The teacher's teacher

✍ Scribed by Jean Gray

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 46 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-1912
• DOI: 10.1002/chp.146

✦ Synopsis

He was gorgeous! There were no other words to describe him! When Derrick ~not his real name! walked into my office, he was 34 years old, brawny, blond, impeccably dressed in his trademark brown leather bomber jacket and his knife-sharp creased khakis, and he had a smile that would melt butter. He had been a type 1 diabetic since childhood but had not always been meticulous in his diabetes control. The recent loss of his wife, leaving him with two preteen children to raise, forced him to get serious about his health. But, alas, he was already too late, as his family doctor had found severe hypertension, the reason for this referral.

Over the next 10 years, he suffered almost every known complication of diabetes. Microvascular disease destroyed his kidneys and his eyesight as well as his heart. Peripheral neuropathy left him with recurrent ulcers under his heels with several episodes of osteomyelitis in the small bones of his feet. But no matter what the disease threw at him, his spirits remained high, his smile bright, and his eagerness and enthusiasm to learn about his disease and any new treatment compelling. He was the first patient with whom I used angiotensin-converting enzyme ~ACE! inhibitors in an effort to stem the inexorable renal disease. When I found the literature to support this approach to treatment, he asked for a copy, devoured the content, and returned with insightful questions. This established a pattern for our interactions over the decade and I learned a great deal about diabetes, newer insulins, renal failure, diabetic retinopathy, treatment of osteoporosis, microvascular disease of the heart, and ~his specialty as a teacher! chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis ~CAPD! because he stimulated me to find the literature or learn about the technique and then share the materials with him so that we could discuss them.