Commentary of Nephrocentricity
NephMadness 2022 really delivered necessitating this commentary of nephrocentricity: poetry and more! It highlights that In this economically, biologically unprecedented year of 2022: the ultimate nephrocentric event of the year in social media: NephMadness cannot be missed!
No, it’s not a psychosis: it is the nephrology counterpart of Basketball’s pyrexia (fever) of March 😉
The House of Animals
The House of Animals an all time favorite of mine: The Ultimate Region among other regions worthy: all of which beset by the most humbling region of Inequalities. This favorite of mine is certainly one of the reasons I believe NephMadness 2022 really delivered!
Whales
True stories of tiny renules of ancient, mighty whales clustered like bunches of most coveted grapes en masse as a babe… The Greatest of cetaceans: unfazed by surreal bradycardia of 2 beats per minute that seems to befriend asystole at unimaginable depths of the sea that would literally crush our human bodies: making true asystole our reality
Then just as effortlessly that humongous swimmer ascends from those depths unaffected by the horrors of the feared bends of decompression.
and…
Giraffe
Yes, the Animal house takes us on quite the journey: from the depths of the oceans to altitudes up high! Again, NephMadness 2022 really delivered: Africa’s Giraffa camelopardalis with Highly elevated cerebral cortices 21 feet above the earth: the highest of all terrestrial beings…boasting physiology that humbles the Specialty of Nephrology: a most fitting paradox as whatever the etiology of kidney disease, hypertension seems to dominate our lives and clinical practice as those with kidneys we have pledged to protect remain vulnerable to millimeters of mercury sung by sphygmomanometers.
Renal capsules of giraffes as thick as nails, valved renal veins and vena cava, taming the surreal, ecstatically high, interstitial hydrostatic pressures that defy hypertensive emergencies and acute kidney injury (AKI)… all elucidate true ingenuity: design that confounds human physiology and pathophysiology as we know it.
Bears & Lungfish
Bears too and lung fish alike seem to smile in hibernation and estivation respectively…winking at human fragility and our lack of the physiologic agility that they possess… Bear voluntarily reducing its GFR, comfortably sleeping conveniently anuric with bladders that absorb: seeming to silently scoff at our dialysis machines and mankind’s best effort at artificial kidneys. Lungfish literally changing their renal histology in a beautifully choreographed microscopic dance of defiant survival in most extreme conditions that other fish dare not attempt to brave.
Animal House Wows Us: Humbles All other Regions & Humanity
The house of animals: so coveted by regions of cardiorenal, hemodialysis, neonatal nephrology and especially nephropath….Whilst Stunning the captivating region of Lupus. Though admittedly this Animal house tips its hat in acknowledgement of the mighty Region of Parasites which too often join us at the table and in life: mingling, lending its unwanted caress, largely influenced by the inescapable social determinants of health in gargantuan populations of our fellowmen: seemingly geographically far away but closer to our hearts than we think or realize. Parasites impacting the nations precious kidneys endangered. Let us open our eyes and discern the humanity while bracing ourselves for the impact: ramifications of Inequalities- where NephMadness 2022 really delivered.
Inequities: The Pinnacle of How NephMadness 2022 Really Delivered
Nephrology is easily the most cerebral specialty the noble profession of medicine has known. Nephrologists are long known to be ripe with knowledge, understanding and wisdom: ask Glaucomflecken! Nephrologists like yours truly, fellows and other budding nephrons all look forward to NephMadness: the very essence of our specialty culminating in this brilliant event that marries wit, ingenuity, fun, art, physiology, history, and wisdom with the most intelligent indispensable organ known: The Kidney.
One might ask, how did the social science topic of “Inequalities” dominate the most fun source of CMEs that nephrology has known? The answer is in the wisdom of the esteemed NephMadness 2022 Blue Ribbon Panel and characteristic of our specialty, nephrology: NephMadness 2022 REALLY delivered. This is why
All the worthy regions combined were a perfect segue to the most true and humbly embarrassing fact that amidst the intellectual prowess of all of the medical sciences, it is the social sciences that lay waste the fate of mankind’s health in this vast failing environment that cowers in the shadow of seemingly merciless government policies and institutional initiatives in the all too mighty, apparently unlimited and largely influential region of Inequities.
For our decades, nay centuries, millennia of study and understanding are of nil effect if those precious beings we serve: mankind: our patients are:
- Unable to afford our eloquently described, prescribed medications,
- Poisoned by nephrotoxins unworthy of their trust: some culturally befriended some through the courtship of Western medicine,
- Unable to grasp the eloquently explained pathophysiology of their morbidity,
- Unable to escape parasites of old,
- Reside in food deserts where the only real options are sodium rich, high in acid and fat, impregnated with tongue twisting, high phosphate stabilizers and other additives and, largely nutrient poor… food deserts where fruits and vegetables are unattainable dreams.
- Unable to access equitable, timely referrals to nephrology services or
- Unable to access medical services period
Mankind: Toiling, working for their daily bread: sometimes under conditions that wound precious kidneys, lungs, hearts and more as occupational risks do exist.
A world with conditions and food insecurity, so dire that nations as well as gut microbiota protest… beckoning signs of a future of new untreatable ailments.
The world where pollution thrives, droughts increase, fires rage, farmers plead, wars unsettle, floods destroy, destructive social habits & opioids prevail, prison populations swell, and smoke blinds the vision figuratively and literally.
Our world where racial disparities too prevail and even after knowledge of harmful race-based equations gain traction (though thankfully recognized and being halted by the American Society of Nephrology and National Kidney Foundation), the access of African Americans to Transplant and general nephrology services remain somewhat stunted as some providers and even nephrologists decline to break the chains, nay: the bonds of danger in this most renally-vulnerable group as these souls long for the liberation only laboratories can finally deliver in that precious single printed GFR no race modified option in sight.
Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)
Social determinants of health put in place that chain reaction: unstable dominoes that ripple through society and the earth: laying waste the government policies that failed to prevent that which was brought upon us by mankind’s insatiable appetite/greed for wealth, fame and desire…affecting those who thought they were far removed.
Hereafter a new cycle commences: never truly free of these social determinants of health. However, hear oh mankind, there are medicines that can wound kidneys. Heed the warning laid by artificial intelligence.
Art Inspired by Nephrology: Yes NephMadness 2022 Really Delivered Inspiration Too!
The colored parts of these works of art are derived from Photography of Illuminated Origami using a technique similar to darkfield microscopy utilized in precious urine microscopy!
Of course this is all available as coffee mugs, prints, T-shirts, hoodies, posters, stickers and more at Fineartamerica.com!
For more nephrocentric poetry, visit our other pages including our tribute to kidney donors. For fun, succinct, quirky bites of patient education featuring kidney emojis, visit our education resources page and share the digital pics for free! If you ever choose to purchase any of our physical products: accessories, wall art, posters or apparel, you will help our mission to increase the awareness of chronic kidney disease (from the measly 10%) and help promote kidney health
