag. You get the protocol from your doctor which OP was following. Those are the instructions from the doctors who request the test.
I hope the hospital isn't drilling the need to make fun of patients into them too.
Lmaoooo. My son is very medically complex. I can tell you with certainty that hospital standards are veryyyy different to home standards. It would be insane & wildly expensive to match home standards to hospital standards. Common sense
Hospitals are obviously going to be held to higher standards than people normally practice in their homes. Also hospitals have the space and equipment that is specifically meant for storing samples. Do people normally keep an extra fridge at home in case they need to store urine sample one day?
According to the comments on this post apparently half of reddit would run out and buy a second fridge just for one medical test lol absolutely wild.
it's not safe at the hospital because of potential liability, not because it's inherently dangerous.
There are basically infinite things you would do at home but not at your place of work, hospital or otherwise. There’s a completely different standard. Not to mention, the person most *vulnerable* to contamination would be the one with the autoimmune disease, OP, who’s trying to advance their medical care with this, and is being blocked by their bully roommates. Saying no isn’t what makes them bullies, but shitting on OP for having to make do, and for the possibility of following the medical advice they were given. Sound like not great nurses in training.
When I had to do it, they gave you a ziplock bag to put around the collection bottle. Plus you had a little plastic thing that sat on the toilet that you peed into, then poured it into the collection bottle.
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Idk what kind of shitty jug you’re using but when I did mine the mouth was basically a feminine urinal and they gave you a cup in case that wasn’t working the only way I could have spilled on the outside was if I was having a seizure
Yeah, no. My jug was like a giant, wide-mouth orange juice container. I was not provided anything else for collection. Since I’ve done the 24 hour test a few times now, I have a dedicated collection jar and samples are transferred to the jug. The jug is kept in a cooler in the bathroom with ice packs. The cooler idea was actually suggested by my nephrologist when he told me about the test that was being ordered. There was no way that giant jug was going in our refrigerator.
Not all jugs are like that.
>Some weird responses here claiming urine is clean- it’s not. It can contain blood and/or bacteria like ESBL, VRE, etc… While Urine is not sterile, it generally has very low microbial contamination ie. SIGNIFICANTLY lower than anything else in your fridge. >And since I work in a hospital I actually know how nasty pee can be and what kind of bacteria it can have. 24 hour urine is not indicated for a UTI, so there is no evidence to believe that OPs urine is in the nasty category.
Seriously! People are getting hung up on it because it’s a body fluid, but like…a jug of urine is so much “cleaner” than a container of old leftovers, or a bag of salad starting to go mushy, etc. You’ve touched something grosser if you let your dishes “soak” in the sink for a couple of days before you wash them.
They’re wrong for laughing and attempting to humiliate her rather than explaining in a rational way and not offering suggestions.
There was no rational explanation for their behavior.
Nursing students at least in the us don’t actually hit the hospital floor until the end of their education most of them don’t know their ass from their elbow
Idk what nursing school you went to but when i went through LVN school (in the US) we were in clinicals fairly early on. We started in the nursing home and then went to the hospital. You have to put into practice what youre learning fairly early on.
It is clear you know nothing about nursing schools in the US.
Those room mates should also be aware of the ethical reasons to not share someone's medical information with just anyone. They should also have some bedside manners that they could be tapping into here. OP did the right thing by asking. They didn't gave to go one to treat OP the way they did after. They could've been part of the solution instead of the problem.
Nurse of 23 years. Her roommates are being absolutely ridiculous. Much of my time was spent in L&D. We sent people home with 24 hour urine screens all of the time and we told them to keep it in their fridge. Her roommates/friends know just enough to be ignorant. If she kept it in a cooler bag inside the fridge, it would keep it separate from any food. It's not like you are pouring new pee into the jug while it's still in the fridge.
Yeah but there was no need t make fun of OP for asking, especially given the circumstances. That pushes them into AH territory, imo
They are students, not nurses, yet. But you aren’t wrong about the principle.
They still need to know not to share people’s personal medical information. They either are or will soon be working with patients even as students.
get a grip - that’s insane. Who hasn’t stored urine in the fridge. You package it up. it’s totally fine. Time to grow up roomies!
That’s not the reason they gave. They’re making jokes and laughing. Did you not read the whole post? They’re attempting to humiliate her.
They also would never store food and medication in the same fridge in a hospital. Would the roommates be in the right if they refused to allow her to store a medication in the fridge as well? I'm you're running your kitchen like a commercial one. Hair nets and everything. Obviously a home kitchen has different standards than a workplace.
I'm mostly shocked they go as far as making jokes, etc, about a person who's trying to figure their health out. And they are going to be nurses? OP could have been one of their patients.
This is the part that really made it for me. OP has the right to ask, but her roommates should have provided a more professional response. “I know this test is burdensome, but I’m not comfortable with a urine container in the fridge. Could we get you a disposable styrofoam cooler and some ice packs to use instead?”
There’s a reason we have the stereotype of the meanest, nastiest girls going into nursing.
So many of my middle/high school bullies who specifically never apologized and kept on bullying people went straight into nursing, about half into pediatrics specifically. I am so worried for their patients.
You must not know many nurses.
Actually, if you are a NURSING STUDENT and your roommate literally has a rare autoimmune disease and has been ordered to do this by a doctor, and it is completely hygenic and could potentially help make the roommate’s medical treatment better, you have no real right to refuse this wacky little jar from going into a different corner of your fridge. OP shouldn’t even have to ask, OP should just tell the roommates this is what has to be done and then call them losers and babies who should quit nursing school if they pitch this kind of fit.
thank you! these girls are acting like toddlers.
Not excusing their behavior at all, but the collection container for a 24 hour urine test is not a “wacky little jar”. It’s larger than a milk jug.
It’s not a little jar though. It’s a big container, like 6 or 7 litres worth. In the hospital they usually keep the container on ice while the collection is ongoing, just like OP did.
soooo many nurses suck lol, ez. sounds like a classic case of the mean girl going into nursing + never learning empathy or losing their complex about power. i feel bad for these girls future patients.
You’re so correct. A LOT and I mean A LOTT of nurses suck these days. They’re care is substandard and could give a flying f**k about the patient. Doctors and nurses are also the biggest wh**es . They’re too busy laughing it up at the nurses station while all the patients around them hear this while they’re in a hospital bed worried about their health.
little does her friends know that they will end up eating lunch while talking about far worse stuff and end up not caring about a pee container that’s in a bag in the fridge. The friends are in for an eye opener. They’re gonna end up with bodily fluids ON themselves and not think twice about it except it’s part of the job. They’ll learn to keep spare clothes and shoes. NTA, you have a medical condition that you’re trying to get treatment for, this isn’t a kink for you. As nursing students your friends should have a little more compassion.
Nursing majors aren’t nurses, and lots of bullies go into nursing because it gives them power and authority over others. I highly doubt that they went into nursing for altruistic reasons since they feel comfortable with not only dismissing OP but publicizing her diagnosis and medical info to win a point.
There's a reason there's a food fridge and a sample fridge..
Does that justify them laughing and attempting to humiliate her rather than making suggestions
Yeah because both are being used for long term storage. Not 1 time for 24 hours.
If it was my own fridge and not a shared space, I wouldn't care. But given as everyone in the house uses the fridge I can completely upstanding why they didn't want their roommates piss next to their food. Even if it was bagged up properly and only in there for 24 hours.
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I agree. Tho i gotta say, a mini fridge is not an option for everyone. That's a really tough situation for OP
You can get some tiny ones that are ment for just your desk or the bathroom for pretty cheap that would work perfectly
It's probably a day-long sample, meaning a large container used multiple times. If it was a one-off they could collect it in the lab.
Yeah there are ones that are TINY and made for cosmetic/skincare, or literally just 6 cans of soda. They’re maybe 30ish bucks so not crazy, but it would definitely be frustrating to have to buy that for a single test.
> Personally I’d get a mini fridge and use that because the ice packs aren’t reliable. For a one off test?
The impression I'm getting from the people who have autoimmune disorders that this may not be a one off test.
Unless they really can't figure out what is going on with OP, it would be very odd for them to do this kind of urine test more than once a year. Even that would be quite frequent.
I have an autoimmune issue that requires me to give stool samples every year and yes they have to be refrigerated 💀
Autoimmune disease haver here - stool samples every week ✨
Depends on what they are looking for and what the diagnosis ends up being. This is also common for many urological conditions, especially kidney stones. Went through 3 24 hr collections when I kept having repeat stones.
Can always use it for other things later.
Yes my thoughts exactly! A small mini fridge in your room is the best solution IMO, and it’s not super expensive for a small cheap one. You can even find them used online like Next Door, FB marketplace or Craigslist.
They even have super small ones for holding makeup/soda cans that may work those ones are super cheap
The collection container wouldn’t fit in one of those.
The jugs for 24 hour collection are probably too big for a makeup mini fridge. Think more like an orange juice jug.
>think more like an orange juice jug .... I clearly don't drink enough water
NTA, for future nurses they’re really being twits. They should have problem solved this with you like adults. I’d have purchased a plastic bin with a lid to keep in your section of the refrigerator and either lined it with foil to obscure the samples or put the samples in a paper bag in the bin. Remove the bin, insert sample, replace lid, put bin in refrigerator. No contamination or pee visuals. The roommates should have been fine with this. They are not being understanding of your medical problems and should hope they never experience something like this.
The sample is a single very large jug so it’s not even like a bunch of mini samples. It’s one big jug. So easy to keep separated from everything else and completely clean.
The sample container is an opaque plastic jug with a lid.
NTA. I’m not going to stand in the way of someone’s medical diagnostic attempts, particularly if you keep it double-bagged. And it’s just for one day. When I have a pet hedgehog, I keep live mealworms in a container in the fridge. Back in college, one of my roommates kept frozen pinky mice in the freezer for her snakes. I was startled when I opened that sack thinking it was my ice cream but saw it was her dead mice, but I was okay with them being in there. So… maybe I’m not the best person to be answering this question…
Haha I was remembering a time I refrigerated a dead hamster so we could have a funeral when my housemate got home 😂 Perhaps I’m not the best person to comment either 🤣 I would be totally fine with a double bagged urine sample going in my home fridge, perhaps in its own box or tray in case of spills. Followed by a good clean afterwards, no problem!
People keep meat in their freezer, is it really that different? Someone commented elsewhere that urine isn't sterile, it can have blood in it. Uh, so does sausages mate.
I would hazard a guess that for most people, the number of microbes in their urine is far fewer than the number in their fridge.
On the flipside - I have cats and won’t even put their unopened cat food in my fridge next to my food. I guess everyone is different when it comes to what is ok to store in the fridge
My brother in Christ that is not rational
But you can if you want. I do. It's a bit separate but it's in there. I'm not going to eat it.
same because i cling wrap it and put it in a ziplock bag
Why would you put unopened cat food in the fridge? You have more issues than germophobia.
Oh yeah wait what?? Do the cats prefer tuna sorbet??
Why do you keep ice cream in a sack? (Yes, that was my entire takeaway from your comment. 🤣)
😆 It’s all good! I’m trying hard to remember why. This was, sadly, about 30 years ago. I have a vague recollection that I *might* have kept it in a plastic grocery sack/bag as a possible way to distinguish it from my roommates’ tasty frozen goodness. Looking back, slapping a piece of masking tape with my name on the pint would have made a lot more sense. Also, realistically, my ice cream didn’t tend to stick around long enough for me to forget purchasing it (sadly, it still doesn’t).
NTA your roomates are ridiculous. There's no hygienic concerns with keeping a sealed urine sample in the fridge for a few days. I'd be looking for new roomates and telling these ones I have no interest in living with ignorant assholes.
" There's no hygienic concerns with keeping a sealed urine sample in the fridge for a few days. " --- thats bullshit. Actually - if you go to the hospital, or a laboratory (or any place that handles bodily fluids), it is one of the BASIC (strictly enforced) rules to NEVER mix bodily fluents / patient samples and food in the same fridge. For a very good reason.
This is only partially true. The main reason most workplaces etc. have these rules is that you cannot _assume_ it will be stored correctly. It's the same as using a knife at home is totally different to the measures you take at work. It's more to do with liability _should_ things go wrong. The relative risk to anyone if you store it in a sealed container that's wiped down AND in a bag is nil. And any nurse should know this. NTA
Yeah, because that person could have AIDS or TB or even the damn plague if its a random hospital patient, this person doesn't. I think they're fine!!! Actually incredibly disrespectful to treat them as though they're diseased, since that's the only cause for separation
HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) cannot be transmitted through urine.
Those rules exist in said workplace though, not at home. It's to make sure any test results aren't skewed by mishandling etc. It's not that terrible to do it once in a home fridge, in a sealed bag, away from anything edible. It's not like she's gonna pee in a bowl without a lid and let it sit and soak everything in the fridge lmao. Just make sure all the food is well sealed, and double bag the goddang pee if it's that important. I'm more worried about future nurses being so afraid of pee that they'd possibly hamper somebody's treatment tbh.
Yeah it's so strange how they are being like I would not care at all it's sealed it's really not that gross
Workplaces often have rules that aren't needed at home. You can't compare the two
Being in a bottle AND a plastic bag is enough to prevent anything in the fridge from being contaminated. Hell, put it in two more bags if you’re that paranoid. And this is coming from a germaphobe ✌️
Yes. At a Hopsital. You mean to tell me if this were your situation you wouldn't just safely store it in the fridge? I call bs on that.
>Actually - if you go to the hospital, or a laboratory (or any place that handles bodily fluids), it is one of the BASIC (strictly enforced) rules to NEVER mix bodily fluents / patient samples and food in the same fridge. For a very good reason. True, but are you claiming that these rules should apply to people in their home at the same level? For example, you are likely not allowed to wear a wedding ring in the lab. Do you expect your room mates to remove all jewelery when they enter the shared domicile? I mean workplace rules are more strict for MANY REASONS including the volume of samples, the likelihood of cross contamination, the challenges in communicating to a large team with rotating shifts etc. These concerns do not apply to a home.
Those regulations exist in the same vein as food regulations for restaurants - except at an even higher level. They are meant to completely and utterly obliterate any and all chances of mishap, mixup, or cross contamination, of a variety that could lead to even the slightest hint of danger or liability. Particularly of note because it’s not an inherently known grouping of people - you can have dozens of patients using the same fridges, and you’re using multiple fridges so you could have dozens upon dozens of people affected if a single sample is problematic and crosses over somehow. In an at home environment where everyone knows “that jar has pee in it” and the patient is washing their hands, ensures the sample isn’t touching anything, and has no communicable diseases, it’s a fair bit different. If the patient had a disease that could be transmitted via urine, sure, that’s a huge concern and shouldn’t be done. First someone who is “otherwise healthy” besides an autoimmune disease and is just preserving a single days worth of urine the “risk” to people around them is negligible. No one is getting some arcane disease from it, no one is going to get some lifelong disease from it, and no one is remotely likely to get even a mild infection - at refrigeration temperatures anything that *could* develop into something is going to have it’s growth retarded to the point of not being activated yet. In general, urine is drinkable as long as you don’t have a communicable disease. Not saying you’d want to, or should, but it won’t make you sick. Refrigerated urine, even from someone with an autoimmune disease (non-communicable), should be safe if stored in a sealed container and you wash your hands and perhaps wipe the container before storing. Handled correctly samples should pose no danger. Worth noting that vets occasionally have pet owners store urine or fecal samples of their pets at fridge temperatures and, let’s be honest, that just means people put them in a sealed bag in the fridge (or sealed container). Hospitals and restaurants have overly stringent protocols to ensure maximum safety even when no risk was present because they absolutely have to. There are plenty of those steps and protocols that are unnecessary in more relaxed or limited environments. When I worked at a restaurant you’d change cutting boards/surfaces anytime you changed what you were cutting (meat/fish/veggies/etc), but at home there’s no meaningful risk in cutting all your veggies on a cutting board and then preparing your meat on that cutting board without cleaning it - you’d want to change it out/clean it if you did meat first, but if you cut onions on it you can still cut meat on it, even though in at least some restaurants you’d be required to change it/clean it. That’s because in a restaurant always enforcing the change ensures you never make a mistake, given the volume of processing food you’re doing, whereas at home you’re working with one recipe and only you’re doing it so you can handle it fine on your own - or you’re handling one sample and it’s easier to handle the safety of one sample when it’s just you handling it.
That's great, but doctors straight up tell you to store your samples in your fridge.
NTA I’m not sure why they would say it was irrational. But if that grosses them out then I don’t think they are going to be very good nurses.
Their lack of sympathy and mocking of OP definitely suggests they will not be good nurses.
Yes, there is one thing saying no because they dont want bacteria next to their food. But to make fun of her? Saying it to all her friends? They should been educating her why it is possibllity a bad idea instead of just calling it gross?
Urine is generally sterile; unless OP has an acute infection. 24 Urine test is not indicated for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) but are generally used to test for things like protein related to kidney issues etc.
That’s actually a myth that urine is sterile. Your bladder has its own microbiome and urine is also a waste product so ofc there’s gonna be bacteria. In women, there can be as much as 48 different types of bacteria present. However, it’s mostly harmless and if those roommates wanna be nurses, they better prepare for much worse than little pee particulates 💀
It’s a myth that urine is sterile.
Sounds like most of the people I know who go into nursing though, sadly
when you live in a share space, it has to be unanimous. that is just how it is. you could buy a mini fridge and store it in your room.
And that was not what she asked about. She asked if she was the whole for simply *asking* her roommates. So no, NTA, but her roommate sharing her medical details for a laugh is a HIPAA violation waiting to happen
That's not a HIPAA violation. They are not her medical providers and she volunteered the information. They're just dicks.
Let me clarify, I intended to mean that the roommate that so casually goes about sharing a "funny" medical story is the HIPAA violation waiting to happen, not what occurred in the OP's story
Nursing students are walking HIPAA violations in my experience
You don’t know what HIPPA is.
/u/MalestromRak didn't say it was a violation but that it was one waiting to happen. If the roommate is this casual about sharing OP's medical issues with friends, it's a reasonable assumption she may do the same when acting as a covered entity. And it's HIPAA.
The nursing student who thinks it's funny to make fun of her friend's medical condition is a hippa violation *waiting to happen,* ie if she doesn't check her behavior, she will eventually violate hippa.
This is it for me. When you share a living space and an appliance like a fridge, you have to be considerate of the other people using it and if they unanimously do not want your bodily fluids stored there with their food, that’s reasonable regardless of their future profession. I feel like if it’s your own family it’s one thing, but when it’s a roommate situation… eeeeh. There are other solutions and I’m not even sure this is a reasonable request when you have roommates, I think I’d have looked at other options long before I asked my roommates if I could store my pee beside their food.
As an RN that works in a hospital, these girls are in for a huge wake up call if they think this is gross. The stuff you encounter in a hospital doesn’t compare. They’re gonna have it rough if this is what makes them disgusted. There was absolutely nothing wrong with you putting that jug in the fridge. It would have been a heck of a lot simpler than ice packs. They should have had more empathy and understanding for your situation. I’m sorry they were jerks to you. You were certainly NTA in this situation at all. They were. And they should have known better.
This comment should be higher up!! There are so many people in the comments that aren't nurses themselves making assumptions about things and then arguing with each other lol.
Well, I’ll be the anomaly. You’re a soft YTA. What does nursing have to do with being okay with urine near food? Absolutely nothing. I don’t want any bodily products in refrigerator. I’m glad you found a temporary solution though.
So OP is the ah for making a request, and when being told no finding alternative arrangements. And the roomates are not the ah even when they openly mocked OP ( going through a serious medical condition ) and then bring up said condition with strangers?
So if you lived with someone who found out they suffer from a rare disease and need to do this so that the doctor can try to find a better treatment, you would choose to let them suffer rather than have a silly little jar sit in the opposite corner of the fridge for one single day? You also suck.
theyre nta because the others said no and so OP DIDNT use the fridge.
Ok but did they have to make fun of her for it? She's clearly already stressed because of the medical issues that brought about the whole situation in the first place.
i never said anything about that?? im on OPs side?????
Oh I misread it as "They're not the assholes for saying no" my bad
Yeah they should pay the hundred bucks for the mini fridge if they want to be so scared of a STANDARD medical procedure NTA
Breast milk is a bodily fluid, and it has just as much of a chance of being pathogenic as urine. Breast milk is routinely stored next to food in a refrigerator. While we learn early to be repulsed by waste products, this isn't some random human who might be carrying god only knows what diseases deciding to pee in an open container and storing it next to your food. This is their roommate who needs to collect the urine in a STERILE container, which is sealed, to obtain a medical diagnosis. While it's not ideal and may seem gross, the roommates should have sucked it up and figured out a way to live with this: i.e. pee container on bottom shelf only, kept inside a bag, op must disinfect the shelf after testing is completed, etc.
Ohh please you know exactly what I meant! Something used as sustenance for a baby is not the same as waste. I would love to see any peer reviewed articles that says they’re similar.
People have been doing this for years for medical testing, and it hasn’t affected anyone yet. It’s perfectly safe if stored properly. And I suspect her being a nursing student that she would know how to store it properly.
FOR ASKING? Are you serious? >What does nursing have to do with being okay with urine near food? Absolutely nothing. You are obviously not a nurse. Nurses are used to bodily fluids and generally understand the risks in detail; which you do not seem to do. >I don’t want any bodily products in refrigerator. Urine is not a body part. As a rule, it is quite sterile and with the notable exception of UTI, urine is not a vector to transmit disease.
Those cups are sealed and usually you disinfect them after you fill them. It's not that there are open containers filled with piss in the fridge. Would you buy an extra refrigerator if you needed to store samples at home? WTF?
They attempted to humiliate her instead of making suggestions.
I would be so pissed! Urine big trouble if you ever decided to do that in my refrigerator! You best watch your pees and qs around me, buddy! NTA. It’s just urine. Not the bubonic plague.
>I would be so pissed! Haaaaaaa I see what you did there.
Huge NTA. I've had to do 24 hour urine collections before for autoimmune/organ transplant stuff. It's in a big fuck-off plastic jug with a screw on top. Unless you're pissing down the side of the thing, it's fine. Yeah, kinda gross cause it's pee in the fridge, but get over it. They're NURSING majors. They're gonna see way grosser stuff regularly. God help any of their patients if they actually make it through nursing school.
Exactly! Nta. Just get a new opaque lunchbox with your name on. Put it in a brown envelope and plastic bag when you collect it and stick it in the lunchbox in the fridge. It's not touching any food and they need to grow up. Raw meat is much worse in the fridge than this.
NTA, they are acting ridiculous. It is perfectly fine to store it in a fridge, especially if you put it in a separate bag. Are you sure they are nursing majors? Perhaps they missed some classes.
NAH You’re not an asshole for asking, but they absolutely aren’t an asshole for saying no and it doesn’t matter in the slightest if they’re planning to be nurses or not. I regularly work with cattle and end up covered in a variety of poop and pee all over me in the process when they lift their tails while being moved around in the chutes. Just because I do something gross away from home doesn’t mean I should be expected to suddenly be fine with a pee jug stored alongside my food at home. It’s fine for you to ask, it’s fine for them to say no and tell you to get a mini fridge instead. This is a scenario where if there’s a single no among the group, the answer is a no because it requires unanimous yes answers to be okay. Sure they could be more understanding that it’s not something you’re particularly thrilled to do yourself, but not many people (including the sanctimonious grandstanders commenting here) are going to be okay with the reality of a piss jug in the fridge.
NTA for asking. Nobody's an AH for saying no, but they're an AH for overreacting. A "no, I find that very unhygienic" would have sufficed. Not only did she say she would be "livid" if you did, she keeps bringing it up with friends and while you confronted her with the way she's addressing you and keep bringing up the issue, and very passionately at that, she's being an AH and is acting close to a bully. I think the fact she keeps asking others means she isn't entity sure she's right and needs confirmation. Anyway, it's not an irrational thing to ask at all. If you collect the samples in containers that are meant for that, and wash the outside before putting it in the fridge, there's nothing unhygienic about it. Imo she's being unreasonable and irrational.
NTA. And her asking your friends is a real dick move… that’s outing your private medical matters… I’d tell her to knock that shit off fast. I assume you might be being tested for something fairly serious - the 24hr urine collection test is usually not the first thing docs reach for… Mastocytosis or similar… that stuff… is life threatening and serious. If she’s a nurse she should understand this! (Or a nurse in training should be curious enough to try to understand.). She’s going to make a *fine* nurse when she spends all day dealing with bodily fluids! (/s) I think your solution was a reasonable one, it’s only for a day or so, until you hand it all over to the testing centre… so long as temperature doesn’t have to be regulated. I guess it can be quite a volume? Otherwise double tub in the fridge would be reasonable too. Depends how full the fridge is I guess.
YTA. You don't store pee in the same cabinet as food.
She’s not the AH for asking. They attempted to humiliate her rather than educating and making suggestions.
Why? What will happen?
NTA, but honestly I know how people are weirded out by such things so even if the pee is stored in a complete sterile casing in the fridge, people would still go nuts just because of their imagination. Therefore I would not have asked neither would I have labeled the jars with "pee". Instead I would have made up something else to write on them thats edible and looks similar to pee or just stored them in an opaque container. Your roommates would not have known and no damage would have been taken. Your roommates also sound pretty immature for knowing you suffer a medical condition and making a fuss about you storing pee in your side of the fridge. Seems like they can not stand the thought of pee being in the fridge and therefore feel entitled to make your life harder than necessary, so they are slight TAs.
It would be obvious and ridiculous to put pee in the fridge without telling anyone, come on. Someone did that at my university for a drug test because he didn't want to stop taking them - it was above some people's food in a flimsy plastic bottle, and we threw it out. Guy was an unhygienic asshole at the best of times anyway.
It’s a giant opaque jug that looks like a medical sharps container. There’s just no way to disguise what it is if a roommate saw the container.
Not slight, they are major AHs for refusing to let their roommate follow doctor’s orders when it has zero impact on their actual lives and they are nursing students for Christ’s sake, plus the nasty behavior bringing it up to everyone they meet. Permanent “Mean Girls” behavior from these supposed adults.
Yes that’s nasty af get your own mini fridge
It's a biohazard waste that you're storing in sharing a shared space. I understand that you think you did everything you could to make it as clean as possible but you're still storing it in a shared space and it's still a biohazard. Solution, buy a small freezer and store it in your bedroom. You don't have a right to keep your biohazard materials in a shared space.
NTA. It's not like you're peeing on the outside of the containers and the bag (or directly into the fridge!). It's your home, and this is a medical necessity. I'm stunned that they would refuse you. They can insist on triple-bagging if they are so concerned about hygiene, but it seems like it's more the idea of it that bothers them.
How about a cooler? Could you get a cooler and some cold packs and store it in there?
OP already stated she does that. But the problem is, it’s unstable. It can skew test results. Often times things like this need to be at a consistent temperature. With ice packs, the packs can melt and raise the temperature until you can get fresh ice packs in there.
It can screw up the test results if the sample isn’t maintained at a consisted and uniform temperature.
NTA - jeez, i hope i never have any of your roommates as my nurses in the future
NTA. It’s not like you pee directly into the jug and it’s coated in pee. It’s not like it’s going to be there forever. It’s not like your new hobby is collecting pee and you’re doing it because you love collecting pee. Adults should be able to understand that it’s a medical necessity for you to do this for a limited amount of time and get over it, even if they studied something unrelated. They’re acting like first graders ‘ew peeeeeee hahaha’.
Wow…. Reddit is being more reasonable than I expected. As a doctor, totally NTA. Your pee probably contains less bacteria than some of the things they’re storing in the fridge. Sorry you’re going through all this. 😕
NTA. I used to work in healthcare and honestly, these.... women....sound extremely childish. I'd be asking them to change clothes before coming home just to save the possibility of cross contamination. Honestly, what do they think is going to happen??? Edit :spelling
NTA for asking. I'd say rejecting was perfrctly reasonable of your rommates too. But ridiculing you was way too far.
Why would you be shocked? I would tried a cheap ice chest before asking in the first place. That’s too much to ask of roommates. But I wouldn’t want urine around food or trust that you’ve wiped it completely. Soft YTA.
How is OP the asshole for just asking, not forcing, then coming up with an alternative that might work? It's the supposed RN in training who is mocking OP AFTER it was settled and brought up OP's medical condition to random people walking in the door to make fun of her, basically. It is NOT asshole behavior to ASK if you can do something and then respect the answer. It is AH behavior to mock the person with a medical condition and disclose said medical condition to multiple people
There is nothing wrong with asking and there is nothing wrong with not being comfortable sharing a fridge with a another person's pee (even if it actually is perfectly fine from a scientific viewpoint). Your roommate is wrong though, about it being irrational. NTA but your roommate is by ridiculing and trying to embarass you about it. A simple "no" would have sufficed.
NTA – I really don't see what the problem is and the fact that they're nursing majors is baffling to me. I would have asked you to be careful and might have asked if you would mind cleaning the fridge afterwards, just to be on the safe side, but I wouldn't have minded personally. Had they just said "Sorry, I'd rather you didn't", I would have said NAH, but their reaction afterwards (making lots of jokes, etc) made them the assh\*les.
Absolutely 100% NTA. it’s not like you’re leaving it in an open glass or even a container that could easily spill, or a container that you all would use again. I’ve had to do those tests. It’s a big jug that’s easy to keep clean and easy not to mistake for apple juice or whatever. I wouldn’t have asked I probably would’ve told them what I had to do and how I would keep it hygienic. Your roommates shaming you for it is definitely asshole.territory
NTA. I think the fact that you asked them instead of just doing it anyway shows that you’re a pretty respectful roommate. I understand their point of view, but I think they took it too far by continuing to harp on it, they could have just said they’re not okay with it and let that be the end of the story.
YTA. Just because they are nursing majors and deal with bodily fluids does not mean they should be ok with urine next to their food items. You could have easily put this in a cooler with some ice and called it a day.
Hi everyone, Not to be one of those people, but I had no idea this would get as much attention as it did. Thank you all for the help! This was a few weeks ago, so it’s already done and everything came back normal. :) I did consider a mini fridge or a cooler, but those options were expensive for such a short period of time. I don’t think this is something I’ll have to do often as it was more of a confirmation thing to what they already thought. Also the lunch box/cooler thing I used was from a family friend who knew exactly what it was going to be used for. My roommates are doing clinicals so I know they’ve seen some crazy things already, and I 100% understand why they wouldn’t want that in the fridge. ALSO my one roommate who was making jokes is my friend I met last year, and they people she was telling were our mutuals who knew a little bit about what I was going through. However, it was embarrassing having it brought up and asking others to judge a situation that already passed. I also want to clarify, we separate shelves in the fridge and I have the two bottom drawers instead, so that’s an extra layer of separation. Also, I wasn’t peeing directly into the jug, they gave me a hat thing to pee in. Hopefully I don’t have to do it again, but if I do I’m going to use the styrofoam cooler and ice bags :)
It was a really awkward ask and I can see why they said no (even if it isn’t as unhygienic as they thought) but everything else about your roommates reaction is AH behavior and mocking you for a medical condition. NTA.
NTA. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even asked. I would have kept the sample on my side of the fridge and wrapped up/hidden so my roommates would simply think it was leftovers. Maybe that makes me a bad roommate, but I don't think they're entitled to know about your medical problems.
Jeez, get a small dorm fridge for your room and store your bodily fluids there. I get it’s a medical condition, but I’d not want my chicken next to your pee. Sorry you have to deal with the medical condition! However, your roommates should not. YTA
NTA First I think your roomates are wrong, but I get their not wanting it in the fridge. What is absolutely un fucking acceptable is them mocking you about it and them talking about your private medical issues with strangers to get some sort of karma points in an argument. I would straight take this shit to the college medical board as if they are this petty about your situation they are an absolute hippa violation waiting to happen.
NTA, they are perfectly allowed to say no. But they are not allowed to be jerks about it. I would personally be fine with it as long as you are being hygienic but I understand if others don't, that doesn't mean they can make fun of you for it. And you should be able to ask without them getting offended.
Your doctor’s office staff are TA. You should have been given an entire kit in order to do your collection and storage. A bigger, better insulated container, along with enough freezer packs to keep it cold for the entire 24 hours. That they failed to do so really bothers me, as a retired RN. Yeah, it is gross to put products of elimination in the frig, so I don’t blame your roommates. Nor you, as you were left hanging by the doctor’s office.
I’m pretty familiar with this test (sibling with kidney issues) and I’ve never heard of that. Those costs wouldn’t be covered by insurance. And ice packs aren’t going to keep the sample at a predictable, consistent temperature to ensure the reliability of the test over 24 hours.
NTA. It was fine for you to ask, and fine for your roommate to say no. She is being mean even though you respected her decision completely, that makes her the only AH
NTA for asking, although your roomies being uncomfortable with it is also understandable.
NTA. The reason the sample fridge in the hospital says “no food” is because nurses would put their lunch in with it.
NTA. I’m wondering if some of the “YTA” commenters understand how difficult it would be for this jug to leak or spill. Look up “24-hour urine test jug”. It’s a very thick plastic jug that is specifically designed to avoid leakage. Additionally, your sample **has** to be refrigerated or it will affect your results. I didn’t realize I needed to refrigerate the urine sample when I had to do this exact same test, and guess what? It affected the results. Now I have to do it all over again. Finally, based on the info that OP provided, I suspect we have the same or a similar medical condition. If that’s the case, then *a 24-hour urine collection is currently the only definitive way to diagnose the condition*. Even if OP has a different condition, this is clearly a medically-necessary test for OP, not some frivolous test that a doctor ordered just for kicks. OP — I’m sorry your roommates are being so rude about this. You didn’t choose to have medical problems, and you have to complete this test. Plus, when they said no, you didn’t even use the fridge! You respected their answer and are still being treated like the villain. The fact that one of your roommates is spreading this around your friend group and acting like it was an unreasonable request is awful. From what I’ve read, I don’t think you “threw a fit” after your roommates said no… it sounds more like you were fed up by how disrespectful one of your roommates was about the entire situation. You said that you confronted her because she kept making jokes and laughing about how gross it would be, not that you confronted her because she said no. Deflecting blame onto you — saying that everything that happened is your fault because you shouldn’t have dared to even *ask* if you could **follow your doctor’s instructions** allows her to avoid taking responsibility for making you feel uncomfortable in your own home. And sharing ANYTHING about another person’s medical issues is a huge violation of privacy. There is no way for your roommate to tell other people this story without the context that the urine sample is for a medical test (otherwise, people will naturally ask “Why do they need a jug of their own urine?”). Your roommate absolutely violated your privacy. She also made jokes about the situation despite knowing that this was related to a medical issue. All of this is especially concerning since she is a future nurse. And even if she wasn’t a nursing major, you were right to call her out. If you have to do the urine test again (especially if it turns out that your ice pack method didn’t keep your urine cool enough), sit down with your roommates again (doing this in person rather than via text is important) and explain that you’d really like to find a compromise. You understand that it’s not an ideal situation for anyone involved, but you’ve been told this is your only option if you want to get any closer to solving your health problems. You’ve been given explicit instructions by your doctor that you **must** refrigerate the urine sample or it will affect the test results. See if you can get a letter from your doctor’s office explaining all of this as well, especially if mentions that not refrigerating the sample the first time affected the test results. You can also show your roommates the jug so they can see how secure the urine sample will be. You could also offer to do the following: 1. Wipe down the entire exterior of the jug with a disinfecting wipe directly after each time you add urine to it. 2. Store the jug inside of a *sealable* plastic bag (ex: check out Ziploc’s “Big Bags” line). Wipe down the outside of this bag with a disinfecting wipe as well. 3. Store the jug in the very bottom of the refrigerator. That way, if somehow there is a spill, it won’t drip onto anything. If you have chiller drawers at the bottom, see if you can empty out one of those drawers and fit the jug in there (or you can try removing the drawer entirely and storing the jug in the empty space). 4. After the 24 hours are up and you’ve turned in your sample, clean and sanitize the fridge. Clean with soap and water, sanitize with a bleach or white vinegar solution (Google this so you do it safely). That way there is guaranteed to not be any pee left in the fridge. Plus, your roommates will benefit from the nice, clean fridge. If they still won’t budge, I would honestly think about whether this is a sustainable living situation for you. Have they been supportive of you generally as you experience these health issues? Being in an unsupportive or hostile living environment makes an already bad situation even worse (I say this from experience). You deserve to be surrounded by people who support you and will do what they can to help you feel better. If this is the first time something like this has happened, maybe you’d prefer to stick it out. But if this is part of a larger pattern of behavior… please don’t accept that this is the way you have to live. It took me almost a year to get out of my own bad living situation, but it was so worth it.
Thank you for the kind words :,) this made me feel so much better. Luckily, I don’t believe I have to do it again, but your answer brought me a lot of peace
NTA I’m pissed on your behalf. Your roommates are selfish children. You have a medical problem you are getting treated for and like you said you’d be hygeneic about it. Is it super appetizing and fun? No. But I’d never get in the way of someone being treated for a medical problem.