How to navigate life as a med student, resident, & MD

On this episode of  4 the Health of it K Pad sits down with two physicians (Dr. Alexander and Dr. Padgett) to discuss their journey in the medical field.

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Episode Transcript

Korian (00:00):
Welcome to season 2024.
For the health of it, I'm yourhost, Korian K-Pad Padgett.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy theepisode.
I'm your host, Korian KPADPadgett.
And today I have the esteemedpleasure to have with me Dr.
Gabrielle Alexander and Dr.
Jasmine Padgett.
I was mentioned that you allwere doctors.

(00:22):
What kind of doctors do youare?
Are you all?

Dr. Alexander (00:25):
I'm an OBGYN.

Korian (00:26):
Okay.
And you are Dr.
Padgett?

Dr. Padgett (00:28):
So I do internal medicine and pediatrics.

Korian (00:31):
Okay, cool, cool.
So you are medicalphysicians, medical doctors?
Awesome.
So one thing I wanted tomention before this interview
got started, that it took me awhile to get you all on this
podcast.
So I thank you all for finallybeing able to sit down with me.
It's been about four years.
I've been chasing you all.
I finally, finally got themonkey off my back, as they say.

Dr. Padgett (00:51):
Yeah, yeah.

Korian (00:52):
Got the big one.
I got the big one, you know,red fox style, right?
Uh so let's, let's just talkabout start start at the
beginning.
Any particular reason why youwanted to be a physician?
Either one of you.

Dr. Alexander (01:06):
Honestly, I feel like a lot of doctors become
doctors truly because they wantto help people.
Um I knew I wanted to work inthe medical field.
I used to hang out with my aunta lot.
She was a nurse, so I traveledwith her to different small
towns in Mississippi.
Um and I always liked you know,healthcare and taking care of
people.
So my aunt was one of mybiggest inspirations to you know

(01:27):
be in the healthcare field ingeneral.
At one point I said, Well, Iwant to be a nurse.
I really want to be a nursebecause it was short.
I was like, Oh, I want to getmarried and have kids and be in
my career.
If I if I become a nurse, ittakes like four years.
And then my brother, my oldestbrother, Rick, he was like,
Well, I mean, figure out whatyou want to do.
Do you want to become a nurse?
Do you want to be a pharmacist?
Do you want to be a doctor?
He said, Don't make yourdecision based on what's gonna

(01:49):
be the shortest amount of time.
He said, You're gonna get oldregardless.
So do what you want to do andshoot for the stars.

Korian (01:55):
Dr. Padgett?
Yeah, mine is very similar tothat too.
So, um, so when I was younger,I I wanted to be a doctor.
Um, I didn't see a lot ofdoctors that look like me, but
um initially I was gonna donursing too.
So I was when I was inundergrad, my first semester, I
was um undecided or whateverthey call when you're um in your

(02:15):
first semester.
And I knew I wanted to dosomething in the medical um
field.
So I did biology, a lot ofbiology classes, but I was an
undecided major.
Um and I figured I'd be anurse.
And my dad was the one thatactually said, Well, if you're
gonna be a nurse, you'llprobably want to be like a
registered nurse or a nursepractitioner.
He said, You'd have to go tofour years of school, anyways,
after, you know, part of right.

(02:37):
So, and um, and so he was like,you know, if you want to be a
doctor, you should look intothat.
So I started shadowingphysicians, and I was like,
okay, I I could do this, and so, but what they don't tell you
about is the residencyafterwards, it's additional
years, but that's okay.
Like Gabrielle said, you don'tpick something based off the
shortest amount of um time, youpick it based off what you're
really interested in becauseregardless of whatever you

(02:57):
decide to do, the difference inthe time lapse is where you are
afterwards.
So whether you spend those 10years when people talk about how
long med school is working atMcDonald's, which nothing gets
McDonald's worker working, um,versus going to undergrad, going
to med school, going toresidency.
The difference is are youcloser to your overall life goal
at the at that amount of time?

(03:19):
Okay, perfect.
Oh man, I'll rock with that,ladies.
Uh so my next question is youwent to Alabama A &M and you
went to Ole Piss.
Oh I mean Ole Miss, my bad.
So why did y'all choose the twoschools y'all chose?

Dr. Padgett (03:42):
Okay.
Um for me, well, mine waseasy.
Well, it wasn't a bad decision.
I I was it no what I meant wasit was an easy decision because
I played tennis.
We traveled a lot playingjunior tennis and we had a full
ride scholarship, and it was toAlabama AM, which is a HBCU

(04:02):
historically black college, um,and we visited school, we really
liked it.
It gave me an opportunity togrow.
Sometimes when you're on umother school, when you're other
schools, you may not have achance to play, even though
you're on the team and we wantedthat, you know, me and my
sister both went on fullscholarship, so that's why I
chose A&M.

Korian (04:20):
Okay.
Uh just for the record, I I didbeat her in a tennis match.
And for those that do notknow those that do not know this
is this is my wife.
so that has the biggestasterisk um both by that win.
So what happened is I was upwhat 3-0, 4-0, and I had a
appointment, and so I had toleave.

(04:40):
So he won by like default.
Our record against each other are is one-on-one.
But anyway, Dr.
Alexander, what is what isyour reason for going to Ole
Miss?

Dr. Alexander (04:52):
Um, when I was in high school, I got a
scholarship, and my scholarshippretty much gave me different
school options to go to.
So the schools that I canchoose from were Ole Miss,
Mississippi State, MC, MillSaps, and I want to say Southern
Miss as well.
Uh, I didn't want I'm fromYazoo City, so the schools in
Jackson, Mississippi were alittle bit close to home.

(05:13):
You know how it is when you'rein high school, you want to get
up and kind of get out and goaway from your parents.
So I wanted to go kind of faraway, but not too far from home.
Um so those options would havebeen either Southern Miss or
Mississippi or Ole Miss, but Ichose Ole Miss out of those two
just because I knew I wanted towork in the healthcare field,
and Ole Miss had ties to theUniversity of Mississippi, which

(05:33):
you know, that's where we wentto medical school.
It also had ties to thepharmacy school and things like
that.
So I felt like me going to OleMiss would put me in a better
position when I needed to go tothe next step in my life.

Korian (05:45):
Okay.
All right.
So it is the year 2024.
Uh I don't know if y'all twoknow this, but I thought about
this earlier.
Uh, y'all met in 2014 at thewhat was the name of this little
campaign?

Dr. Alexander (05:58):
Summer not Summer Bridge, but it was whatever
it was, it was a bridge betweenundergrad and medical programs.
It was like apre-prematriculation program.

Korian (06:06):
Pre-matriculation pre-mat.
Pre-mat.
That that's yep, that's exactlywhat it was.
So did y'all realize that it'sbeen 10 years almost to the date
that y'all met each other?

Dr. Alexander (06:15):
Uh I think I roughly knew that.
We had something on Facebookpop up.
I know because we're supposedto be planning a 10-year trip
right now.
Okay.
Chi Chi keeps reminding usabout Chi Chi got a friend.

Korian (06:26):
She'll be on here.

Dr. Alexander (06:27):
She's gonna be on here too.
Okay, well we'll do we'll haveto do it, we'll set it up.
But yeah, she keeps remindingus, and we're supposed to be
planning a trip for our 10 year.
We need to have a big trip thisyear, but nobody is making
any plans or anything like that.
So but so I didn't know.

Korian (06:42):
Okay.
Hey, hey, I just wanted to knowwhat's out there

Dr. Padgett (06:45):
that's about to say it's funny, we've been doing
trips all these years, but it'sgonna be a bigger trip.
Yeah, this is like a big trip.

Dr. Alexander (06:50):
Like a 10 year is a it's a big deal.

Dr. Padgett (06:52):
It is a big deal.

Korian (06:53):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, time out.
Y'all trying to do it thisyear?

Dr. Alexander (06:56):
Yes.

Korian (06:56):
Y'all know y'all only got six months left, right?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I mean, that's not that is clear.
Okay, all right.

Korian (07:01):
Well, anyway, just just throwing that out there.
Uh so so I know she graduatedundergrad 20, 2012.
When did you graduate?

Speaker (07:11):
No, she didn't.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, I did.
2012?
2012 December, December 2012.
Okay, then I graduated in 2014.

Korian (07:20):
Okay, cool, cool, cool.
So you went straight literallyfrom from May to May to boom,
you were straight in.
Oh, that's dope.

Speaker (07:27):
That's really I don't know if that's dope or not.
That's something that I talkabout a lot of times with people
because they would ask me, Howdid you become a doctor so
young?
I went, I didn't take anybreaks pretty much between
finishing high school andfinishing residency.
So you went to high school, Idid a summer matriculation
program before I went to OleMiss.
After Ole Miss, I did a summerum summer program before I went

(07:48):
to med school.
Then after med school, you gostraight to residency.
So it was just like going,going, going, what is that, 12
years straight?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm taking it.

Korian (07:57):
So so is that uncommon?

Speaker (08:00):
Um I don't know.
I feel like it's not thatuncommon, but people might not
do the summer programs inbetween, but people do go
consecutive years.
So I feel like it's a good mix.
But you know, of course, wehave some classmates that had
career changes and stuff likethat.
So I don't know.
I feel like it's a good it's agood mix.
Okay.
People that go straightthrough, people that take breaks
and career changes.

Korian (08:20):
Right.
So, so jasmine, just chat me upa bit about your break in
between undergrad and medschool.
Like, what were you doing inthat meantime?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Studying to get to med school.
Um, I mean, that's the short ofit.
But also during that time, somy parents have their own home
care business.
So I was also um working therein the office, um, played a lot
of tennis, joined a lot oftennis teams, did stuff like
that, and then just studying toget into med school.

Korian (08:48):
Okay.
And while we're talking aboutgetting into med school, , two
different paths, not totallydifferent, but what are the
requirements to get into medschool?
Just like base level, I don'tneed to know the exact MCAT
score or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, because it's changed.
I don't know the exact M MCATscore.

Speaker (09:05):
You know how long ago it's been since we got into med
school?

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, 10 years.
I was asking that the skeletonthe skeleton of the yeah.
Yeah, you gotta um soundergrad, usually you've got
there's required courses thatyou have to take.
I don't remember all of them.
Some biology, some chemistry,organic chemistry.
Um, the next big thing istaking the MCAT test.
Um, that's pretty good.

(09:28):
It's pretty good.
Into medical, yeah.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Speaker (09:31):
And a lot of times people think you have to major
in biology or chemistry orwhatever.
You really don't.
You can major in art, you canmajor in whatever your heart
desires as long as you get thoserequired courses.

Korian (09:40):
Because one of your friends majored in English.
Yeah, okay.
Cool, cool, cool.
All right, so talk me abouttalk to me about med school.
What was that like, and why didy'all choose umc?

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I chose umc for proximity, and also we had just
started dating.
We had been dating for a fewmonths at that time, but it was
closest to home.
It was closest to home for us,for me, I can say for UMC.

Speaker (10:04):
Umc close to home too.
And at that time, you know,like I said, when I graduated
from high school, I wanted to gofar away from home.
Going into med school, I didwant to go um more close to
home.
And there were also some goodscholarship opportunities at um
University of Mississippi, andagain, some connections between

(10:25):
going to um old men's forundergrad, so I got a chance to
know some people and um thingslike that.
So it seemed like the bestchoice for me at the time.
All right.
No regret, Steele's.

Korian (10:35):
All right, well, Jasmine.
I'm just I'm just throwing thisout there that South Alabama
has a medical school, right?
Do they have a medical school?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, I've just throwing thatout there.
Belux is a lot closer to Mobilethan it is to Jackson.
Oh, sorry.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, the other advantage, there wasn't this
another in-state.
So when you um in-state, thetuition's not as high for most
people.
So that's another reason Ichose this.
It wasn't all about chorian.
Um clearly.
No, but the um, and then youhad your second question was
what was med school like?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I only had one word tochoose, I'd say hard.

(11:08):
But I mean, you know, it's it'sjust one of those things.

Korian (11:13):
So, what was the hardest part about med school?

Speaker (11:16):
Ooh, there's a lot that's hard about med school,
but I think this is the perfectexample, and somebody told us
this before we went to medicalschool.
I think somebody said this inthe pre-matriculation program is
like going to a fire hydrantthat the firefighters use and
trying to drink water from afire hydrant.
It's it's true.
It's just a lot, it takes a lotof discipline, a lot of

(11:40):
studying, and a lot ofsacrifices too.
I feel like not only medschool, but med school,
residency, and even to an extentundergrad, you know, um, it
takes you away from family,friends, and things like that
because you truly have to bedisciplined in the study to make
it through.

Korian (11:56):
Yeah.
I mean, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Oh, sorry, I was gonna say, I feel like it it
also changes to you.
Like, you know, the first twoyears it's books, books, books.
Learn as much as you can, andthen the next two years you're
doing your like your clinicalsand your rotations, and even
during that, I remember when Itold my family I couldn't come
home for either Thanksgiving orChristmas because we um we
were on a like inpatient serviceand we were like on call, and

(12:20):
they had a hard time believingthat.
I was like, no, I'm gonna be inthe hospital and be working,
you know, not getting paid forit.
Yeah, yeah.
So a lot of sacrifice.

Speaker (12:29):
Every year comes with different challenges too, like
you say.

Korian (12:32):
Right.
So, what was the hardest yearin med school for you, Gabby?
Or Dr.
Alexander?

Speaker (12:41):
I would say maybe, maybe first year.

Korian (12:44):
Okay.

Speaker (12:44):
Just a transition.
Like, you know, undergrad wasmoderately difficult.
Um, but when you go to medicalschool, it's just a different
level of information you'reexpected to learn and retain.
So I think first year.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Absolutely.
I was surprised I I knewimmediately when you asked the
question.
I was like, first year withouta doubt.
I remember we went through someclass, was it was it biochem,
and I think we got through twoor three chapters that day, and
I was like, what is going on?
I was so scared.
I was like, my brain, yeah.

Speaker (13:17):
It's a lot at one time.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker (13:20):
If you ask me about the hardest course in undergrad,
that one I know without a doubt,organic image.

Korian (13:25):
Oh yes.
Oh my gosh.
I'm like that.

Speaker (13:27):
That was hard.
That one right there.

Korian (13:29):
What made that so hard?

Speaker (13:30):
For me, it was because you have to see things in 3D
almost, like see those moleculesin my brain.
Just didn't work.
Yeah, when I look at it on thepaper, it didn't, my brain
didn't process it how it wassupposed to be processed to like
really learn, understand, andit was it was very difficult.

Korian (13:47):
Okay.

Speaker (13:48):
All right.
So we made it through by thegrace of God.

Korian (13:51):
Hey, if it wasn't for his grace, what you say, okay,
all right, I'm right there withyou.
Uh So I wanted to you youwent straight out of high
school, , graduated 2010, YazooCity.
Okay, so 2010, you went to OleMiss, four years later, boom,

(14:14):
you're going straight tomedical school.
I just want to, you know, shoutit out, not not talking bad
about my wife or anything, butjust talking about myself,
because I know I had a buddy,you know, , or even now I had a
former athlete of mine, he wentfour years out of college and
graduated.
Uh, and I was like, bro, youknow, that takes a lot of
discipline and self-sacrificeand family familiar family

(14:37):
sacrifice too.
So big ups to you, Gab, andstill big ups to you, Jasmine,
because you had a tough road togo through too.
So you know, you you alright?

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Oh, yeah, no, I was gonna say, well, you know, mine
was definitely more zigzag, butlike right after um high school,
we did a year of umprofessional tennis, like on the
lower circuit.
When people think professionaltennis, they think like
Wimbledon and all the GrandSlams, but there's a lower
circuit, and we tried that for ayear.
Um that didn't that did notwork out for me, obviously.
Um and then I went to toundergrad, so there was a hold

(15:08):
up there, and then um trying toget ready to make a score that
was good enough to get into medschool was the other the other
end.
So so my road was definitelyyou know more topsy curvy.

Korian (15:18):
So it took you took a little bit.

Speaker (15:21):
Yeah, yeah.

Korian (15:21):
Okay.

Speaker (15:21):
So um I was just gonna say, I don't, I mean, of course,
there are sacrifices.
I could have gone on some tripsand had some fun during the
summertime, but I really don'tregret it.
I don't regret doing thatprogram during the transition
from high school to undergradbecause some of the people that
I met in that program um I'mstill friends with today, with
today.
And when you go from smalltown, Yazoo City, Mississippi,

(15:44):
and I'm not gonna lie, like ourhigh school and the level of
education that we received, youknow how Mississippi education
is.
I think it was a subpar.
So I was able to go kind of geta leg up to you know get an
idea of what it's gonna be liketo take, you know, two, maybe
two courses over the summer umbefore the actual semester
starts.
And again, I think some ofthose friendships that I

(16:05):
developed, there that meansthey're gonna be lifelong
friendships.
And then the same thing for umgoing to um med school.
I met some friends that I'mstill friends with today, 10
years later, um, and it helpedwith that transition.
You know, what did we take?
Um Gross Gross Anatomy.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we started doing someGross Anatomy stuff, and so it

(16:26):
was.
Yeah, and I feel like they putus, it gave us a leg up when the
school year actually startedfor the first year of med
school.
So I don't regret it at all.

Korian (16:35):
Yeah, I understand.
That's what's up.
That's what's up.
Uh so Jasmine, I wanted to talkto you about that gap year
you took playing professionaltennis.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah.

Korian (16:44):
Considering that you were a professional tennis
player, how does it feel to loseto somebody that you know was a
subpart athlete in general?

Speaker 1 (16:51):
You talk about yourself.
Yeah, obviously.
Someone said, Yeah, um, youknow, it didn't really feel like
a loss.
It's like when you're beatingsomebody three, four, zero, and
then and then you have to leave.
It doesn't really feel like youlost, it's feel like you kind
of just had to go.
Yeah, yeah, just had to go.

Korian (17:08):
Yeah, you just had to go and you had to take that ill.
But anyway, did you did youplay anybody big in that level?

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Or nobody that ended up coming big or oh, that's a
good I don't I don't remember.
It was a whole it's allblurred.
I don't remember specificpeople names that I played.
Um I don't I can't thinkanybody that's fair.

Korian (17:29):
That's fair.
All right.
So at the start you saidyou're an L O B G Y N and you
said you're internal medicineand PH.
Yeah, so good job.
Why did y'all choose thoseparticular career paths?

Speaker (17:44):
Oh, for me, OBGYN is one of those fields, either you
hate it or you love it.
Whenever you um third andfourth year of medical school,
third year is really when youstart going around looking into
like working in different areas.
So you might do MedPage, you dofamily medicine, you do OBGYN.
Um, that's where you really getan opportunity to see what you
want to do.
I did know going in, but again,OBGYN, you either hate it or

(18:07):
you love it.
Very first day they threw me ininto a delivery.
I had never even seen adelivery before.
They threw me in for me to godeliver the baby.

Korian (18:14):
And this was during your year three?
Yes, of med school?

Speaker (18:17):
Yes.

Korian (18:18):
And so what do you what all did you have to do?

Speaker (18:20):
You go in, you know, get clean, get scrubbed, put on
all the gowns.

Korian (18:24):
You delivered the baby?

Speaker (18:25):
Yes.

Korian (18:26):
As a third-year medical student?

Speaker (18:28):
Yes.
So you asked the patient forconsent or permission, which
most of the time patients knowlike they're there to learn
against students and students.
And so the patient was okaywith it.
You go in, you get scrubbed.
Um, and the resident that wasthere, she didn't just let me go
in and just deliver the baby bymyself.
So we basically scrubbed intogether and she talked me

(18:49):
through it at that time.
She put her hand on top of myhands, and we delivered the baby
together.
So very exciting.
But you know, it'snerve-wracking.
Yeah, you know.
It's very exciting, verythrilling.
And if you don't pass out andget freaked out by it, then I
guess you need to do it becauseyou you literally either hate
OBGYN or you love it.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay.
Uh-h .
I concur.
Hated it.
First delivery I saw was a itwas it was the c-section.
And so we go in, and of course,you know, you cut blood.
I was I was helping to suctionlike the smoke.
They use the machine kind ofhelp them cut and make clean,
clean lines and stuff.
And I was like, this is justthe childbirth is a very

(19:30):
beautiful experience, but it'snot always.
It's just I was like, I waslike, oh my gosh.
I said I don't never, I neverwant to have a c-section or have
anybody cuddle me.
Next delivery I saw was avaginal delivery, and it was,
you know, that there were somelike expected complications.
Like, you know, I guesssometimes somebody bleeds and
you have to like suture.
I was like, I never want tohave vaginal delivery.
I was like, this is not youdon't want to have a c-section.

(19:51):
You don't want to have theright.
I was I was stuck.
I was like, well, I don't knowhow I'm gonna have to, I don't I
don't know how I'm gonna dothis.
Maybe anyway, no, butseriously, I didn't like either
one, and I knew I was not gonnado um L BGYN, and then of course
other specialties too that Iwasn't really interested in.
But when it came to med peas,the reason I chose that is the

(20:12):
first rotation I did waspediatrics.
I'm pretty sure that was thefirst one I did was um, and I
really loved working with kids.
I love some people don't likethe parent child dynamic aspect.
I loved it.
I'm like, this is a great wayto educate the child and the
parent at the same time.
Um, I did that, I was like,okay, I'm gonna be a
pediatrician.
Then I did internal medicine.
The whole first month that Idid it had a headache every

(20:34):
single day.
I was like, this is there's somany criteria for like
everything.
But then I really started toenjoy it.
You really feel like adetective, you know, when
somebody comes in and they'reshort of breath or um, you know,
they have leg swelling, youhave to rationalize, okay, what
could be going on, what's mostlikely, what's least likely, how
would I work this up?
And I really enjoyed it.
And I was like, well, dang, Idon't know how many choose.
And then that's when I foundout about med peeds.

(20:56):
I was like, okay, so you can doboth, and instead of doing
three years of each one, you cancombine it, um, combine those
into a residency that's fouryears.
So that's that's why I chose.

Korian (21:06):
And this was your year three also?

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Uh yeah, year three.

Korian (21:09):
Okay.
All right, and that I just wantto go back to your year three.
Was that your first rotation,or I don't think it was my first
rotation.

Speaker (21:17):
I think I did.
I know I did surgery beforethat, and oh my god, that was a
hot man.

Korian (21:22):
And that's her, I remember her surgery rotation.
Yeah, that was a hard rotation.

Speaker (21:26):
And the people were mean, and then we had a
perception that all surgeons aremean, right?
And then one of the fields ofsurgery that I rotated in
because you did general, sothere's different types of
surgeries.
Um, there's general surgeons,but one of my rotations was
cardiothoracic surgery.
Oh my god.
Amazing stuff to see, but itwas a lot, it was a lot going

(21:48):
on.

Korian (21:48):
How so?

Speaker (21:50):
Um well, there was a situation that happened with one
of the residents that was onthe rotation.
Um, but I can't speak too muchon this.
All right, that's fine.
That's fine.
That's fine.
Um I can't speak too much onthat.
I can tell you at a later time.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes, ma'am.

Korian (22:08):
Well you that's gonna be on the Patreon, y'all.
No.

Speaker (22:12):
Hey, look, I better get some of that profit.

Korian (22:14):
Hey, you definitely will.
You definitely will.
Oh man, so did you you you didyou know going into med school,
because you said you you eitherhate it or love it with being
an OBGYN?
Did you know that you wanted tobe that or did you have to?

Speaker (22:32):
I had no idea.
Um going back to Yazu City, Ididn't even know any doctors
growing up at all.
I didn't really do a lot ofshadowing of physicians because
I didn't know physicians toshadow.
Um so I had no idea.

Korian (22:44):
Okay.
And then you just thatparticular rotation, you said,
wow, this is this is it.

Speaker (22:49):
Yeah, and I I feel like in medical school, sometimes
people go in knowing what theywant to do.
But I I think a lot of peopleprobably don't have a clue, and
you really have to go in and dothose rotations or do shadowing
at that time, which is easier toshadow at that point, right?
Because you you kind of knowpeople you have your foot in the
door um to really see what a aday in the life is like.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Um what about oh I mean you just said yours, how
you went and Yeah, I I don'tthink before I got to med school
I knew exactly what I wanted todo.
Before I entered, I shadowed apediatrician, um, but it was
only outpatient setting, andthen a a family medicine
physician.
Um so but for for pediatrics,my experience since it was only

(23:32):
outpatient when I did itinpatient, I was like, oh, this
is this is different, it's it'spretty cool.
So okay.

Korian (23:37):
All right.
So after year three, we go intoyear four, and what's the
difference between year threeand four?

Speaker 1 (23:43):
I think four, you're talking about med school?
Yeah.
Um I it's more relaxed to anextent.
I mean, you know you've got umwith like step three, I think is
is year four, but you alreadyknow what you want to do, so
more of your energy is focusedtoward that, and your schedule
is also more relaxed.
You have less required coursesin every university, it may be
different, but at UMC, there'sthere's more um electives, so

(24:06):
you're you're doing stuff thatyou enjoy.
So I think year four was thethe easy answer.

Speaker (24:11):
Oh year four was without a doubt the best year.
And just like what she said, atthat point, you you you figure
out doing third year or secondyear what you want to do.
So your elective courses aregeared towards that.
So if I want to do OBGYN, likeI have mostly OBGYN rotations
and some other things.
If she wants to do med P, youknow, then she does internal

(24:31):
medicine and pediatric rotation.
So it was one of the mostenjoyable.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And um yeah, and you know more too.
So that that helps too whenyou're around, you're like,
okay, I've already heard thesequestions before, I know where
they're going with this, and thefocus is not on you either when
you're a fourth year.
Right.
So it was nice.
Okay.

Korian (24:48):
All right.
So also during fourth year,y'all y'all have that match
match.
Talk me through that.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
How the match goes?

Korian (24:58):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
So interesting times.
Um, so what do you do?
So you do a lot of interviews.
Um, I like that.
I like you know, drove arounddifferent places, got to see
different um hospitals and anduniversities, kind of see how
they they do their setup, andthen you start choosing places
that you want to go.
Um, and then you rank them.
So you you you put them on someI forget what it's called,

(25:21):
probably match.com.
I don't know, that's not right.
Not match.com something.
I I forget the name of it.
But you know, you you you go tothese different I saw I kept
it, you know, I'm veryorganized.
Yeah, and wrote them out andand wrote what I liked about
each one and which ones I waslike, okay, I'm for sure not
going here for whatever reason,too far or didn't like the
energy.
And then you you put them in,and then the the places that you

(25:42):
interviewed out at also rankyou, and it's supposed to be
geared toward the student morethan over.
Yeah, in terms of who gets thematch.
So if you chose a place high onyour list and they chose you
high on your list, then you'remore likely to match, like you
people call it getting theirtheir first choice.
Gotcha.
Um that sounds about right.
That's what I remember from it.

(26:03):
It feels like it's so long.

Speaker (26:04):
Yeah, that's the gist of it.
It sounds about right.
It is what it is.
I don't really like the systembecause I know that everybody
can't go to every place, andthey have to have some kind of
system to, you know, evenlydisperse everybody that needs a
spot to go for residency.
But sometimes I feel like youknow, you go to school for where
we're eight years in now, youspent $200,000 on your

(26:27):
education, and now when it'stime for you to train, you can't
truly choose fully where youwant to go.
Right.
Because you have to pick themand they have to pick you.
Right.
So I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I think that changed it up a little bit, like a year
or two um before I graduated.
There's something they diddifferent with the um rank rank
list, but I don't I don'tremember what it was.
I have to look into it.

Speaker (26:48):
I don't know what they did with it either.
But one of the worst parts isyou know, you can do this, go to
school for eight years, pay allof this money, and you cannot
match.
Yeah, and so that's a bigthing.
And if you don't match duringthat match year, you have to
wait a full year before you canapply again.

Korian (27:04):
Well, isn't there a isn't there like a scramble
period in between?

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, it's called a scramble, yeah.

Speaker (27:09):
Yeah, but not everybody that didn't match and like you
cannot match, do the scrambleand still not get in.
And so then you sit a fullyear, but you can't just sit a
full year and be idle and donothing.

Korian (27:20):
So, what are you doing in that year?

Speaker (27:22):
Most people do research or something like that.
Um, I don't think is it can youwork?

Speaker 1 (27:28):
You can work, you can you can do it.
This you're not required foryour work, of course.

Speaker (27:32):
You can work somewhere else, but like yeah, you you
can't you can't no you you'reyou're right.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
So you can't practice as as a medical doctor.

Korian (27:39):
Um, you could that's crazy though, because you are a
medical doctor, right?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Well, yeah, so well, so there's a few things.
Hold on, let's unpack.
So you can work in like, forexample, I know some people um
who didn't match um their firstyear and they worked like in our
um not necessarily in the lab,I don't know what they did.
They helped them like set upour medicine simulation, .
Right, and and they got paid todo that so you could say I'm I
was still you want to dosomething somewhat geared toward

(28:04):
the medical field becausethey're gonna ask you when you
match again um in the next year.
Well, what did you do likeduring that time?
Because they want to know thatyou know I was still passionate,
right?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker (28:13):
So it's an interesting system.
Yeah.
I still say that.
Because isn't that crazy?

Korian (28:18):
No, it is.
It is.
I mean, it's kind of I mean Iit it it I I all I can say it is
a crazy, it is stressful,peculiar, yeah, and stressful,
it's and stressful.

Speaker (28:29):
I I mean, like I said, I get why they want to do it
because say everybody might wantto go to Harbor to be there, or
residency.

Korian (28:36):
Yeah, or everybody, you know, want to go to California
or Florida, you know, all thepretty places.
Well, yeah, I understand it,but it's interesting.
Wow, that is that is very Imean, isn't that kind of on the
person also to kind of like notjust choose the pretty
locations, right?
Just you gotta go, you know, Idon't want to bash on Wyoming.
I don't know anybody fromWyoming, but I mean neither of

(28:57):
y'all went to interview inWyoming, right?

Speaker (29:00):
No, I I mean me personally, I won't I knew I
wanted to stay in the southeastarea.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Okay.
It I I feel like that can betricky though, because it's if
if you so you want to pickplaces um that you enjoy, pick
whatever place you arepassionate about, wanting to do
your residency, you can put thatat the top of your list.
It gets hard if you rank aschool as a safety net lower on
your on your um rank list andthey put you higher somewhere,

(29:25):
yeah, higher, but then anybodyelse who put that school higher
will match first.
So even if you set up yoursafety net, depending on how the
the algorithm works, if you putthem too low, you may not match
because the other people whoput them a little higher will
match.
So this algorithm that I'mstill skeptical about because
that's what they say, but it'sDid you get your first match?

Korian (29:44):
I did.
Okay.
I did, I'm sure they didn'tjust say because it I mean it I
I hear what you're saying, likeyou know, how many how so how
many schools could you put onyour rank list?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Was it 15?
I think it's a little bit.

Korian (30:00):
Okay.
All right.
So it It sounds like a lot, butit's so where would you put
your safety net if you had tochoose a safety net?
Where would you have put it?

Speaker 1 (30:09):
You mean what number did I start?
Yeah, I'm gonna say like youshould pick the true, true top
three.

Speaker (30:14):
Yeah.
And then start start doing fouror five.
Because you don't want to likeshe say I'm gonna put it too
low, and then you miss youropportunity because somebody
else put it higher.
Right.

Korian (30:21):
Okay.
All right, that makes sense tome.
Uh so we talked aboutresidency.
No, we didn't talk aboutresidency, we talked about
getting into residency.
So chat me up about yourresidency.
What what was it like?

Speaker 1 (30:32):
My it was a great experience.

Speaker (30:34):
Um one are you the only person in the United States
that's ever said?

Speaker 1 (30:38):
No, no, wait, wait, okay, wait, okay, so there's the
this residency within itself ishard, yes.
Yeah, um, but that's one of thereasons you need to pick a
place that you enjoy the people.
So I like umc because I knew alot of I did my um my undergrad
at not my undergrad, good group,my um medical school at umc.
So I knew a lot of theresidents, and the reason I

(30:59):
chose the um medpeeds at umc isbecause the residents I worked
with, yeah.
I was like, I was like, Ireally like these people.
They're very like easy to talkto, they're passionate about
what like everybody you could amedpeeds person stood out a mile
away.
It was like, you know, internalmedicine more like serious, and
the people who were in pedswere like, you know, kind of
more like lighthearted, and thenmed peds is like somewhere in

(31:20):
the middle, and you and theythey always stood out.
And I was like, I want that, Iwant to be now.

Korian (31:24):
Is that how you see yourself?

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yes, of course.
Um, but you know, it it's it'sit's good, you want to be around
that type of energy.
You want something residency isgonna be hard no matter what
you choose, just from thenatural progression of
responsibility in your field.
So you gotta you gotta picksomewhere that you love.
So even though mine was hard,and because residency is hard,
you got 24 hour shifts and allthis, you know, run into

(31:50):
electives and stuff that you youdon't really are passionate
about.
If you're around passionatepeople, it helps, it makes it
better.

Korian (31:56):
I understand.
I understand that's true.
Talk to me about yours.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
I feel like hers is tougher because you got but you
love OBGY.
Like, if I had to do surgery, Iwould listen.

Speaker (32:07):
I might have a tad bit of PTSD from residency.
Okay, residency is hard.
Um OBGYN residency is fouryears.
Um, the duration of residencyvaries depending on what field
you choose.
Um, but so OBGYN is four years,and we learn some clinical
things and some surgery thingsbecause we are doing mostly

(32:27):
clinic and some surgeries aswell.
Um, but I think residency washard because it is a lot of long
hours, a lot of high stress,and quite frankly, it's a lot of
women and a lot of hormones.
You know how we act when we arestressed and tired.

Korian (32:44):
So um I did not say that.

Speaker (32:47):
I mean, but truly though, so we worked, you know,
Monday through Friday, you know,and you might be on a clinic
rotation, you might be on asurgical rotation, it kind of
varies, but we all had weekendcall shifts, and so call shifts
would be at least two weekendsof month of the month.
Sometimes it would be threeweekends out of the month, and

(33:08):
pretty much if you're on callfor the weekend, the weekend is
out.
Right.
So you might be on you mightwork your shift from like you
know, 6 a.m., 5 30 a.m.
until 5 30 p.m.
And then you're on call from 530 p.m.
until I want to say we hadshift change at 8 the next day.
And so you either do a Friday,Sunday.
So if you do Friday, Sunday,you sleep all day Saturday.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Right.

Speaker (33:31):
Um, and the other option was that you do a 24-hour
shift on Saturday, andsometimes 24 hours lead to 25 or
26.
You know, I've experienced theyeah, yeah.
So if you do Saturday shift,you pretty much sleep on Friday
and probably Sunday after 24hour shift.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Right.

Speaker (33:49):
But you learn a lot, and again, I mean it's a lot of
information to learn within fouryears.
Right.
So um, but yeah, it wasinteresting times.
I'm glad to be done with it allfor sure.

Korian (33:59):
For sure.
Uh now, would you say residencyis almost like an extended
period of your OBG UIM rotationor your particular rotation with
internal medicine orpediatrics?

Speaker 1 (34:11):
To a degree, you mean like at from a medical
student and then when you getinto residency?
I wouldn't say it's totallylike it because the
responsibility is different.
So as a med school, as a medstudent, your primary job is
like presenting well.
Like I need to present well andknow the information.
When you're a resident, you'renot focused on presenting,
you're like, did I make sure Ireplaced this person's

(34:33):
electrolytes?
Did I make sure to go throughtheir home list and and um did
they get the um antibiotics?
What happened at sign-ups?
You know, it's just a for me,it was a different dynamic, and
the responsibility was heavierand it got you know
progressively heavier each year.

Speaker (34:48):
So I I agree with that.
And then as a medical student,um, on your OBGYE rotation, you
mostly look, even though I gotlucky and the first day I got a
chance to be involved in adelivery hands-on.
Um well, I say OB, they let youdo a lot of stuff on your OB
rotation as a medical student,but not really surgery things.

(35:09):
So when you are a resident,you're doing the surgeries
yourself because once you finishresidency, you're gonna be
doing the surgeries yourself.
So um that was one of thebiggest things that was
different.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I did not know that.
I did not realize y'all did itby yourself when my OBGYN
delivered me and she walked inthe room.
I was like, Where's her where'sher helper team?
I did not know it was Dr.
Hart, but she was she did agreat job.
She was getting there.
I was like, look at her go.
I had to see stuff.

Korian (35:34):
She wasn't looking.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
No, well, I mean, but I was it was just her, right?
Like she had she had atechnique.

Korian (35:40):
Yeah, she had to do with her the anesthesiologist in
the tech, but right theanesthesiologist doesn't count.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
No, I mean they they count.
Right, I know.
So I was like, yeah, it's a bigdeal.

Speaker (35:49):
You do it by yourself, yeah.
Um, and then clinic clinicresponsibilities are different
as a resident.
Um, as a medical student, youmight go see a patient and
present the information and kindof come up with the plan.
So you're working on learningthe basics and getting that
down.
Sometimes you get a chance todo an exam if the patient is
okay with you doing an exam as amedical student, and then again

(36:09):
as a resident, you're almostlike the the primary physician,
but you have a supervisingphysician who you report to um
and who comes to supervise youfor the exams and make sure
you're doing everythingcorrectly, but you pretty much
do all of the exams and thingslike that, and you make the
decisions, but again, under thesupervision of someone else to
make sure you're doingeverything correctly.

Korian (36:29):
Gotcha, gotcha.
So there's one you had ababy, right?
Uh in 2017.
So that would have been whatyear of med school for going
into fourth year.

Speaker (36:42):
Okay.

Korian (36:43):
So so talk to me about so you got pregnant towards the
end, middle end of your yearthree?

Speaker (36:50):
Mm-hmm.

Korian (36:50):
Okay, and then had it.

Speaker (36:52):
Yeah, I guess, well, more like beginning to middle
because no, wait a minute.
What the heck?
Yeah, okay.
I was pregnant during yearthree, right?
And I had her right at thebeginning of year four.
Because when do you take stepthree?
Step two.
Step two is before fourth year,right?
Um at the beginning of fourthyear.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Oh, I want to say somewhere in the like September
of fourth year.
So step three is um residencyum for most people, like first
and second year residency.
It's step two.

Korian (37:19):
Step two is in between it's third and fourth year.
Third and no, no, but theychanged it.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
It's um no no.

Speaker (37:26):
Step one is after first year, right?
Because it's like in August orSeptember.
Step one is after first year.

Korian (37:31):
No, step one is after second year, I thought.
Yeah, it's after second year.

Speaker (37:34):
Okay, then so step three is after third year.
Third year, yeah.

Korian (37:38):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker (37:38):
Somewhere is right at the end slash beginning.
Oh, it's like that was so longago, I know.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
I'm trying to, I'm not even trying to remember
anymore.

Korian (37:46):
In fact, in fact, you took your step exam.
That's what I wanted to tellyou.
You took your step exam rightafter you had her because I saw
you at the testing center.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
That's right.
I remember no, you she you wentinto labor.
Was that what happened?
You went into labor the day youwere supposed to, and she
thought it was just stress fromthe I'm sorry, let me I'm gonna
let you tell your story.
Go ahead, go ahead.
Go ahead.

Korian (38:06):
Go ahead, because I did not hear this story.

Speaker (38:08):
So interestingly, I was supposed to take step two the
day that I had my baby.
So August 15th.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Okay.

Speaker (38:19):
Is the day that I was scheduled to take my exam, and
the night before I was up, , hadtaken a bath, getting ready to
go to bed, and I felt a littlebit cramping, and I was like,
Oh, maybe I'm just stressed,maybe I'm just tired.
But throughout the night, thecramping got progressively
worse.
I'm waking my husband up andhe's like, What?
What's going on?
What's going on?
I'm like, I think I need to goto the hospital.
So um about nine o'clock in themorning, the day I was supposed

(38:40):
to be sitting, I was holding mybaby.
So I said I still need to tellher about that to this day.
But that was um, it was a veryinteresting time because I had
to get an excuse from my doctorbecause Steph is a pretty
serious.
You pay that money for, andthere's really unless you have a
medical emergency or a medicalexcuse, I didn't have a baby

(39:02):
counsel today.
So I had to get like a letterfrom my OBGYN saying that I was
in the hospital and everything,and go through this whole
process about getting thatrescheduled.
But then that meant for mestudying at home with the
newborn baby.
Right.
I can't remember.
I think I maybe rescheduled itfor about a month or so out.
Yeah.
Um and so me and me and my babywere there studying and we got

(39:23):
it done, knocked it out about amonth later.

Korian (39:25):
Okay, because I remember you you know having to bring
in an excuse.
You talked about that.
On my way to take the practicesdown, it's the test teachers
have to take to get certified.
Driving.
My brother is a principal.
Well, I'm just it's for mylisteners.
So I'm driving, I'm driving totake the test in so it's up

(39:47):
here it is Heinz.
So I was going to like Heinzand Utica or Heinz and Raymond,
I can't even remember.
And I'm driving, and herparents had gifted us a car.
It was an older.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Why are you gonna call my parents in?

Korian (39:58):
Uh well, I'm just starting.
It was an older Ultima, andlike the night before, the tire
was flat on the pass on thedriver's side rear tire was
flat.
So I aired it up.
So I'm three minutes out on theGPS from the testing site, and
I hear a boop.
Oh my god.
I was like, man, what was that?

(40:18):
So I take my foot off theaccelerator, and before I even
take my foot off theaccelerator, the odometer or
speedometer drops down to fromlike 60 to 30.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh goodness.

Korian (40:30):
I'm like, br , come on, man.
This can't be happening.
So I'm sitting there, I'm like,alright, just just take your
foot off the gas and coast in.
You're three minutes out.
Next thing I know, I look, Ihear a and I look out the
window, and the front tire onthe driver's side is rolling
next to me while I'm driving.
And I'm like, this can't bereal.

(40:54):
And I'm like, br .
And it's a two-lane road, mindyou, and there's nobody else on
the road, and I just veer intothe ditch.
I'm just sitting there, I'mlike, bro, what the world?
So I call up the test, I callup the the official people,
and it's a national, and it'ssome foreigner dude talking to
me, he's like, Well, you know,if you get it replaced, good
baby, come on.

(41:15):
If you get it replaced, ifyou gonna have to you gonna have
to redo or you have to send inan excuse, this, this, and this.
I'm like, br , I'm literallysitting here in a ditch.
Let me talk to you later.
Like, like I so I hang up andI'm like, all right, let me
let me let me call up the peopleat Pearl River or Hines,

(41:35):
and I tell them what'shappening, and they're like,
Well, there's a window for thistest site.
As long as you're here withinthree hours of that testing
window, you can take the test,right?
So you know, it's usually theytell you 10 minutes because you
but it's usually like like shesaid, it's it you got a
three-hour window.
Yeah, I didn't realize.
So I looked on the GPS and itsaid three-minute you know,

(41:59):
drive, 30-minute walk, becauseit was like a mile or two miles
or however long.
So I just got out of the carand walked the rest of the way,
put the tire in the car andwalked the rest of the way.
And I get there, and thelady's like, You him?
I was like, Yes, ma'am, that'sme.
I was sweating and stuff, tookit.
Everything worked out well.
Of course I'm him.
Who else would come in the way?
I passed the test and whatnot,and then I had to take practice

(42:22):
too, which is the day I saw you,and I was like, Hey, yeah, and
then you came in.
I was like, Yeah, you just hadyour baby.
So I just want to throw thatout there.
So, how was year four with thebaby though?

Speaker (42:32):
Like, I think fourth year is probably the best time
to have a baby.
You have the most time, you'rethe least stressed, and so it
was it was pretty good,actually.

Korian (42:42):
Okay, all right.
Well, I'm gonna step away realquick and check on that infant
we got upstairs.
Y'all just keep talking to eachother.
So let's let's gear theconversation towards what was
it like for you having a babyduring residency, the baby
number two?

Speaker (42:57):
That's exactly what I was just about to say.
All right, that's exactly whatI was about to say.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Okay, are we supposed to just start talking about oh
okay for so I had what the firstbaby um right after the first
year of residency, I would say.
Um, and why am I looking overat nothing?
Um okay, so after first yearresidency, and actually I I
think that's a a decent time todo it um to have a baby first

(43:21):
year.
First year residency?
Well, no, no, no, after thefirst year.
So what happened?
Something like that.
Okay, there's no perfect time.
I'm gonna start by saying that.
Exactly.
So my so the reason why I Istarted going ahead and having
children is because my um OB, Itold her, I was like, you know,
I'm gonna wait until I'm donewith residency and have told me
that too.
Yes, and she told me, she said,I recommend having kids when

(43:42):
you're ready.
There is no perfect time.
She was told um med schoolisn't a good time to have um
kids because you know you're sobusy.
Residency isn't a good timebecause you you got more
responsibility.
And then by the time she whenshe finished residency, she was
trying to get her career going,and that wasn't a good time.
She looked up, she was 38having the first kid.
Right.
She said, Look, life is notgonna um put itself on pause.

(44:05):
You can't put your home life onpause just for your career.
If you're ready to have kids,do that.
And I started at like age 32because I was like, Can I pause
you?

Speaker (44:14):
Can you tell me what I told you about having kids?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
No, I can't.

Speaker (44:17):
You forgot what I told you.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
What did you say?
Do it.

Speaker (44:20):
I literally told you the same thing, and you give her
all the credit and not me.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
You know what?
You sound like my sister'sanytime somebody says something,
I literally told you.
You you were right.
I'm not saying you didn't.
I I don't remember.
I it just stuck because I wasthere in her office, and that's
when I was like really, reallykind of too.
Um, it was baby, it was babynumber.

Speaker (44:38):
I told you that before you talked to her.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
You probably I didn't say you didn't, I believe you.
But , and then so it it trulyis a hard like first year is
hard because everything is sonew, and like I said, like from
going from med school whereyou're focused on presenting, to
like, okay, I actually need tomake sure I know how to treat
this.
I'm treating that person, I'mnot reading the what the
resident did.
I am the resident, right?

(45:01):
Um, so that is a hard, a hardtime to do it.
The key I think that made thedifference was the support.
So Corey and being one, being aschool teacher, worked out well
because residency hours arecrazy, and you can't you can't
predict call schedule all thetime, things change because you
could be the backup call personor something like that.
Um, so and it it worked outfine for me.

(45:22):
I think that because mypregnancy also went well.
That's another thing you can'tpredict.
Some people don't do well withtheir pregnancy.
Um, and I think baby babynumber one was easier than baby
number two.
Baby number two I had during myfourth year.
Um, and that was just a littleharder because I was still
working on well, I I knew whereI wanted to go, but the the
pregnancy was a little toughertoo.
I got very swollen and it andshe was doing the summertime.

(45:45):
Right.
And I'm I don't remember if Icalled, no, I called like the
hotline first, the my OBG afterhour.
Um, it was getting headachesand dizzy and just tired.
Whereas with the first one, Ihad the ankle swelling, that was
cute.
Or you know, remember I senty'all a picture of the ankle, so
totally different.
But anyways, I'd for anybodythink about having kids, you
just you it support is the mainthing.

(46:06):
It doesn't matter when you thethe the extra support from
family is what's gonna make thedifference.

Speaker (46:12):
Um so I had a child in medical school and I had a child
in residency.
I definitely think having achild in medical school was
easier and the timing wasperfect, it was right, you know,
during fourth year, um, whichis the the best year of medical
school.
And my second child, I'm like,you know, I'm like, was it after
second year?
I think it was between secondyear and third year.

(46:34):
So you go, you do your firstyear, you kind of get your
bearings and see how it is andmake sure everything's good, and
then after you get first yeardown, then if you want to start
thinking about it, you can.
Um, you do have um interviewsthough, and so sometimes people,
the thought is, well, do youwant to be pregnant during your
interview?
Which it has its pros and cons.

(46:57):
I do think that if you plan tohave kids, you want to have a
family, um, and you are planningto be a mother, you should want
to work um in an environmentthat is family friendly and who
allows you to put your familyfirst.
Same thing with being pregnantin medical school.
We have to interview kind ofwas that at the end of end of
fourth year.
Is it end of fourth year?

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Yeah.
Well, you're talking aboutinterview for residents?
Yeah, third year.
I feel like it was third year.
You have to, yeah, fourth year,but by the time you go into
fourth.
No, we need I'm lying.
I don't cover it.
No.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
So what?

Speaker 1 (47:28):
No, because you match in March.
So you okay, third year.

Speaker (47:31):
It's got to be beginning of summer, fourth
year, something like that.

Korian (47:33):
So in the third year, beginning of fourth year,
something like that.

Speaker (47:36):
But that was the other question that people have like,
do you want to be pregnant onresidency interviews?
Do you wait?
Did I say that right?
Do you want to be pregnant onresidency interviews or
whatever?
Same thing.
You want to go to a placethat's family friendly.
So I mean, if you're pregnant,it is what it is.
It is what it is.
Because again, like you said,there is no perfect time to have

(47:57):
a baby in the medical field.

Korian (47:59):
True.
I mean in life.
That's true.
That's true.
Yeah, what it is.
Uh I remember her at the end ofher rotation or graduation
for Mad Ps, Dr.
Uh Dr.
Henson made a joke.
It was like, yeah, Jasmineknows she's been pregnant the
whole residency.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
It felt like it because you know it's almost a
year long and it's a four it'sfour-year residency.
I got pregnant after the firstyear, and then during the fourth
year felt like the the wholethe the whole time.
Yeah.

Korian (48:28):
All right, so before we wrap this up, let's just go
ahead and start talking aboutgoing into your your how did you
get your jobs basically?
Like how did you've been on alot of interviews at this point.
You had to go, I mean, skip anundergrad.
We had to go one for redmed school, had to do one for
residency.
Now you're doing one for yourcareer, your actual job.

(48:50):
What's that like?

Speaker (48:51):
Lots of fun.

Korian (48:52):
Okay.

Speaker (48:53):
Those these were the best interviews.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah, because they I would say you know they want
you.
Yeah, you might be interviewedby a place.

Speaker (48:59):
Yes, you're done with all your schooling, you have
your degree, um, and people needhealth care providers
everywhere.
So you go, um, you get to knowthem, they get to know you.
You've already sent in your CV,so they already know, you know,
what your credentials are andeverything.
So it's really a matter of justmaking sure that you're a good
fit to work with the people thatyou're gonna work with.

Korian (49:22):
How so?

Speaker (49:23):
Like socially.
Okay.
Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Korian (49:26):
So you just check it's more is it more of your
interviewing them or they'reinterviewing you?

Speaker (49:31):
How is that over it's almost like they're taking you
out on a date.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, they literally take youdown.
Yeah, they go, you yeah, theywind you downtown, all that
stuff.
Yeah, they give you you you goout, um, sometimes they'll you
know pay for your housing, payfor your travel, even to get you
there.
You go, usually it's veryinformal, you know.
You go eat and they get to knowyou, your family.

(49:54):
They're not asking you where doyou see yourself in the next
five years?
They might ask you somequestions about like, well, did
you have experience doing this?
For example, as an OBGYN umresident, some programs you
train to do circumcisions forbabies, and some programs you do
surgeries on the the robot.
Um, so they want to know didyou have any robot experience,

(50:15):
or did you have experience doingcircumcision?
So just small things like that,but nothing super, super
formal.

Korian (50:21):
Okay.
All right, so same for you.

Speaker (50:25):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Yep.
And I say, you know how we talkabout.
Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to cutyou off.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
No, I was just thinking about um in terms of
why I chose where I chose, whichobviously you know why.
Ocean Springs is right by wherewe grew up, Beluxy.

Speaker (50:38):
I say you have the most leverage at this point in your
life, yeah.
Because we talked about umgetting into medical school, we
talked about match day and allof that.
So now you have the mostleverage, you can truly pick
where you want to go.
So that's how I think about it.

Korian (50:54):
All right, so before we wrap up, Dr.
Alexander, I got one questionfor you.
What is a doula?

Speaker (51:01):
What is a doula?
Yes.
I think of the most simple wayto explain what a doula is, a
doula is a birth coach.
So I think in um in some umcultures, your doula might be
your grandmother or yourgreat-grandmother.
You know, like back in the day,you watch movies and things
like that, and there was alwaysthis lady.

Korian (51:21):
Oh, and she like put the towel on the head.
Yeah, I got it.

Speaker (51:23):
Yeah, the one that takes care of the mom during
their pregnancy and during theirlabor.
So that's pretty much whatdoula is.

Korian (51:28):
Okay, all right.
Makes sense because I I see itall the time.
I'm like, I have no idea whatthis is.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
You were you were mine for for COVID.
We had to put you as thebecause they weren't allowing .
Yeah, they didn't allow anyvisitors, and and so it
obviously was hospital dependentor an OB dependent.
She said your husband could beyour doula.

Korian (51:47):
Oh, I thought I was just okay.
I thought I was just you were adoula.
And look at me, I didn't evenknow it.
Let me put that on my resume.
I'm a doula, you know.
Victoria, you will see this, ,Victoria Hart, you know who I'm
talking about.
Um, so before we get up out ofhere, just y'all have any
projects coming up or anythinglike that?
Anything you want to share?

Speaker (52:08):
Projects.

Korian (52:09):
Are you working on anything?
Research, anything like that?
Y'all, anything y'all want toshare?
Or what's what's the mostcommon thing you see in your
practices or anything like that?

Speaker 1 (52:18):
I don't know if I have any upcoming projects.
Um, you know, some of mypassions that I I guess aspire
to eventually do is um wellnessactivities.
So I enjoy um like healthchallenges.
So like what one thing that Ilike about Singham River, who I
work for, is they'll have likeum steps challenge, like how
many steps you can take in amonth, or some type of weight

(52:40):
loss challenge.
Um, and I want to helpfine-tune that.
It's a little harder nowbecause our kid the kids are so
young, so I don't have a chanceto focus on outside projects
other than like kind of justday-to-day get I'm still getting
my feet wet.
I've only been practicing for ayear, but that's what I hope to
do later down the road is somemore stuff with wellness.
Okay.

Speaker (52:58):
I don't have any projects for the immediate time.
Um, the biggest thing I'mworking on right now is getting
ready for board, so lots oftesting throughout undergrad,
medical school, residency.
And you think you're done,right?
You finish residency, but youstill have boards to take.
But this is the last one, andthen after we do this one, this

(53:18):
is a pretty big one um where youbecome board certified.
But after that, you just youkind of have to do um
maintenance of certification.

Korian (53:25):
Yes, CEUs, right?
Continue education credit, oryou know.

Speaker (53:29):
We call it CMEs, but same thing.

Korian (53:30):
So it's the teacher in me, you know.
You you know because yourbrother's a principle, you know.

Speaker (53:34):
Okay.
Same thing.

Korian (53:36):
All right.
So before we get y'all, doy'all mind showing shouting out
your Instagrams or any othersocial media or anything like
that?

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Yeah, true.
I don't mind.
Um, so my Instagram is atSweetie Pie Yep underscore yep.
I don't I don't know.
I came with the years ago and Idon't remember why.
There was a reason, butanyways, that's what it is.
Um, and then what else?
That's it.
Uh other than that, what do youthink of the face?
Then Facebook is just my name,Jasmine Patchy.
I don't use Snapchat, eventhough I still have an account.

(54:02):
Don't use it.

Speaker (54:03):
So can we just clarify your Instagram name again?
What is it?
I don't it's like at SweetiePie underscore yep.
Isn't that right?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yep.
Yep, yep.

Speaker (54:12):
That's it.
Yeah.
And um for my social media, youcan find me on Facebook at um
my name, Gabrielle Alexander,and for Instagram, TikTok is
GabSoFab.
You have TikTok?
Yeah, girl.
I feel like is that yourInstagram?
Is my TikTok Gab So Fab?

Korian (54:28):
I thought that was your Instagram.

Speaker (54:29):
That is my Instagram.
What's my TikTok?

Korian (54:31):
I don't have a TikTok, so I wouldn't know.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
See, I feel like I just I just couldn't.
I'm like, there's too manysocial media platforms.
I just look at that.

Speaker (54:40):
My TikTok is at drgmd.

Korian (54:44):
Okay.

Speaker (54:45):
Yeah.
All right.
Hey, we'd know.
Good to know.

Korian (54:48):
Hey, we're gonna run these numbers up, y'all.
Hey, this did hey, but that'sit.
That's it.
I appreciate y'all ladies forcoming on.
It wasn't that bad, was it?

Speaker 2 (54:56):
No.

Korian (54:57):
See, we're we sitting here at the time limit and we
could have knocked this outyears ago, but you know, it's
not no hard feelings.

Speaker (55:03):
Probably y'all I'm thinking about some future
topics already.
Okay, all right.

Korian (55:09):
There's some you would you be down for future topics?

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Um no, this was terrible.
No, I'm just gonna obviously Iwouldn't be more than happy.

Speaker (55:16):
One of the things that I want to talk about in the
future would be how it is to bea mother in medicine.
Okay, yeah, that's it.
I think that's a big one, youknow.

Korian (55:25):
Okay, we could do that interview tomorrow.
I'm here for my health side.
Change the circuit.
All right, hey, so this hasbeen another episode of For
the Health of It.
I'm your host, Corinne KPAPage,and thank you all for listening
and watching.
Please like, comment, andsubscribe.
And thank you for listening tothis podcast, however you

(55:47):
consume your podcast.
And cut.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
You can press pause on the audio.