Summer Internship Journals: Aliza Bloostein '17 at Medical Associates of Greater Boston

When I walk out of the car and look up towards the building of the Medical Associates of Greater Boston, I know that I am in for a day of fascinating learning experiences. I walk up the stairs, through the waiting room, and down the hall into Dr. Riester’s office to get ready for my day of shadowing Dr. Riester, her Medical Assistant, Lee Ann, and her Nurse Practitioner, Zoe. Dr. Riester is a primary care doctor, specializing in endocrinology. Therefore, she sees a large range of problems in her patients, from anxiety to osteoporosis to diabetes. After my first three days at the office, diabetes has struck me as the most interesting disease with which she deals.

Before starting this internship I knew very little about diabetes, but I’ve now learned about the disease, its side effects, its treatments, and much more. Most of the patients have Type 2 diabetes, which is typically developed later in life and is often associated with obesity. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas no longer secretes a sufficient amount of insulin, or the body becomes resistant to the insulin. Insulin helps metabolize the sugar in one’s blood. The first step for treating Type 2 diabetes is to prescribe an exercise and diet regimen; however, if that fails, the patient must begin taking insulin. His or her insulin intake then becomes a balancing act because too much insulin causes hypoglycemia, a dangerous condition when one’s blood sugar becomes too low. Conversely, insufficient insulin can lead to a dangerously high level of blood sugar. That is why diabetics often have to prick their fingers to test their blood sugar.