The Silent Killers
Today was an okay day at the hospital. I spent the majority of my time in the dialysis unit (I’m doing a nephrology rotation). I have so much to say about this, but not the time or energy to say it right now.
But I will make one quick comment. I’ve seen a lot of sadness in medicine. But the three most saddening, and even horrific things I’ve seen are debridement of stage IV/V ulcers (especially on elderly and awake patients), amputations, and dialysis. I don’t know how I’d ever deal with having any of these three procedures. And the common thread that almost always ties them all together? Diabetes and hypertension. The so-called “silent killers.” They don’t seem so silent to me.
My name is Kendra and I am a newly minted doctor about to begin my residency in Psychiatry at 
Honestly dialysis isn’t that bad when you are in a position to need it. I am a med student too and before med school was on dialysis (have a tx now) and it just becomes part of your routine – and you always know without it you would die. Obviously the life expectancy on it is short, so you need to get a tx asap but until then given the alternatives, dialysis is the best medical treatment in the world
Thanks SO MUCH for your comment. Honestly, I think I have come to associate dialysis with the patients I’ve seen receive it in my hospital. They are usually very old, very sick, blind, have amputations, etc., etc., I just can’t help but feel so sad for them. But in your case, you were younger, and probably in better health. For you, dialysis was a life-saving treatment. I really needed that perspective, thanks!
They just recently started doing more transplants by matching organs and typing over larger geographic regions. Peritoneal dialysis provides a higher quality of life than inpatient dialysis if the patient and caregivers can avoid infections with good aseptic technique. This is because the you rcv continuous dialysis instead of a rapid dialysis every two days. Though many of the chronic patients are not compliant so it is questionable if this would be a good option. Nephrology fellows spend a lot of their time in the hospital like critical care and surgeons.
Did you read about the genetically modified Corn that is resistant to roundup by expressing Bt toxins? Liver and Kidney damage in rats observable after 90 days. Heart and Adrenal damage as well. Monsonto used one mammal instead of three for their studies. Evil stuff besides it being converted from glucose to fructose.
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm
[...] The Silent Killers (islandmedstudent.com) [...]