01/20/2024
Letter to my patients:
I have something important to share with you, but before I get to that, I want you to know a little of my story.
I earned my MD degree in 1994 (That's me in the embedded pic on graduation day with my family. Yes, I was born a brunette; as I always joke, I'm not getting older, just blonder). I began private practice in 1998, so I’m nearing my 26th year as an OB GYN, 30 years if you count the 4 years in residency. I went back to medical school at age 27, graduated med school at age 31 and finished residency at age 35. I turned 61 in November. It’s been an interesting life on this long road. Life as an OB GYN has never been easy, but it’s always been worth the reward of being included in someone’s most important day of their life.
I started practice at Renaissance Center in Midwest City with five of the most experienced doctors in the metro: Stan Chard, Paul Edmonds, Frank Barnett, Belinda Broady-Symes and Tom Bryant. The "olds" guys were all about the same age I am now. Many of my skills I have now, I owe to their mentorship. I spent another 3 years in Everett, Washington, after we moved to the Seattle area so my husband could complete his fellowship at University of Washington. There, I worked in a very large practice of 14 OB GYNS and learned how doctors on the coast practice medicine. It was a great experience and more skills were learned. My next stop, when we moved back to Oklahoma, was spent at the University of Oklahoma were I spent six years teaching med students and residents, as well as attending to a busy private practice. I expanded my professional scope into health care administration, but yearned to return to direct patient care only, so I joined the private practice group at INTEGRIS Edmond in 2012. This has been an absolutely wonderful place to work. During this time, we’ve grown from 4 to 7 physicians, adding a physician’s assistant and nurse practitioner. I’m really proud of the care we give to our patients, striving hard to practice evidence based medicine. I think OB GYN’s are some of the hardest working physicians in medicine, as we’re pretty much always on call. The incredible women I practice with are my “ride or die’s”, as they’ve always been there for me in the good and bad times.
With all that being said, I’ve decided my time to retire from private practice has come. I still feel young, but one gets to a point when they know it’s time to walk on to something else. As cliché as it sounds, I know I am truly blessed to have been able to serve others as an OB GYN. Looking back, I feel lucky to have even made it in to medical school and my residency of choice! I’ve been blessed by all the doctors and nurses that I have the good fortune to work with over the years. I can’t say enough about the quality of people that work at INTEGRIS Health Edmond. Top down, starting with Jon Rule, Chief Hospital Executive (aka “president”) to every single person who works in our hospital and clinics, I could not imagine a better group of dedicated professionals to care for our patients.
To my patients, it has truly been my privilege and honor to have been a part of your lives. Thank you for trusting me. I've laughed and cried with you and learned much about the human spirit from you. Time has flown taking care of you and your families.
The last chapter of my professional life will be spent as a laborist in OU’s Labor and Delivery unit. I’m returning to where my education first started and I’ll finish my career in service of teaching residents and med students again. I’m really excited for the opportunity. I’ll go from working most days to just 8 shifts a month. I will no longer have private patients, office hours or perform gyn surgery, but my goal is to have a better work-life balance. This is kind of my “retirement job”, as I’m not the kind of girl to just sit around! I will transition from Integris to OU mid April.
Thanks again to every one who has supported me in this journey.
