Khalid Sheikh: Advancing Care for Fellow Patients With Chronic Illness  »

Right now, I’m working with faculty mentors to promote better clinical understanding of Doege-Potter syndrome, a condition that involves a rare endocrine tumor that causes recurrent hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.  We wrote a case report on one patient with the syndrome who had hypoglycemia for nearly a year. I experience hypoglycemia occasionally myself, so I can envision how disruptive this would be to experience on a regular basis. The patient and his family showed me the stash of Dr. Pepper they keep on hand just in case he has low blood sugar — and in response, I whipped out my own stash of juice boxes from my backpack. We were able to share a laugh and collectively validated each other’s experiences with illness. 

Writing this case report gave me a chance to learn from the dedicated faculty at Dell Med. Avni Mody and Pratima Kumar guided me step-by-step through their clinical reasoning behind the patient’s workup and treatment. We published the case in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and I am excited to present the case at the Endocrine Society’s annual ENDO conference in Boston this June. I hope to highlight both the investigative and collaborative skills of my team that made curing this patient’s condition possible.