Greetings again! Yes, it's been a long time (more than 4 months) since the last posting, but I haven't been goofing off. I've been working on a magazine that will debut later this month for the American Society of Nephrology call ASN Kidney News.

At first, this endeavor required a couple of hours here and there. As the first issue draws near, and we are trying to get the next issues started, those hours are adding up. This project has come with a steep learning curve; while I had worked with traditional medical journals, I had not done anything with ad-driven magazines before. I have a great managing editor, Dawn McCoy, and I have to say that this has been one of the most enjoyable and gratifying things I have done.

One task I took on after my editorial advisory board suggested it was creating puzzles for the magazine. I cannot imagine what it took to make a crossword puzzle before computers; it's hard enought to fit in theme words with autofill!

Anyway, my first word search got bumped from the magazine because we had too much other content (a good problem). I'm posting it here; the theme is an educational program of the ASN, Renal Weekends. I promise the solution will be posted in less than 4 months.

My Favorite Patient

As a pediatric nephrologist I see a lot of cute kids with kidney problems. My favorite and cutest patient is our family cat, Denver. Late in 2007 he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, a common cause of death in elderly cats (he just turned 17 years old). He was not overly fond of the kidney diet, and sneaking potassium supplements into his food was impossible.

This spring we began the "interesting" task of administering subcutaneous fluid every 2-3 days. Since starting this course, his weight has stabilized and he has periods of feisty playfullness again. While his days are numbered (I don't know what 17 is in cat-years), he is still enjoying life. Of course, he is crotchety enough that he has decided to only eat Fancy Feast in turkey flavors, but I hope someone will humor my preferences when I reach an advanced age!
For more information on chronic kidney disease in cats, go to http://www.felinecrf.com/

Welcome to my blog!

Those of you who know me understand the title of my blog. For the rest of you, I will explain. I am a specialist in childhood kidney diseases. In addition to taking care of patients, I do research on the kidney, and I teach others about kidney function and disease.
My motto has been "urine is golden."
People just don't realize how golden urine is until they can't make it anymore.
I decided to blog for a variety of reasons, including my new adventure as editor of ASN Kidney News, the new magazine for the American Society of Nephrology. I am trying to explore "new" media and get a feel for everything out on the internet. Next thing you know I will start a page on Facebook or something similar (that will mortify my children).
As I am a complete blogging newbie, I haven't figured out how often I will post or how random my thoughts will be. I'm looking forward to having my own soapbox on the web.