I Rise Part One: Pre-Med
2023-06-19
A retired Board-Certified OB-GYN Surgeon with 41 years of experience in OB-GYN, Family Practice, Correction, Urgent Care and Women’s and Geriatric Medicine. Currently a Medical Volunteer with the Virginia Health Department Medical Reserve Corp, Virginia Beach Div. of the National Medical Reserve Corp and Voter poll site Health Ambassador. Well versed in Virginia’s constantly changing COVID 19 Pandemic Requirements, Regulations and Safety Practices.
I fell in love with OB-GYN on Easter morning as a senior resident, as my chief let me deliver my first baby. It was a little girl – the mother was a Polish Mennonite and had had 17 pregnancies and 14 children. She wanted to go home after delivering to milk the cow and take care of her 15 kids. That’s when I realized I found my niche in the world, with all the difficulties of being chased by the “right to life”-ers, who threatened to kill me many times. This was the scary 80’ and 90’s, but we just kept going. I never thought about the hours, never thought about the sleeping, I just enjoyed the babies. I worked in inner cities with 60-70 patients a day, and if I was lucky, then Medicaid paid me. If not, they did not. Mostly did not. But I loved the work. We were the only ones delivering the illegal immigrant babies, because nobody else would. We would walk down the stairs and there would be a gang war going on in the staircase. Blizzards in Buffalo, ice storm is Pennsylvania, but the babies kept coming, and it was beautiful. The HMO stole our money, and the Russian hackers stole my retirement. I was a chief medical officer, then I was captain in the navy hospital. But then my health started deteriorating. After my knee replacement surgery, I developed a tremor, so I was unable to do surgery, so I retired. I had to become a general practitioner and start from the bottom to be able to work as a physician. I worked in jails and prisons, and if the gang members in the jail approved you, then you were in. I had to learn to how to shoot and account for every little object in my purse.
I have a life-long love of reading and writing, and cats. I have had my medical career sidelined several times by severe physical and mental health changes to now be forced to be of use and work to supplement a way to make ends meet. I must use a cane for balance, but I can work a part time and from home. My cardiologist has cleared me to work but only remotely (I am recovering from 2nd Pacemaker Replacement, Stable COPD and progressive renal disease all triggered by an autoimmune process newly discovered and incurable). But despite all these hardships, I am full of joy and laughs.
