Become a Patient

Q&A with the Carling Adrenal Center's talented APRN, Meredith!

Image

Meet Meredith LaRue, APRN, FNP-BC, MSN, RN

If you've been an adrenal surgery patient at the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery, you probably remember Meredith! She works closely with Dr. Carling on a daily basis and is essential in making sure our patients receive the best care possible. Now, we invite you to get to know this vital member of our Carling Adrenal Center team.

1) Tell us about your background and how you ended up working in healthcare.

I was born and raised in St Louis, Missouri and then relocated to the East Coast after I met my husband. I had always been interested in working in healthcare as my mother was a nurse and had a very successful and fulfilling career. I started my nursing career in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and I fell in love with the profession. Having parents and caregivers trust me with taking care of their child during the most difficult time in their life was incredibly rewarding. After being a nurse for a few years, I decided to go back to school to further my nursing career and become a nurse practitioner. After graduating, I went into endocrinology where I provided care of patients in the inpatient and outpatient setting. I had always been drawn to endocrinology since the pathophysiology is so interesting and evolving. After practicing as a provider in endocrinology and leading a top 10 endocrinology program, I was recruited to come join the team at the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery/Carling Adrenal Surgery. 

2) What do you enjoy most about your job? 

I love educating patients about their disease process and treatment. I take the time to explain what is happening with their body and follow them though their hospitalization, discharge, and what to expect moving forward. I also love the team I work with. We all collaborate and communicate effectively to provide the best care before, during, and after surgery to all of our patients. 

3) When did you start working with the Carling Adrenal Center? What makes the Center and the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery special?

I started in February of 2022, right after the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery opened. Everyone is incredibly patient focused and works to ensure that every patient receives the best possible care. From the moment the patient walks into the hospital, everyone they encounter is specifically trained to take care of patients having endocrine surgery. This is something very unique to our center that is difficult to find elsewhere. We treat the rarest of the rare. What some providers only see a few times in their careers we see on a weekly basis. 

4) What is your favorite part of the patient process?

My favorite part is meeting and connecting with all of our patients. Since patients travel from near and far they all have interesting backgrounds and stories of how they came to find us. Every patient is unique, from their background to their clinical presentation. 

5) Tell us about a particularly rewarding patient experience.

One of my favorite patient cases was taking care of a young mother that travelled a great distance after being misdiagnosed for years. I really connected with her as I have two young children myself. She had struggled with high blood pressure (and a multitude of other symptoms) for years, had difficulty keeping up with her 4 children. It was a long 5+ years that she experienced these symptoms, trying different medication regimens, feeling fatigued and weak, etc. without a real diagnosis especially because she had no risk factors for having hypertension. Finally, she was diagnosed with an adrenal tumor and found our team to cure her. After her surgery, her blood pressure improved immensely, along with her other symptoms, and she was able to discontinue all of her blood pressure medications. Just two weeks after surgery her blood pressure was normal and all of her other symptoms had resolved. And best of all, she was able to keep up with her children again.

We hope you've enjoyed getting to know the Carling Adrenal Center's talented APRN, Meredith. If you are traveling to the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery to undergo adrenal surgery with us, know that you'll be in great hands with Meredith, Dr. Carling and the rest of this incredible team!

Additional Resources: 

Image
Author

Dr. Tobias Carling MD, PhD, FACS

Dr. Carling is the most experienced adrenal surgeon in the United States, and by far the world's most knowledgeable surgeon-scientist when it comes to adrenal gland function and disease, adrenal tumors and cancer, and all forms of adrenal gland surgery. Dr. Carling has more experience with advanced minimally invasive adrenal and endocrine operations than any surgeon in the United States. A fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Carling is a significant member of both the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES) and the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (IAES).