Enjoy vacay!

This week at UNCH featured a cameo from Laurie Bennie and it was nice to have another friendly face in the nutrition office.

I’m on staff relief this week, and despite having had dreams about consults in distant parts of the hospital accessible only by monorail, the census dropped and it actually has not been overwhelming. I did almost embarrass myself today when I began to follow up on a TF that never got started. Good thing I checked the nurses’ notes before heading up to the patient’s room because apparently he died early this morning.

I saw a delightful patient who didn’t know that he has had chronic kidney disease since 2005. He had been trying to “be healthy and lose weight” by eating more fruits—like bananas and oranges—and had been taking vitamins—like potassium supplements for his leg cramps. He was admitted 2 days ago with hyperkalemia (K was 6.6) and now is starting HD. He was really disappointed to learn that many of his favorite fruits and vegetables were high in potassium but was quite agreeable to switching to low potassium options and eating sorbet rather than ice cream as a dessert.

Thanks for the interesting blog posts this summer – it was fun to hear reports from everyone else’s experience!