Dialysis Monkeys

Every medical subspecialty, no matter how interesting, has its share of repetitiveness. In Endocrinology (the study and treatment of diseases related to hormone problems), roughly 90% of business is related to managing sugars of diabetic patients. While there are a ton of interesting diagnoses and fascinating physiology in the field of Cardiology, most cardiologists' practices are dominated by coronary artery disease, the biggest killer in the Western world. And in Nephrology, a field to which many are attracted based on its intellectual and mathematical approach to electrolytes, homeostasis and physiology, a huge percentage of one's time is spent dealing with dialysis, the artificial kidney machine to which people in kidney failure must be attached to in order to survive. Of course, there are interesting aspects to dialysis (and since I'm just starting out, I haven't yet earned the right to speak of dialysis as boring and routine....indeed there is still a part of me that will always be fascinated that the function of such a complicated organ can be partially replaced by a machine, like something out of a science fiction movie)--but even after a few weeks of this business I can appreciate to some extent the viewpoint that dialysis can become quite repetitive if that is all that one is doing throughout the course of the day.

In other news, Sophie is very much looking forward to meeting her Aunt Susie, who will be visiting from NYC sometime this weekend!