heart cath

Today I got to see a heart catheterization. It was very interesting to watch. I was thankful for the nurse that was watching the X-ray screen with me because if it weren't for his explanations I would not have known what was going on. One of the best parts of the procedure, however, was talking to the doctor beforehand. He was very interested in nutrition. Since he's a cardiologist, he recognized the important role of prevention and nutrition in heart disease. He went on and on about how important it was, and it was hard to get a word in! I told him that I was always glad to meet a doctor that valued nutrition. He recommended a movie called Food, Inc. Anybody seen it?
We had two very interesting teleconferences on hyperglycemia and wound care last week. They emphasized that blood sugar control is critical for wounds to heal. This was interesting to think about because we often give a protein supplement to patients with wounds. I wonder if the supplement is a waste of money if their blood sugars are out of control. Like Sierra, I too have been wondering about how to care for wounds in patients with renal insufficiency. There was one protein supplement (Juven) that the teleconferences said was safe for renal patients because it was recently reformulated to remove the potassium, but I am going to research it some more because it seems like you would still need to count the protein in it. I'll let you know what I find sierrra :)