Reclaiming Life | Episode 39
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[00:00:00] Hi, this is Dr. Kara Wada.
[00:00:02] I'm a board certified pediatric and adult allergy immunology and lifestyle medicine physician.
[00:00:08] Certified Life Coach
[00:00:09] Medical Educator
[00:00:10] Systemic Sjogrens Patient
[00:00:13] The purpose of this podcast is to Educate and Empower
[00:00:16] While discussing all things related to Allergies, Autoimmunity, and Anti-inflammatory Living.
[00:00:21] My goal is to help you navigate the healthcare and wellness industries with more clarity and control.
[00:00:27] If this sounds incredible to you, then you are in the right place.
[00:00:30]
[00:00:35] Welcome back everyone to this episode of the Crunchy Allergist Podcast. My name is Dr. Kara Wada. I am a board certified pediatric and adult allergy, immunology and lifestyle medicine doc, certified life coach and systemic Sjogren's patient, and I am so incredibly excited and overjoyed to [00:01:00] welcome a colleague and someone that has been inspiring me for, oh goodness, about five plus years and I'll explain a little bit more about that.
[00:01:11] But that is Dr. Maureen Michelle. She is an award-winning leader, life coach, author and physician.
[00:01:20] As a general pediatrician and allergist immunologist. She spent, has spent her career caring for patients with a variety of acute and chronic health problems.
[00:01:29] She's a military veteran and has enjoyed using her storytelling talent to teach young physicians the art of medicine, including me.
[00:01:38] She is an accomplished life coach who helps parents of chronically ill children regain control of their lives and thrived at fulfillment.
[00:01:47] Maureen is a mother of three amazing children and has firsthand experience with being a parent of a child with long-term health issues and we're gonna dive all into that.
[00:01:55] I always like to start off our episodes with a little bit about how we met.
[00:01:59] [00:02:00] And I actually was privileged to participate in a leadership program during my first year as an attending physician that Dr. Maureen spoke at.
[00:02:10] And I told her I remember coming back to Columbus feeling so energized and inspired by the story she shared, and we're gonna dive into more of that story today.
[00:02:23] But that's essentially the basis of this work that we're gonna talk about. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:02:30] Kara, I am so excited to be here and I am so happy that our paths crossed again in a different way.
[00:02:40] It is funny how the universe works sometimes.
[00:02:44] It is, and it's these little breadcrumbs.
[00:02:46] And it's so funny. I was reflecting back earlier this week just on where I was as a human at that point in time, leaving that conference.
[00:02:57] At O'Hare Airport, I was running to try to [00:03:00] catch my flight. I went to the wrong gate and I had a pretty significant asthma attack.
[00:03:05] I had never had one, which was I had some exercise symptoms, but I just recall, and it predated my diagnosis of Sjogren's.
[00:03:13] As you think about these different little breadcrumbs of where things fall in your life, it really. Sometimes magical.
[00:03:22] It truly is. It truly is. And just how, things came about with the two of us reconnecting and how we're gonna talk about my book and how that came about.
[00:03:37] It is truly like paying attention to all of these little breadcrumbs, as you call it in life, like really lead you down a spectacular path.
[00:03:50] Absolutely. And maybe if you wouldn't mind just sharing with us how you are where you are now. Yeah. What about your story?
[00:03:57] So I have [00:04:00] grown up always wanting to be a doctor and not just wanting to be a doctor, but wanting to be a pediatrician specifically.
[00:04:07] Even can remember when I was a kid playing the game of life, like I would want to draw the doctor card and want to fill my little car with the peg children.
[00:04:22] And so I went to college, joined rotc and that's how I entered the military, still with this desire to be a physician. Went off to the military's medical school.
[00:04:39] Graduated, went into pediatric residency and was like living my best life. The watching my dreams come true and everything came to a screeching halt.
[00:04:54] When during my third year of pediatric residency, my [00:05:00] daughter, who's my second child was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the age of six months.
[00:05:07] That was a massive gut punch and thought like life was over. The how was I gonna do this? I didn't want to do this. This wasn't part of my dream.
[00:05:23] The she was six months old at the time.
[00:05:26] I continued in residency was on a leave of absence for a little while as she went through surgery and chemo and the whole works.
[00:05:35] She did great.
[00:05:37] Survived went and did annual follow ups, had been cancer fee free. Everything was fantastic.
[00:05:46] And I was like back on my journey of knowing that, "Okay, this was just a road bump in life and all of the things I dream about can truly come true.
[00:05:58] That I can [00:06:00] forget about this, put this all behind me. I continued as a military physician and when Kylie, my daughter, was then age 12.
[00:06:12] She just, out of the blue one weekend I noticed, was like going to the bathroom and peeing very frequently.
[00:06:23] I kept asking her questions like, "What's the matter with you? Is everything okay? Or does it hurt when you pee? Are you going the normal amount? What's going on? And everything was fine.
[00:06:35] Like she yeah, mom, I'm going the normal amount. It doesn't hurt. So I was like, this is just weird. But had known, "Okay, we had already been through her having cancer and surviving that.
[00:06:50] So I figured, I'm invincible now.
[00:06:53] Like the going through that, like the universe isn't evil enough [00:07:00] to give me another problem.
[00:07:02] That the I am a physician and I don't have sick kids, but I already did have a sick child and now I'm golden.
[00:07:14] We checked that box, checked it done, yes. And filled my quota.
[00:07:19] The following day, she went off to school and had attended a ballet school for the arts at the time.
[00:07:29] Texted me at school and said, mom I don't know whatever you need to bring home to fix me, you need to bring home, because I have peed 12 times today.
[00:07:43] Oh. So I thought to myself, okay, clearly she has a urinary tract infection.
[00:07:49] Didn't want to go pick her up from school, take her all the way home to figure out that we would have to go back into the [00:08:00] hospital where I work to get her antibiotics and that whole thing.
[00:08:04] So I decided I was going to be her physician and I was going to bring the supplies to her school.
[00:08:16] So I went and grabbed a urine cup and a urine dipstick and brought it into school. She then meets me in the lobby and says, "Did you bring it? Did you bring it?"
[00:08:30] And I gave her the supplies and said, yes, go pee in this cup and call me when you're done.
[00:08:36] She calls me into this tiny school bathroom after she had peed in the cup. I take the dip stick and in this tiny school bathroom, dip the urine dip stick and just watch it go super dark with glucose in her urine.
[00:08:53] And from being a pediatrician knew immediately she had type one diabetes.
[00:08:58] Because there [00:09:00] wasn't any other diagnosis that would create that constellation of symptoms.
[00:09:06] We went through, that journey of another hospitalization and through taking care of her. It has been a massive challenge.
[00:09:18] But I have learned so much about myself. I have learned so much about life.
[00:09:26] I am a better mother. I'm a better person. I'm a better physician, all because these challenges have happened.
[00:09:35] And so I wanted to figure out a way to share all of this with people who walk a similar path and are in a similar kind of journey so that they don't have to struggle or feel alone.
[00:09:55] That they can learn from what I have [00:10:00] experienced.
[00:10:00] And so that has brought me then to coaching and sharing my story and writing a book and all the things.
[00:10:11] Will you tell us a little bit about your book? What is it called and what will we gain from reading it?
[00:10:16] Absolutely. The title of the book is Reclaiming Life. It is a parents guide for caring for chronically ill children.
[00:10:27] The book is filled with stories of what I've experienced as a mom through Kylie's journey. Pediatric cancer through Kylie's journey with diabetes. And then each chapter of the book is related to a specific topic.
[00:10:50] So for example, there is a chapter on fear, and in that chapter there's a story of [00:11:00] Kylie with neuroblastoma, Kylie with diabetes, a story of patients that I took care of.
[00:11:07] And then each chapter has lessons to help teach people about that specific topic from their ability to read and reflect on those stories that are.
[00:11:21] So it sounds like this would be a great resource for any, especially any parent that is dealing with a kiddo with any serious health condition, food allergy, significant asthma, certainly pediatric cancer, all these things that for many of us, as a mom, some of the things that keep us up at night.
[00:11:46] Absolutely. I hope that the majority of the people that read my book are not experiencing the same health issues with their [00:12:00] child that I have gone through.
[00:12:01] Now I know there will be readers that absolutely are facing those pretty significant challenges.
[00:12:10] And I know this book can help them.
[00:12:13] But I will also say my hope is that there are readers who can learn from the lessons that I provide even with children with learning disabilities or autism.
[00:12:31] Or like you said things in our allergy wheelhouse.
[00:12:36] Yeah, I'm just.
[00:12:36] Asthma, food allergy.
[00:12:37] And eosinophilic esophagitis.
[00:12:39] Absolutely.
[00:12:40] Yeah.
[00:12:40] Absolutely. Some of that too, I think about it and one of the chapters in there is about courage and I have seen it and I'm sure you have too.
[00:12:52] The ability for a parent to have courage to advocate for their child is [00:13:00] so valuable. Because some parents who don't come from a medical background come into the physician's office and are terrified to ask questions and I as a physician just want them to leave with a great understanding of what's going on with their child so that they're better able to take care of their child.
[00:13:27] And advocating in the school is another thing. So the lessons that I write about in the book I think is very applicable to any parent that is facing an issue with their child.
[00:13:44] I will also say that folks who aren't even parents can learn from the book.
[00:13:52] I ,in my journey, have lectured to residents about being on the [00:14:00] patient side of medicine and learning what patients go through, I think makes us a stronger physician.
[00:14:11] Absolutely.
[00:14:12] But even just having somebody who maybe even doesn't have kids or doesn't have a medical background that they're ability to appreciate the things that other parents go through is so important.
[00:14:29] I could definitely see too, like aunties and grandparents as well, those other advocates that can be so important to help either the patient or the parent having an advocate there is just so helpful to remind that person that needs to communicate during the visit what they intended to communicate.
[00:14:53] Because so often when I see, and when I've experienced too on the patient side of things is you get into this fight [00:15:00] or flight mode and your brain just can't fully express or communicate what you intended necessarily during that usually visit, that's shorter than you would ideally have.
[00:15:14] Right? And like both you and I are life coaches and with life coaching.
[00:15:22] Like I didn't have a life coach when I went through all of this. And just having somebody and you had mentioned like aunties and grandparents and that having somebody who can remind somebody going through a struggle that, it's okay.
[00:15:41] Like they're doing the best that they can and there are tough times in life, but we're gonna get through it.
[00:15:51] And getting through it to be able to see the beautiful part of life is something [00:16:00] that is incredibly important.
[00:16:03] And taking experience and like making lemonade out of lemons is something that a coach can help with.
[00:16:15] Working with somebody to do that. Having that feedback from a family member or a friend to be a reminder is I think in reflecting on my experience would've been an incredibly valuable thing to have at the time.
[00:16:33] Absolutely. And there's data out there to suggest too that the ability to make meaning out of a situation doesn't necessarily mean you have to like fully appreciate.
[00:16:46] Or think that this is the best thing that ever happened to you or anything along those lines, but to be able to make meaning out of hardships and circumstances that we experience in our lives [00:17:00] is powerful.
[00:17:01] Yes, yep. It truly is. And the I have in reflecting on my own journey with being Kylie's mom and realizing that I, in my medical practice, have gravitated to patients who've had a lot of health issues, who are more kind of complicated.
[00:17:27] And been shown up as a physician who not only helps with their medical problems, but also is there to listen and allow them to vent and acknowledge how hard it is and being able to take that experience and share it with others so that they know that it's okay. And share that knowledge with others that what a great world [00:18:00] this would be.
[00:18:00] Ah, yeah. There's the thing that I hear time and time again, and I primarily work with an adult population, but just being felt like you've been seen and heard.
[00:18:13] Yes.
[00:18:13] And having that experience validated and you feel like you're believed, is a powerful part of that healing dynamic and that healing relationship between physician healthcare professional and the person who's coming in looking for help.
[00:18:28] Yes. And the you said about like the healing process and I will even go out on a limb and say helping others has been part of my healing journey too.
[00:18:43] This book was in my heart and mind for years because my kids always ask questions or want me to tell a story.
[00:18:57] And when Kylie had [00:19:00] neuroblastoma like that, they were, she doesn't remember it. My oldest was too young to remember it.
[00:19:06] My third child wasn't even born yet. So I had always had it in my heart and mind to document it in a book for my kids. Yeah.
[00:19:16] And when I finally understood how it could help other parents.
[00:19:22] Then I really got inspired to do it and thought to myself, I'm gonna crank this out like in a weekend because these, yeah, the stories, right? These stories are like, on the forefront of my mind.
[00:19:36] And be easy. I've lived this, this'll be a piece of cake and I can tell you Kara, like it, I did not appreciate how much of an emotional journey I was gonna go on when I sat down to write out these stories because it was [00:20:00] reliving stories that in excruciating detail.
[00:20:06] And but when I finished writing the book, I closed my laptop and like just started to cry and realized how much putting that on paper and reliving it now as an outsider on watching my own movie that it really helped my heart heal.
[00:20:30] And just knowing too that how much value that it is going to be for others, like just made me, those tears were tears of joy to know that my experience that I hate diabetes. I hate neuroblastoma. I hate pediatric cancer.
[00:20:51] But that experience I would never want to change because it has made me into a [00:21:00] stronger, better person that I am today.
[00:21:04] Yeah. And there it's interesting thinking and I'm just nerding out thinking about the the neuroscience of where when we're able to take something that is that first person and move it to the third person, there is something that happens in our brains.
[00:21:19] Yes. And that really is kind of part of the whole process, which is really cool. And yes. When you study the human body for a living you get excited about these things sometimes.
[00:21:29] Yeah. And the I had realized in writing the book that. Those stories that I have put in there I was almost like trying to forget those stories and in writing them.
[00:21:46] And it became like It was almost, in trying to forget, it was almost this like resisting the emotions of the stories. Yeah.
[00:21:58] And then, so [00:22:00] the process of going through it as an author really helped with processing each of those emotions that I had tried to suppress for so long.
[00:22:14] So I am grateful for the experience.
[00:22:18] I didn't write it in a weekend and it was way longer than that.
[00:22:25] But I'm so people will probably wanna read it in a weekend.
[00:22:28] Yes. Way easier to read it than write it in a weekend. For sure.
[00:22:35] And it is coming out really soon.
[00:22:38] Tell us where, how we can get our hands on it and how we can help you spread the word on a topic that I think is near and dear, obviously to both of our hearts. And I'm sure many of our listeners too.
[00:22:50] Yeah. So the book will be available on Amazon on December 13th.
[00:22:57] The way to get it is, it's [00:23:00] called Reclaiming Life, it can be found on Amazon.
[00:23:04] I also have a website that is maureenmichellemd.com.
[00:23:10] The book can be found on the website too. Spreading the word. I would just love for your listeners to check it out and read it.
[00:23:21] Learn something from it. Write a review on Amazon. Share it with a friend. Share it with somebody who is going to need it and doesn't have the strength or courage to add it to their Amazon cart.
[00:23:36] Yeah, I think that, I'm just thinking of, some of those friends or family members that this might end up as a little extra holiday gift on the list and my understanding, you have it available on Kindle and paperback, and we'll have links to website and to the Amazon listing on the show notes so people can just click over and pick it up and give it a read. [00:24:00] I am really excited.
[00:24:01] I'm part of the launch team, so I got my copy downloaded just last night.
[00:24:06] Unfortunately, I was husband was not home last night, so I did not get to crack it open. Unfortunately.
[00:24:10] That was my real, my hope before we got to record this today, but we wanted to make sure to get this out. So that everyone could hear and learn about it so that you could have a successful launch.
[00:24:23] Aw. I truly hope that the, that the message of the book gets out there and in the hands of the right people.
[00:24:34] Because I want it, I truly want it to be able to help those individuals that need it.
[00:24:43] It's so powerful and I think there's so much so much in parallel in being the patient, being the parent, being a caregiver, that it's really going to help so many people.[00:25:00]
[00:25:00] Thank you,
[00:25:00] Kara.
[00:25:01] Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm so yay excited for you and I can't wait to dig in this weekend.
[00:25:08] Thank you.
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