In late 2002, I was a second year nephrology fellow spending as much time as possible at The John Crerar Medical Library writing chapters for medical textbooks. It was an awesome year. During that time I got an e-mail from another nephrology fellow, who was also in Chicago. He was writing to say what a fan he was of the Fluid, Electrolyte and Acid-Base Companion. He also said he wanted to help write the next edition of the book. (Any day now I’ll get started on that second edition. Any day now.) That e-mail came from Edgar Lerma. Nothing ever came of that collaboration but we became Facebook friends and continued on our parallel journeys. We both went to academic university fellowships but then pursued private practice. But despite going into private practice, we both kept our toes in medical education. Me through this blog and social media, him by writing book after book after book.
Over the past fifteen years, Edgar has repeatedly provided me with some of the most interesting opportunities of my career. Edgar is a mentor disguised as a peer. In 2013, he invited me to write about KDIGO for ASN KidneyNews. This was my first national exposure, and that article has lead to subsequent opportunities.
He helped get me on the KDIGO App Workgroup.
But the biggest opportunity was a few years ago when he invited me to help him edit Nephrology Secrets. When he asked, I said, “yes” without hesitation. I said yes without thinking of the avalanche of work I just unleashed. The book is 656 pages long. I have read every one of those page 4 or 5 times. At times, my Secrets-to-do list stretched over the horizon. It was hard, exhausting, and for awhile, never ending. But it was also rewarding.
Thank-you Edgar.
It has been an honor to know you and delightful to work with you and Matt on Nephrology Secrets.
It is a travesty that a renal treasure like @edgarvlermamd has only 18 followers. People should be lining up to follow him.
— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) January 7, 2013
And speaking of Nephrology Secrets, the fourth edition is now available on Kindle with the dead-tree version available (fingers crossed) at the end of March. If you have Nephrology Secrets third edition, understand this is a complete rewrite with many new authors. It reflects a decade of nephrology advances. As we prepared for editing the fourth edition we reviewed every chapter in the third edition. Nothing reinforces how far nephrology has come quite like reviewing a decade old textbook. From the introduction:
So take a look at the sample pages on Amazon and if inclined buy the book I don’t think you will be disappointed.