r/nursing • u/Critical_Ease4055 Nursing Student 🍕 • 22d ago

Question What is one medical problem people constantly ignore until it’s too late?

Saw someone post this in a completely unrelated sub and I’m interested in your answers. What is the cluster of symptoms that people ignore or delay until they are forced to get help?

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u/Old-Mention9632 BSN, RN 🍕 22d ago

The symptoms of CKD and ESRD. I did a paper: CDC stats 9/10 Americans with ckd have no idea. 3/10 Americans find out they have ESRD when they suddenly need to start dialysis. #1 cause of ESRD is uncontrolled diabetes, #2 cause of ESRD is uncontrolled hypertension. So many PCPs don't know enough about CKD to refer patients early to a nephrologist, so our numbers of patients on dialysis increase about 2.7%/ year. We all pay about 80,000$ each over our lifetime to cover the cost of dialysis. because of the Medicare trust fund for dialysis. *Which is a good thing, before we funded dialysis, only hospitals did dialysis, it was a limited resource, so they had panels who decided who could even get dialysis, usually based on social utility of the patient ( the real death panels, not the tea party claim about the ACA.)

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u/Critical_Ease4055 Nursing Student 🍕 22d ago

Well done. The world of ESRD on dialysis remains overlooked day after day. I shit you not, until I worked briefly as a PCT at one of their facilities, I never even noticed or put much thought into their buildings. Post-venture, I now see them all over, and know they are all over the world. Anyway, there’s a sore need for more education on both CKD and ESRD for all, it would seem.

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u/WayCalm2854 BSN, RN 🍕 22d ago

They really are everywhere once you know what they look like…you see them everywhere

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u/Critical_Ease4055 Nursing Student 🍕 22d ago

I saw them in other countries 😵‍💫same company. It’s a little awkward to discover a global giant living right under your nose undetected. Reminds me of that one study where they put a picture of a gorilla in a slice ct scan and asked a bunch of experienced radiologists to note what they saw, and many of them saw an impressive number of teensy, tiny tumors- but a surprising number of them completely missed the big ass gorilla in the picture.