Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers by Vanessa Grubbs M.D

Author:Vanessa Grubbs, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

12

Zebras

It was the late 1940s when Dr. Theodore Woodward, a professor at the University of Maryland, first said to his medical interns, “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras,” because in Maryland one was much more likely to see a horse than a zebra. Most of adult nephrology are horses—chronic kidney disease, with two-thirds of it caused by high blood pressure and diabetes. But it is the exotic, relatively uncommon things that can go wrong with kidneys—the zebras—that bring young doctors to nephrology. The zebras make the kidney sexy.

It was a zebra that brought Robert into my life.

It was the beginning of the summer before sixteen-year-old Robert’s junior year in high school—a few weeks before he learned he would soon be going to the pediatrician with his own child—when Robert sat with his mother in the waiting room of his pediatrician’s office. He needed a routine sports physical. Football season was about to begin.

Robert had been going to Dr. Philipe Santoyo’s solo private practice since he was eight years old when he developed allergies to his cat, his guinea pigs, pollen, and grass. At least that’s what the reactions to some 150 potential triggers injected just under his skin up and down his back had revealed. Weekly allergy shots followed until he was fourteen.

“Robert Phillips,” the nurse called from the swinging door by the front desk less than five minutes after they sat down.

Robert and Ginger quickly rose from their seats and followed her through the swinging door and down the hall. They paused at the scale, where she checked Robert’s height and weight. A growth spurt in his thirteenth year that left him eight inches taller and ninety pounds heavier meant he was no longer that twig of a boy who frequented the racetrack with his grandparents.

“Come on in and have a seat,” she said as she ushered them into exam room 2. “The doctor will be right with you.”

Ginger took a seat in the chair and Robert hoisted himself onto the white paper stretched across the exam table.

Dr. Santoyo strolled in almost immediately, Robert’s clinic chart in hand. He was short, not much taller than Robert before his growth spurt. He shook Robert’s hand firmly, then turned to Ginger.

“Hello, Mother,” he said flatly in a thick Castilian accent. He was nice enough, Robert thought, but he had never known him to waste time on small talk. Ginger smiled and nodded hello.

“What are you here for today?” he asked, and Ginger handed him the sports physical form.

He took the form and a seat on the rolling stool and crossed his legs. Robert, already a budding metrosexual, noticed that the doctor was wearing his usual sports coat, shirt, and tie under his unbuttoned white lab coat with slacks and expensive loafers. This day he wore Ferragamo loafers. A sad salt-and-pepper comb-over made him just shy of dapper.

“OK, let’s go through this,” he said, looking at the form through the glasses resting on the tip of his nose.

After Robert’s reflexes were tested, his lungs heard, and his finger pricked, Santoyo handed him a clear plastic cup.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.