D.O. or Do Not: The Osteopathic Physician's Journey for Premed & Medical Students

Episode 39: Tara Gaston D.O. Orthopedic Resident

March 23, 2021 Season 1 Episode 39
D.O. or Do Not: The Osteopathic Physician's Journey for Premed & Medical Students
Episode 39: Tara Gaston D.O. Orthopedic Resident
Show Notes Transcript

Welcome to our 39th episode and the fourth installment in the resident physician series. Today, we have Dr. Tara Gaston, a fifth-year orthopedic resident at Rowan University and Jefferson-Kennedy Hospital. Prior to receiving her DO degree at Rowan University, she obtained a master's in physiology and biophysics and a bachelor's in biology at Gettysburg College. She is married to a previous guest we have had on this podcast, Dr. Ryan Moncman, a neurosurgery resident.

In this episode, Dr. Gaston talks about what made her choose orthopedic surgery and her journey into the challenges faced by female physicians in what is historically perceived as a male-dominated field. We hope you enjoy this episode and our others dedicated to Women’s History Month.

This episode was hosted by Daniella Rodriguez OMS-III at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Edited by Thomas Jasionowski

My name is Dr. Ian Storch. I'm a board-certified gastroenterologist and osteopathic physician,

and you are listening to DO or DO NOT. If you are interested in joining our team or

have suggestions or comments, please contact us at www.DoOrDoNotPodcast.com. Share our

link with your friends and like us on Apple Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to our 39th episode in our third installment

in the resident physician series. Today we have Dr. Tara Gaston. Dr. Gaston is a fifth-year

orthopedic resident at Rowan University and Jefferson Kennedy Hospital. Prior to receiving

her DO degree at Rowan University, she obtained her master's in physiology and biophysics

and a bachelor's at Gettysburg College. She is married to a previous guest we have

had on this podcast, Dr. Ryan Machman, a neurosurgery resident. In this episode, Dr. Gaston talks

about what made her choose orthopedic surgery and her journey into the challenges to women

in what is historically perceived as a male-dominated field. We hope you enjoy this episode and

our others dedicated to Women's History Month. This episode was hosted by Daniela Rodriguez,

OMS3 at Midwestern University, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Thank you, Dr. Gaston, for being with us today. We're very excited to have you. Very happy

to be here. Thank you for having me. Tell us what your regular day looks like. Sure.

I get up usually around 4.45. I get ready. I get to the hospital any time, depending

on the day, between 5.30 and 6.30. I sign out with my team, and then we kind of split

up and see our patients, and then we head to the OR or the office, and then we technically

finish I guess around 6 p.m., but obviously if the office day is longer or if you're

in the OR longer, you kind of just hang out until you're finished. Yeah. And then repeat.

Tell us some of the specific things that you do with your patients just kind of on a regular

basis. Sure. In the hospital, I will see consults, anything ranging from brain strains, hematomas,

more so trauma, falls, car accidents. So they come in and they have a broken bone that either

needs urgent care or something we can kind of temporize and then have them see us in

the office. So I do a lot of fracture reductions in the hospital. I remember as a student,

that was one of the main things that got me interested in ortho to begin with. And then

if I'm in the operating room, it depends on what service I'm on. So right now, for example,

I'm on sports. So today I was in the OR and we had two knee scopes with meniscal repairs.

We had an ACL reconstruction. We had a hip labral repair, and then we had a distal biceps

repair. So how much of your day do you spend in the OR versus how much of it do you spend

in the office? I would say we spend two or three days a week in the OR and then two or

three days a week in the office, depending on what service you're on. Some services like

a joints or adult reconstruction service, you're usually in the OR like three days a

week in the office, two days a week. Whereas right now on the sports service, I do like

three days a week in the office and two days a week in the operating room. Obviously as

a resident, we like being in the OR a lot more than we like being in the office, but

we learn how important it is. That's like the surgeon motto, right? If you'd rather

be anywhere in the world other than the OR. Exactly. Exactly. So as an orthopedic surgeon,

do you see mostly like elective kind of stuff or do you see acute trauma surgery kind of

thing? What exactly is the kind of- Yeah. So I went into orthopedics. One of the reasons

at least was because I wanted to do elective surgeries. I didn't want to be one of those

attendings that would get called frequently after hours and have to go in for emergent

consults. So I would say in general, orthopedics is mostly elective surgeries. However, some

of the subspecialties such as trauma, pediatrics, even tumor, you're a little bit more on call

and seeing a little bit more of those acute injuries that come in. However, as a resident,

we see a lot of acute things because we're kind of the first line in the hospital. So

we see a lot of acute fractures. So we do a lot of those, the like preliminary work

reductions or setting a patient up for the OR. So what's your on call schedule like?

Right now, it's not as bad as it was. In the beginning of residency, it's pretty brutal.

You are probably on call every other weekend as a junior resident working like the entire

weekend or like one of the days. And then you're on like once a week, which would be

you just take over once the day team comes on. And then it gradually gets easier as you

go up in residency. But right now I am doing a lot of backup call. So we go in and help

with cases on weekends and things like that. But on average, I say I think you're working

probably like two weekends a month. Well, that's not that doesn't sound so horrible.

It isn't actually it gets a bad rep. Everyone thinks we're on call all the time and we

don't have time to eat dinner with our family or have a life. And in the beginning, yes,

it is tricky and it takes work to be able to balance all of that. It's a little bit

of a hierarchy thing. So now that I'm a chief, you know, there's a little bit more time or

at least time is distributed differently. So what do you do like on your off time? What

do you do when you get home? When I get home, usually I'm starving. All I can think about

is eating dinner. I try my best to get to the gym. I used to go in the mornings before

work and then it just gets hard with how early we get up. But I just like I like hanging

out with my husband, we kind of make it a point to eat dinner together. So even if that

means we're sometimes eating at like 30 at night, that's how our world works right now

and it and it works. Trying to see friends, seeing my husband working out when I can,

that's kind of what I do in my spare time.

Sounds awesome. Your husband is a physician as well, correct?

Yes.

How, how is that kind of with your work life balance having two doctors in the household?

It's a question. You know, it's funny, it's a question we get asked a lot. Like, how do

you guys see each other? How do you even have time? The funny thing is, is we actually we

met while we were in residency. I was an intern. He was a second year. We just prioritized

our time and like made each other a priority. And I really think that if as long as you

do that, you can you can find time to have a relationship.

Oh, that's beautiful. I love it. So we're going to change gears just a little bit right

now. Let's talk about kind of your your background. So where did you grow up? What was your family

like?

So I grew up in Newtown, Connecticut. My family still lives there. My siblings live in New

York City. And I'm the oldest of four. So no, I have I have an uncle who's a who's a doctor,

but otherwise no doctors in the family. Let's see, I grew up playing a lot of sports and

competing with my siblings. And we're really we're pretty close family. It's always crazy.

And everyone says I talk really loud. And I just blame it on the fact that I've always

had to talk louder to be heard in my house.

Yeah.

And the same thing with like, we eat really fast, I feel like because we eat fast between

our surgeries, right? You try to like quickly eat your lunch. But like, I'd say, well, I'm

used to that. Because if you didn't eat fast enough growing up, then your sibling was going

to get the second helping before you. So that's going to be tough for this career.

That is that is absolutely true. I really feel that firsthand.

So you said that you have an uncle who is a physician, but no physicians in your immediate

family.

Right, correct.

So when did you become interested in medicine? Or what what prompted you to be pursue medicine?

Let's see, when I was in college, I went to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, I went into college

thinking I was going to go to law school. So I went in like pre law political science.

And then I, you know, started my freshman year, and I just did not like it at all. I

took an anatomy class. And all of a sudden, I was like, this is so much more interesting.

And I just switched gears quickly and did a biology major. And so all through college,

I knew I was going to go into the health profession. I just being a doctor was up there. But honestly,

in college, I don't think I had the maturity level yet to really know what I wanted to

do. So I looked at every single option, you know, I looked at physical therapy, nursing,

physician's assistant, going into research. And then once I checked all of those out,

I was like, you know what, you're gonna go to med school. So why eventually, you're going

to do it. So why don't you just get it over with. And so then I, you know, studied for

my MCATS and applied and did all that that I'm sure is all too familiar for you.

Oh, absolutely. 100%. Did you have any sort of experiences during undergrad that really

made you decide like, oh, I'm going to do medicine, as opposed to the other health care

careers like physical therapy and whatnot?

Not necessarily one experience. But I actually went to grad school for a year after college.

And I did a master's program in physiology and was trying to put myself in pretty much

every other career paths shoes, I guess you could say and picture my life in the future.

And I just everything fell back to becoming a doctor. I think I kind of just wanted to

make my own schedule or, you know, be my own boss, you know, or at least have the opportunity

to do that. And, you know, looking back now, that's just kind of how that was the right

choice for me. That's how my personality is. I feel like I may have been in the, you know,

OR as one of the other professions and been like, ah, Tara, why didn't you just go to

medical school and be the doctor? So for me, that was the right choice. But I totally understand

why others choose the alternative paths.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That makes a lot of sense. I really resonate with that. I think

a lot of physicians and med students do, I think. So anyway, so how did you first learn

about osteopathic school?

Actually my in my master's program, we did this, I guess one of the classes we took was

kind of all on alternative medicine. And through that one of the lectures or I guess a physician

that taught us he was a DO and he kind of explained his background. And that's when

I first learned about it was in grad school. And then once you kind of hear about it, then

I feel like you see it everywhere. It's just until you kind of first know, you don't really

know, you know?

Yeah. So what made you choose to decide to go where you ultimately attended?

I ended up at Rowan. I interviewed at a couple DO programs. And Rowan made me feel like a

person and not a number. And that was it was a pretty easy choice. Actually, I had a really,

really good interview, just connecting with the physician that I interviewed with, I toured

with some of the students. And it just kind of felt like a family as opposed to some of

the other places. I kind of felt like I was just a number like them trying to pump out

more doctors from the school.

So did you when you applied, did you apply MD and DO or just DO?

Yeah, I applied both. I got waitlisted at one MD school. And then that was pretty much

it. And honestly, I thought long and hard about do I reapply and go for MD again? Or

do I pursue the DO interviews? And I talked to my uncle about it. I talked to family,

my friends and everyone. The consensus was you want to be a doctor. Like being a DO,

it's a different sort of a different mindset in terms of, you know, like, whole body, whole

person and in terms of the philosophy of teaching. But at the end of the day, you're becoming

a doctor and you can do everything you want to do. And yeah, I'm really thankful for

the path that I guess was somewhat paved out for me.

In terms of being a DO, how did that affect you when you're applying to residency?

It didn't actually make too much of a difference because there are a lot of DO orthopedic programs

that I could apply to. So it really wasn't an issue. I took both the step one and the

COMLEX just so that I had, you know, the option. But in the end, I ended up just applying to

DO orthopedic programs. And, you know, that's what made the most sense. And so it didn't

affect me at all. The opportunity to become an orthopedic surgeon was, you know, 100%

possible. I know for some specialties, it's a little bit more difficult. But in terms

of orthopedic surgery, there's plenty of, you know, DO programs available.

Okay, that's great. Did you do research while you were in med school?

I did. I think so when I was in med school, research was definitely something that was

encouraged, especially to get into surgical specialties. And I did a couple projects,

but I think that the research thing has picked up now that I'm in residency. And I don't

know how it is for you guys now. But we get so many candidates now that have just five

six papers that they do during med school, which I just think is amazing. I don't know

how you guys have time to do everything that you do now. But yeah, I think if anyone wants

to apply to, you know, at least orthopedics, you definitely want to get involved on research

projects. And it doesn't necessarily have to be in something that you are going to end

up doing in your future. Just, you know, it looks good to get involved in research. But

yeah, I did a little bit as a student, but not as much as that I do now.

What was your research on in med school?

In med school, it was I did it on actually general surgery, which is a twist. Yeah, I

actually chose orthopedics kind of late. So I did my general surgery rotation as a third

year pretty early on. And that's when I was like, Wow, I really like the operating room.

This is this is cool. I'm going to explore surgery, got involved in research. And then,

yeah, right before I was going to apply for audition rotation, something just did not

feel right. And I talked to like one of the orthopedic program directors, and I was like,

what are my chances here? You know, like I'm switching gears late in the game. And at the

end of the day, you have to do what you like. I would have been so unhappy in general surgery.

And I am so thankful that I just went for it. I kind of went on a tangent there, but

about the research thing. But no, it's fine. But I don't know, it was my medical school

research was was on probably like colistectomies, you know, things that I'm not interested in

anymore.

It's okay, you gave me a better answer than the questions. When you say that you would

have been unhappy in general surgery, why do you say that?

I think I say that because I'm so happy in orthopedics. So I couldn't I couldn't necessarily

say that I would have been unhappy. But I just think that maybe that the lifestyle orthopedics

is like the perfect balance of hard work, but everyone's still really personable and,

you know, fun and outgoing. Everybody has a pretty strong personality. And not to say

that they don't in general surgery. I think it's more so that I just fit in so well with

orthopedics that I couldn't imagine myself in any other specialty, like whether it be

general surgery or internal medicine or PMNR.

So were you always I know earlier, you talked about how an undergrad you were interested

in anatomy, and you had thought about, you know, physiology and things like that. So

were you always interested in more of like a musculoskeletal kind of feel?

I was. Yeah, I think, you know, it's so cliche. And we all say it, unfortunately, but you

know, we like sports and then we go into orthopedics, blah, blah, blah. But it is a bit true, although

not all of my co residents like sports, surprisingly. But you do you kind of part of you, I guess,

when you grow up playing sports, you like to see you muscles, bones. So yeah, orthopedics

kind of made sense to me only because I sort of had that background already. And then,

yeah, totally. It helped having a master's in physiology to then like be able to apply

that to orthopedics 100%.

So let's dig back up just a little bit. So tell us about your background in sports. What

did you do for sports?

Oh, so I would say I'm a soccer player at heart. I played I played soccer in college.

But you know, growing up, I did basketball, did lacrosse, ran track. So kind of a little

bit of everything. I recently took up golf. And I wish I had started sooner, although

it is a very time consuming hobby. So I see why I haven't been able to in the past. Yeah,

that's my new my new thing is golfing. It's a blast and very frustrating. But I love it.

So you just played soccer in college. Uh huh. Okay. That's fine. I love soccer. Yeah. Would

you play? Oh, no, I am so uncoordinated. It would not go well. Well, that that's really

good, though, because I do kind of I feel like that is a very common thread. People

who are very athletic do tend to end up in that physical medicine kind of aspect. So

with that said, as DOS, we are trained in OMM and osteopathic manipulation. So how or

if you do incorporate OMM into your practice, I would say that unfortunately, we do not

use a lot of our like the specific OMM teachings that we that we learn in med school. But I

will say that in terms of like putting your hands on a patient's body and like your palpatory

skills, I think we we learned that from day one in med school as a DO and I know that

that definitely helps. I don't have to compare it to because I although you know, I work

with MD and DO orthopedic residents, you don't necessarily like side by side compare yourself.

But I know personally, we probably innately just use our hands maybe a little bit better.

But sadly, we do not use the techniques we you know, learn in school as much in orthopedics.

Do you ever think that maybe your path would have been better if you were or easier if

you were an MD? I don't really I don't. I think I speak to you know, a lot of people

about this and it does sometimes get an you know, annoying with you know, we're we work

with most of our attendings are MDs and they treat us like we were MDs or DOS they don't

ever bring it up. They don't comment on it. It's kind of been like very refreshing because

I so I've had a really, really good experience here in the New Jersey Philadelphia area being

a DO and so I don't you know, really think it has made my life any harder pursuing what

I want to be you know, when I grow up. You know, I just got a really good fellowship

here in Philly. I'm the first DO actually in the foot and ankle fellowship at Jefferson.

So I know it can happen. I think if you work hard and you know, you're a good person and

you can you can do anything. Yeah, I love that. That's so impressive. The first DO foot

and ankle fellowship resident. There's a lot of words in there. Yeah, yeah, a lot of pressure

too. Oh my gosh, just have to do well. So let's keep talking about residency just a

little bit. How did you let's talk about the residency application process just in general.

How did that go for you? It went pretty well. You have to get your letters of rec which

I got a couple front two from orthopedic surgeons one from a general surgeon and then I wrote

my personal statement probably about some cliche about sports and orthopedics. You go

and rotate and audition. So I auditioned at four different places and then I think I got

five interviews. I would be happy with getting they told me like anywhere from three plus

interviews. So so yeah, it worked out. I pretty much knew I wanted to go to Rowan for residency,

but it was good to go interview around and check out the other programs. It's a lot harder

now to get in than it was back then. You know, now I'm involved in interviewing new applicants

and your resumes are crazy. It's it's unbelievable. Yeah, I feel like it just keeps getting exponentially

more difficult. That's what they tell me. Yeah. And the the scores keep going up higher

and higher and higher. It's it's awesome. Good for you guys. Yes. Great. Great. Good

for me. Yeah, I know. Awesome. So excited. Yeah. So you said that you knew that you were

you wanted to go for residency. How did you end up deciding that you wanted to go there?

So yeah, at the end, when I made my rank list, I knew that Rowan was number one. I did you

know, I had I went back and forth, I would say, the week before you have to like officially

submit and I was I went back and forth because I my thinking was, oh, you just did, you know,

med school at here. Do you want to stay and do residency here? You branch out and, you

know, see another hospital system. But at the end of the day, the group at Rowan is,

I just like fit in with them really well. They really, really liked each other and they

worked as a team. It wasn't malignant. The experience with the attendings was, you know,

the best we worked with a lot of the like, Rothman attendings down here in Philadelphia,

which is like a great orthopedic practice. So it was kind of a no brainer once I like

laid everything down on paper. And then, yeah, just I got lucky and it worked out for me.

So it just felt really good. You know, you I just like had a good feeling. And it's funny.

They say, in terms of choosing, like your specialty, so like I chose foot and ankle,

the same thing they said to have an open mind throughout residency. And you know, once you

figure out what you like, it'll be pretty easy. And I went again, me and my choosing

late in the game, I went my entire third year being liking a lot of things and not necessarily

liking, you know, one specific subspecialty. And I was like, not sure what to do. And then

I went and did my foot and ankle rotation. And it was like an aha moment. And I was like,

Yep, this is it. I guess I guess it's true. You do get that feeling. So I don't know when

people I would say you just got to kind of having an open mind and med school and residency

and this entire field is like really, really important because you might surprise yourself

in terms of what you like and what you don't like. And then long, long, long, long field

or long career, you know, and it's a lot of work and time that you put in. So you just

want to make sure you're making the right decisions for the right reasons.

This is I don't know if you will know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask you anyway.

So yeah, recently, the ACGME has merged both the DO and the MD residencies, as I'm sure

you're aware. Yes, ours is now a combo MD DO residency. Right. Yeah. So do you feel

like this will have any sort of effect on applicants and whether their chances will

either increase or decrease? Yeah, that's a really good question. I have

a suspicion that if these, you know, our DO programs, if they open up to MDs and the program

director happens to be an MD as well, I think the chances of that program becoming more

an MD program than a DO program are pretty high. I think we should, as you know, as DO

programs, we should try to keep our DO program directors and, you know, you don't want to

be biased one way or the other. You want the best candidates no matter what. But I think

we just have to be careful we don't lose our field a little bit, you know. But I guess

that just means as DOs, we need to work a little bit harder to look out for each other,

you know. And I think if anyone wanting to get involved in residency education, and you

know, as a DO, you want to be a program director, you should. Yes. Not me, but everyone else.

You're not planning on going down the education route?

No, I was just kind of joking with you. Actually, I would love to work with residents. Being

a program director is a lot of work. I see my program director and he spends a lot of

his free time doing things to make our lives a lot easier. But it is a pretty awesome and

rewarding job, I'm sure. And yeah, I hope to work with residents in the future. I don't

know if I'd, you know, be a program director, but I would definitely like to educate the

future generations for sure. You are a woman, and orthopedics is traditionally a very male

dominated field. Yes. So what is like the balance to women to men in your program? We

have, we take five residents a year. So a couple of our classes have like one less person.

So I think we have 23 total residents. And there's three of us that are women. So me

in my class, I have one PGY three, and then another PGY two that are both females. So

okay, so it's less than one per year. Okay. So out of 23, there's three. So how do you

think that that affects your practice in any way? As a woman in orthopedics, it's I think

it's so it's a lot better, I think than it than it used to be, I think that people automatically

assume orthopedics, it requires you to be like big, strong and use power tools. And

while you do have to be able to use power tools, and, you know, do reductions, it's

kind of like brains over brawn, like you can always figure something out without using

like all of your strength, you know, you it's almost like that work smarter, not harder

thing is like really true in orthopedics, there's a way to do everything. So you kind

of have to be creative, I guess, in terms of figuring those things out, like specifically

in the OR and, you know, with reductions, they are in terms of it being male dominated

in the sense that my day to day, sometimes I just like really wish I had more females

around me, although like the farting and poop jokes get really old. But overall, it's not

it's not the too big of a deal. You know, I love my my male co residents and I love

my female co residents, we all get along equally well. It was nice to have a few more female

mentors, to be honest, you know, I have great mentors, but I have, you know, fewer female

attendings that I work with. Most of the female attendings I work with are are those on like

out out rotation. So I'm only there for like a limited amount of time. And I think that's

probably the biggest thing. I think it would be nice to just like hear more from, you know,

female attendings, which makes me think in the future, I'd love to get involved in something

and, you know, be there to help guide future female orthopedic surgeons, because it's just

nice to have that female perspective, I think.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what do you feel like specifically that you could get out of a female

mentor as opposed to the male mentors you have?

Yeah, one, one, I think some, you know, males and females, they think differently, they

learn differently, I think they speak differently. So it would be interesting just to see how

they feel in general, like, I guess the best example I could give is, so, you know, there's

this like running joke that, as you know, you go into the OR as a as a junior, and then

you come out of the OR and you go to the call room where everybody's hanging out and you're

like, man, I just did that whole case, I did that whole case skin to skin, like meaning

that your attending, you know, was there, but you did the whole case. So we are, you

know, so you have your like, my male co residents will cut would come out of the OR and do that

to me all the time. And I'd be like, thinking to myself, like, wow, I just worked with that

attending, I didn't do it skin to skin, like I did a lot, but I didn't do it skin to skin.

And so you and then you start as a female, you start to be like, Oh, am I like, not as

good as what is wrong with me. And you overthink it a little bit, because that's just what

we do. And then you find out that that's just not true at all. It's just that's kind of

how boys are, they're just a little bit more confident innately, and they like to talk.

And so I was actually involved in this, like woman's trauma surgeon meeting. And basically,

it was awesome, I heard the the female attendings tell the exact same story that while they

went through residency, they're like male counterparts would come out and be like, I

did this whole case. And they'd be like, What's wrong with me? And now is their attendings,

they like here, the residents do it. And they're like, they didn't do, you know, they didn't

do the whole thing. It's just the way they kind of like portray themselves. So, you know,

I think it would be in that aspect, just interesting to kind of like, laugh about our experiences

and like the way we think about certain things. I think it'd be nice to have a, like a female

mentor to kind of talk about the whole timeline and family situation, right? Like things are

different for me, my male co residents who all are having babies right now, because their

wives get to have the baby. Whereas, of course, I could, but it just affects me a little bit

differently, you know, I have to, you know, I don't want to have to take time out. And

that's me personally. But then, you know, there, you have to think about age and forever

a right time, I don't know, because now, you know, you do fellowship, and then you're in

the beginning of your attending career. So it's just, there's just like a little bit

more you have to think about as a female. So it would just be, I think that's the reason

why it'd be nice to have a female mentor, just to like pat you on the back and say,

it'll be okay, it'll work itself out.

Yeah, I totally understand. Because I just personally, like, I really recognize that

myself, what you were saying about how we're so much more critical of ourselves. Yeah,

yeah, I totally see that in myself and in the the women around me. And I try really

hard to call it out with other women, but I don't do it myself, you know,

Yeah, 100%. And that's, and it's funny that because my, so, like I said, luckily have

a loud voice. So when I'm like presenting in conference and our academics and things

like that, I, I talk loud, so people can hear me. But some of my female co residents have

just like, kind of quieter voices. But it everyone just like is like, well, it's a,

you know, she's a female. So she has this soft spoken voice. And she's not confident

because she's talking quietly. And I try to like, tell my female co residents, like, you

got to just speak confidently and speak loudly, whether you're confident on the inside or

not, you've got to make it seem like you are. And like, again, it's so much easier to say

that than do it.

Yeah, absolutely. It's very, very much easier said than done. But I mean, I really like

that. I think anybody all women physicians in general, regardless of specialty can really

resonate with that. Because, you know, doctors and med students in general, all type A, yes,

to begin with. And, you know, type A males are definitely a lot more intimidating.

Intimidating and outspoken. Yeah, absolutely. And then for women type A, it tends to just

be like an internal nitpicking outward expression of our confidence. So, yeah, you're 100% right.

You just got to you got to like, get thicker skin. And if it hurts, just lock it up. And

then have a really good outlet. You got to have a good outlet, right? You can't lock

that all up. And then just bottle it forever. You got to be able to talk to somebody about

it or go for a really hard run or, you know, whatever people like to do. It's important

to have that outlet to a support system.

Absolutely. Just a couple more questions. I was going to ask you, you mentioned earlier

about, you know, the timeline about having a family and children. Was that something

that you ever, ever kind of made you doubt going into something like surgery?

It did. Which is, yes. So when I applied for orthopedics, I was single. And so it 100%

went through my mind. And I, I would bet that every female picking a specialty thinks about

it. They don't, they may not necessarily make a decision based on it, but they definitely

think about it. And I did too. I, you know, I said, wow, I'm going to be so busy. Will

I ever meet anyone? Will I ever have a family? And again, you know, you just have to like,

you can't predict the future. So you just have to take whatever facts you have and whatever,

take your pro con list and what you're feeling and use what you have and make the best possible

decision and then hope that things will work out. And I knew I wanted to do orthopedic surgery.

So I said, you know what, that's what I'm going to do. And hopefully the rest will fall

into place or work itself out. And luckily it did. I met my husband as an intern and

you know, we're not quite there yet in terms of having kids, but we talk about it now.

And once again, we're at that like, or I am, I guess at that crossroads of picking fellowship

and where to go and all that in terms of like family and future. But I don't know, I name

a, name a profession where you, you don't think about your spouse and your other parts

of your life. Almost every profession does and every specialty, it's the same thing.

My friend who's a pediatric attending now actually, she, we went through the same thing.

She only just, you know, she didn't want to have a baby in her residency and her fellowship

and she waited till she's in attending. So I kind of think that, you know, it's all relative.

It's all the females are kind of feeling the same thing. So whether you go into, you know,

primary care or surgery, it's probably a thought everyone's having, but I think life kind of

works itself out. There's no, you know, right time, but as females, we'll still worry about

it.

Yeah, I know. I was actually going to say, I would be curious to know if any of like

the guys we work with ever think about this kind of stuff, because I just, I mean, I know

it's definitely something that we as women think about a lot. And I was just really curious

to know if they ever, if it ever even crosses their mind.

Yeah, I don't know. Cause I have a lot of co-residents right now that are having babies

soon or have a baby and they say it's tough, but they also corroborate like with me and

say like, yeah, this would be a lot harder if we were the ones carrying the child. So,

but again, you can, you can make it work. And I would say, if I was giving advice to

any like female resident, I would say probably like, don't make a decision based on that.

Just think about it and tuck it away and have it on the, you know, corner of your mind,

but make a decision that's like best for you. And it'll hopefully work itself out.

Can you tell us one thing about you that made you successful? So like, what do you feel

is your personal superpower?

I think that I have like a lot of grit, maybe you could say, like I am competitive and can

just feel like I can do it. Like I set my mind to it and I will get it done. Like I

give an example, like I ran these races across a desert. Like it was, it was like an ultra

marathon one and I was like, you know what, I'm doing it. And I just signed up and ran

it and like, and just like mentally told myself you're going to do this. So I sort of feel

like I can just like tell myself to power through and I can.

What is the best piece of advice you have been given either, you know, in school or

college or residency or wherever that you could share with our listeners and that you

think would give them the most value?

I think that when, you know, we have to make a lot of hard decisions in the medical field

in terms of making choices for us, making choices for our patients, in terms of, you

know, trying to figure things out and what's, what's right for you. The best advice I got

was picture yourself in, you know, 10 years from now and what do you picture? Like eventually

you're going to wake up 10 years from now. So are you going to wake up, you know, as

a GI doc in Arizona or are you going to wake up as orthopedic surgeon in Connecticut? And

which, which of those stories like looks better to you? Because I think it's like very easy

to get caught up in like all the excess of medicine in terms of like, how much money

are we going to make? You know, what is the work life balance in this field? Are people

nice? What kind of patients are we going to work with? What are our hours? And all those

things are important. But I think at the end of the day, like you just got to do what's,

what's ultimately best for you and like what you want out of life. So I think just like

always remember to like look ahead, have goals and use whatever information you have to make

the best decision and then don't look back. Like probably the right decision. And you

just got to have an open mind and go with it.

Absolutely perfect. Thank you so much, Dr. Gaston for being with us today.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

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This is Tanyu Shea. Thank you guys so much for listening to Do or Do Not.