Diary of a Medicine Observer, Log 2

Question: Which organ is responsible for controlling high blood-pressure?

Answer: If you guessed heart, you are with 99% of other people who gave me the same answer. However, it is not the heart, it's the "kidney"!!

This is something I learned during my Medicine Observer experience at Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD and thanks to Dr. Veronica Epstein and her associate Yulia for being an unlimited source of knowledge for me.

Read my previous log entry here.

Coming back to the question above, we always assume it's our heart that controls the blood flow and hence the pressure. I would have never guessed in a million years that it was the kidney that controls high blood pressure! Some of the causes of high blood pressure can be kidney disease and diabetes. When one consumes lots of food rich in fat, it can make the blood vessels in the kidneys much narrower which increases the individual's blood pressure.

The kidney acts as a filter in our body. As blood flows through this organ, the kidney works to filter out all the waste from the blood. Eventually, the clean blood exits the kidney and travels through our body. And when we use the bathroom, all that waste which was extracted from the blood, exits our body!

I had a chance to understand and try to measure the blood pressure using my #stethoscope, a normal pressure is 120/80. One should make sure the patient is not anxious, has had time to rest, and is sitting comfortably.

At the end of my day, Dr. Epstein tells me that the next day I see her, I will be the one calling the patients in, taking all their vitals, and even calling some patients over the phone!

I'm getting used to calling the patients into the examination room and getting them comfortable until the doctor arrives. I've had a couple trial runs for taking the vitals as well, so hopefully in the next few days, I will be doing that in real-time with supervision, of course.

#observer #medicine #careerpath #mercymedical #physicians #medicineobserver #mercypersonalphysicians #bloodpressure

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