Participants:
Series Code: LTBW
Program Code: LTBW000007A
|
00:35 Hi, I'm Dr. Kim and welcome to "Live to Be Well"
00:38 I'm so excited about this program because I get an 00:42 opportunity to talk about women and their health issues. 00:46 I have a special friend, but also an OB/GYN, 00:49 and she was my former OB/GYN. 00:52 Welcome Dr. Patricia Ferguson! 00:54 How are you doing Pat? 00:56 I'm doing well, glad to be here. 00:57 It's so good to see you. 00:59 I think about my humble beginnings and how I met you. 01:03 I was speaking at church and right then and there, 01:07 the Holy Spirit told me to STOP and I said... 01:11 "Is there an OB/GYN in the audience?" 01:14 And I said, "She's here, she's African American, she's here." 01:19 And I was looking for an OB/GYN just like that and I said, 01:22 "Could you please stand?" 01:23 And you stood up, just like that and that's how I found 01:27 my OB/GYN and it's been a wonderful experience. 01:31 Let's talk about your humble beginnings... 01:33 Why you became a physician and 01:37 are you originally from Michigan? 01:39 I am, I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, 01:42 I have three older siblings and it's just odd because nobody 01:47 in my family had actually gone 01:49 to college or graduated from college. 01:51 My dad was from the South and he came up here and got a 01:54 job in the pop manufacturing industry. 01:58 He was at Vernor's for a while and then Coca Cola, 02:00 and then my mother was born 02:02 and raised here, but worked for IRS... 02:04 And you know, they had my brothers 02:07 and sister, they went through college. 02:09 My brothers went to the military, 02:10 my sister started premed, but decided to get married. 02:14 So I just continued and there's no like "ah-ha" moment. 02:19 I always grew up watching medical shows on TV - like 02:22 "Marcus Welby, MD," "Rampart," remember "Emergency," 02:26 and any medical show - it was just interesting and fun. 02:29 And I think the reality hit was, my dad had a heart attack 02:32 in the middle of the night one night and I actually 02:34 performed CPR - and I was in the 11th grade, 02:37 and you know in high school, you go through CPR in gym 02:39 and I actually knew what to do. 02:41 So when we got him to the hospital, one of the docs 02:44 came by and he said, "You know if it hadn't been for what you 02:46 did, your dad wouldn't have made it," and I was, "Wow." 02:49 So the actual impact of seeing what it means to jump 02:53 into action and to maybe help preserve life and save a life, 02:57 that was the first real medical encounter being in 02:59 a hospital emergency room. 03:00 And then when I got to undergrad, my friends were 03:04 premed and we just kind of traversed 03:07 through the system together. 03:08 Where did you do your undergrad? 03:09 Wayne State, right down here. 03:11 Right here, 5 minutes away. 03:13 Alright, and then med school? Wayne State med School. 03:15 Oh, so everything was right here together. Right here, yep. 03:18 You know, why OB/GYN when you were pursuing 03:23 your clinicals, your residency, why OB/GYN? 03:26 Again, I didn't go in expecting to do OB/GYN, 03:31 as-a-matter-of-fact, I can remember thinking I would want 03:34 to do anything except pediatrics, psychiatry 03:37 and OB/GYN and OB was the last rotation of my third year 03:41 where you get to pick and choose and get exposed, 03:44 and it was the most fun, it was the most exciting. 03:47 The patients were primarily younger and healthy women 03:51 so I could relate and it was easy to communicate with, 03:54 and the issues were short and usually with good outcome, 03:59 so everybody was happy to be pregnant and have a 04:02 happy delivery. 04:03 The surgery was exciting and you could actually 04:06 see a problem and take care of it surgically. Yes 04:09 And the office visits were brief, but interactive 04:13 as opposed to some of the subspecialties that were 04:15 a little bit more labor intense and more chronic 04:18 with no real end in sight. Yes 04:20 So it was actually just a natural fit. 04:23 You have a wonderful bedside manner, when I would 04:26 come in for my regular Pap and I would get my examination, 04:30 you would just talk me through it and "How's Arthur, 04:34 how's the girls," and I have to let everyone know that 04:38 you were the one who really identified the issues 04:43 with Arthur and got us on the track that saved his life 04:47 or prolonged his life a little bit longer, 04:50 so I will always be grateful for that and I was not 04:53 ashamed to call you to say, "I need help," 04:57 and you referred us to your brother-in-law... 05:00 And you just stayed right there by our side all the way 05:03 through and why is it difficult for women, being OB/GYN 05:10 or a man, but let's talk about women... to go to the 05:14 doctor - is it mainly don't have insurance 05:17 or fear of the unknown, what is the block for us 05:21 as women? 05:23 I think primarily several things, but mostly we are so 05:27 in tune to being a primary caregiver for everybody else, 05:30 and we have to fix everything for those around us 05:33 whether siblings or children or spouse or parents 05:36 that we tend to minimize the little things that we tell 05:40 everybody to tolerate... that it will get better 05:44 or you take care of them, so you kind of manage 05:46 yourself because you have to be there to manage everybody else. 05:49 And by the time something is bothering us enough 05:52 to go in, it's usually a little bit more advanced 05:55 or a little bit more severe or significant than if we had just 05:58 stopped and made ourselves a priority. 06:00 You know, that's really something... 06:01 A few weeks ago, I was just flying here and there 06:05 well for months and I had this prolonged cough and I said... 06:09 "Well, it's just a cough, it will go away and I'm taking 06:12 Halls and I'm taking this and that and then my daughter 06:16 heard me and she said, "Mommy, it doesn't sound right." 06:18 And the next morning, I could not breathe! 06:21 And couldn't walk, it was hard to really able... 06:26 ... and I said, "Erin, (my youngest daughter), drive me 06:30 to the hospital right now." 06:31 And when they came back and said... 06:33 "You have walking pneumonia." 06:35 I'm not surprised because being you're on the go 06:38 and you have an agenda and you have a schedule and you have 06:40 places to be and commitments to keep and until you 06:44 stop, you don't even realize how tired or how sick 06:48 you actually feel. Um hm 06:49 And that's true and being on the planes, 06:51 there's just so many germs in and out. 06:54 A constant risk and then if you stop long enough to 06:57 get well and to allow your body to rest and even take a 07:00 mental break, you realize how exhausted you have become 07:05 when you actually start to feel healthy and normal again. 07:07 And then it becomes like a pattern, you just do it, 07:11 you just keep on keeping on, 07:14 and it's not healthy, it's not good. 07:16 Let's talk about the HPV virus and what is it? 07:21 HPV virus is "human papilloma virus," it's actually 07:25 currently the most common sexually transmitted disease 07:27 in America and a virus is a small organism that you 07:33 can't see with the naked eye, you can only see it 07:35 through a microscope and what it does different than germs 07:39 or bacteria that we commonly confuse is... 07:43 It actually takes over the cells of your body or the cells 07:47 of a particular area of your body and what it does is... 07:51 The cell center, the nucleus or the brains of the cell, 07:55 the virus controls the brains in the cell, so instead of 07:58 your cells making your DNA, your own genetic material, 08:02 it makes you make its own, so the virus takes over 08:06 and grows out of control. 08:07 And there are some aggressive strains - there are a lot of 08:11 different types and it's really complicated, 08:13 but there are two that are really associated with cervical 08:16 cancer and we really try to target those. 08:18 And then there are a bunch of strains that are more 08:20 benign or less significant, but they cause 08:24 issues with warts - genital warts and sometimes 08:28 discomfort, itching or bleeding, so it's not just one 08:32 thing, it's a wide conglomerate of things, but the key is 08:36 it's preventable, it's treatable, but once you have it, 08:40 you can't necessarily cure it. 08:43 You can manage it and you can eradicate it through surgery 08:46 and some medications, but once you've been exposed to it, 08:49 and it takes over the control of your cells, 08:52 it's there for life. 08:54 It's there for life. 08:56 Having an annual mammogram, how important is that? 09:02 There is a lot of controversy on that exact question... 09:06 "How important is it to get an annual mammogram" because 09:09 medicine is based on risks versus benefit, cost, 09:13 and cost-effectiveness, so a lot of studies and research 09:16 go into figuring out how many tests do we have to do 09:20 to actually find and prevent one case of cancer? 09:24 So having said all that, if it's you or your family 09:28 or that one person, it's 100% absolutely necessary 09:31 that you get annual mammograms. 09:33 Statistically, there is some discussion about changing 09:37 the requirement, so instead of every woman at age 35 09:40 getting a baseline and then every year thereafter, 09:43 they're trying to extend to maybe having your first 09:45 mammogram after age 40 to 45 and maybe every few years 09:50 after based on your risk factors, your family history 09:53 because they're saying we're doing way too many 09:55 mammograms, finding too many lumps that aren't cancerous, 09:59 and doing too many procedures 10:01 just to find out it wasn't necessary. 10:04 I had a young lady who recently passed when she was 42, 10:07 and you know, Micah had breast cancer, stage II. Right. 10:10 No one else in our family has had it, but we've had other 10:13 aspects of cancer. 10:16 But she was 42 and she had the aggressive strain 10:19 of breast cancer. Um hm 10:21 Can you talk a little bit about that? 10:23 Again, like viruses or bacteria, there's lots of different types, 10:27 nobody exactly knows what is the trigger that causes it. 10:30 There are some genes that are inherited and if you happen 10:32 to be in a family that has those genes, your risks are higher, 10:36 so you would be evaluated differently... 10:39 But in a general sense, African American women tend 10:42 to get more aggressive strains at earlier ages that 10:45 advance and spread quicker, so we tend to die 10:50 sooner if we don't detect them and find out... 10:53 And a lot of times, like we mentioned earlier, 10:55 we don't go get the lump checked out right away, 10:58 so by the time it's determined or discovered, 11:01 it's later on and more advanced. 11:04 But the things that we can do are watch diet. 11:09 watch your lifestyle and do exams monthly 11:14 to check your own breasts. 11:16 Again, the tendency is to try to get away from that 11:19 because people find lumps that aren't cancer, 11:22 then they go in and get a lot of tests and a lot of biopsies 11:24 and procedures that aren't necessary or they find 11:27 benign lumps, but I'm still like... be diligent, 11:31 be diligent with checking, be diligent with going to 11:33 report something that you find because you're the first 11:36 line of defense for yourself and if you don't get it checked 11:39 and it is a cancer in your case, it's 100% for you. Yes 11:44 Your husband is also a medical doctor. 11:47 Let's talk about how you met and how you married... 11:51 He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 11:55 and I grew up in Detroit. 11:56 I never knew him until we went to Wayne State, 11:59 we both were accepted in the freshman class of 1984, 12:02 and at that time they had an incoming freshman program 12:06 where you could go in the summer and get exposure to what the 12:10 first six weeks of the curriculum are like. 12:12 So we met there in a summer program and he was dating 12:15 someone and I was dating someone, so we, just by 12:18 being in that cohort and spending all day together, 12:21 we would talk with the other students too, 12:23 but we would wind up maybe having lunch here or there 12:26 or going out and then we went into our first year, 12:28 we studied together and we continued to have friends 12:32 here, there - we studied well together and we challenged 12:36 each other and competed; he was more competitive than me. 12:39 And so we would battle and we'd argue and it would be like 12:43 have a good life, we could study together, but then that was it. 12:46 And then after our first Christmas break, 12:49 that was kind of our conversation... 12:50 "You go have a good life and I'll come back," 12:53 and after the break, we started studying together again, 12:55 and I think in the spring of the end of the freshman year, 12:59 we went to a concert at Chene Park and here we are. 13:02 Here you are... how soon after? 13:04 Did you marry after medical school? 13:05 We got engaged in our senior year, as-a-matter-of-fact 13:11 at our senior graduation dinner and then he actually 13:15 went to St. Louis for a year or two to do a fellowship 13:18 to try to get in an ophthalmology program. 13:21 He's an ophthalmologist. Ophthalmologist, 13:22 and we got engaged the year of graduation and then 13:29 2 years later we got married. 13:31 How many children? 13:32 We have 4 children; 3 young ladies and my son 13:36 he'll be 19 at the end of September. Alright 13:40 So 4 children, all graduates of Bloomfield Hills High School, 13:43 and now all attended Howard University in Washington, DC. 13:48 I have one graduated in 2014 and she's a fourth year 13:53 medical student at the University of Michigan. 13:55 I have another daughter that graduated in 2016, 13:59 and she is a broadcast journalism major, 14:02 political science minor. 14:04 My third daughter is broadcast journalism. 14:05 She's interested in film production editing. 14:08 And my son is a rising sophomore, 14:10 he's a sports medicine, chemistry minor. 14:13 Isn't that something! So I'm proud of them. 14:16 So how did you balance everything, 14:19 because I remember when I went into labor; you had delivered 14:23 twins, you had been up 48 hours and you came by to 14:28 see me and I was dilating and I said, "Go home, you go home." 14:33 And you sent your partner in to take care of me and you came 14:37 back to see me the next day and I had a healthy delivery, 14:40 but I remember when you got the test results back and I was 14:45 pregnant because I was sick and I didn't know 14:47 what was going on and you looked at me and you said, 14:50 "Honey, you're pregnant," and Arthur just said, 14:52 "No, no, no." He wasn't expecting that. 14:54 We were not expecting that. 14:56 But being healthy, having checkups, being able to be 15:01 in tune, but you left your practice, 15:04 and you transitioned, why? 15:06 Well I had been in a private practice setting for 25 years, 15:12 and in a pretty intense level, we had a busy practice, 15:17 and just the changing nature of medicine and practice 15:22 partners and practice situations, I had an 15:25 opportunity to be a consultant with Blue Cross/Blue Shield 15:28 in case management which was new and it was different, 15:32 but it was an opportunity, so I had been consulting 15:35 for about 2 years and my medical director said, 15:39 "Hey Pat," (I was home actually taking a nap) and you know, 15:42 kinda played around with the idea of maybe finding 15:45 something else to do as I transitioned beyond under 50, 15:50 I'll put it that way, and she said, "Full time 15:54 positions never open up, but one is available, 15:56 are you interested," and I told her I'd pray about it, 15:58 and in my mind, I was like, "Shoot yeah, I'll take it." 16:00 And so about a week later, I let her know I was 16:04 interested and an opportunity was there and so I transitioned. 16:07 So full-time case management is where you oversee 16:11 from the educational side, I oversee nurses who call 16:17 patients maybe 50 to 100 years of age that have multiple 16:21 medical problems outside of OB/GYN, like high blood 16:24 pressure, diabetes, obesity, renal failure, 16:26 any medical problem. 16:28 When patients go to their doctor, there seemed to be a 16:32 tendency for some people to go in and out of the 16:34 emergency room over and over or hospitalization... 16:36 So we try to figure out what it is about that population 16:39 that they have recurrent ER visits, and increase their 16:43 education, resources, transportation and understanding 16:46 and why they need to be compliant with their 16:49 treatment plan and self- management plan 16:51 to minimize ER utilization... 16:53 And so that's in a nutshell what I transitioned to. 16:57 So what I realized is how important it is 17:01 to communicate the urgency of self-management, 17:06 you have to watch your diet, you have to exercise, 17:08 you have to adopt a healthy lifestyle, mindset, 17:11 and be proactive in learning what it is that you 17:15 need to do for yourself to maintain your health. 17:18 What do you see with young girls and young women 17:22 and their health issues today? 17:25 I'm little bit removed from the direct issues, 17:29 and I would say, in general, my perception and what I 17:32 used to see as an overall rule is teens tend to seek 17:40 validation and actually is women in general. 17:44 People tend to seek approval and validation 17:46 through relationships and a lot of times that allows them 17:50 to compromise maybe their values to establish some 17:54 sense of self worth or self-esteem... 17:56 And so, going back to the bedside manner, 17:59 it was easy to embrace a side of people behind closed doors 18:05 one-on-one and address really what is it that you're 18:07 looking for... because to compromise your health 18:12 in terms of sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, 18:15 unanticipated pregnancy or a whole list of problems that 18:20 can be avoided and it really came down to really becoming 18:25 comfortable with decisions and choices that necessarily 18:29 aren't popular and I think now more than ever because 18:33 of social media and exposure, people want what they see 18:36 immediately and they don't understand... 18:39 they don't understand everything has a price. 18:41 Everything has a price, every action causes a reaction. Yep. 18:46 Medication - prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, 18:52 easy access - you can find it in your communities, 18:56 on the streets, you know, what is happening in our 19:00 communities now where people are so addicted to 19:03 prescription drugs and they just don't feel 19:07 they have another way out to cope or manage their pain. 19:11 Yeah, there's a lot going on with opioid addiction, 19:14 and the potency of these drugs. 19:18 Because you can get access to a lot of drugs 19:22 over-the-counter, people tend to think 19:24 they're more acceptable or less harmful. 19:30 Something as simple as antihistamines for allergies, 19:33 now Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, they take those 19:35 and put them behind the counter so you have to ask, 19:38 and they check ID - because if there's a way to 19:41 abuse any medication, people have found it. 19:45 I was listening to a comedy routine about use of 19:48 marijuana and this was, oh with Katt Williams, he was joking, 19:52 but there's truth in the jokes... 19:54 "Old fashioned marijuana used to be just plain," he said, 19:57 "But now they lace it with everything, you don't even 20:00 recognize what's in it," so there is no benign 20:04 okay drug - there just really isn't especially in high school, 20:09 kids can get prescriptions for attention deficit disorder, 20:13 and those are stimulants and they are mood alterers, 20:16 and for whatever, however, kids have discovered, 20:20 teenagers, college students, so they can stay up longer, 20:23 study harder - all those medicines have a side effect. 20:26 All those issues that seems to make you more alert 20:30 or more aware or make you remember, there is no easy out. 20:37 You might get away with it for a little while, 20:40 but the consequences catch up and if you are somebody that 20:43 has any tendency toward mental health, mental illness, 20:46 and you obtain opiates or narcotics or marijuana 20:51 that's laced with something, you could have a permanent 20:54 psychotic or paranoid reaction. 20:58 I heard of a nurse that was saying about a young man, 21:01 he smoked one joint and somebody had put 21:06 something in it and he was permanently paranoid. 21:09 He was crawling under furniture to get away... 21:12 they could not stop him in the hospital. 21:14 So you just never know, you never know what's going on, 21:18 it's an economic benefit to some people, 21:22 they think, "Oh here is a drug, we'll sell it." 21:25 It's kind of amazing that people are that susceptible 21:31 to buy that poison to put into their system, 21:35 but it's a medication, it's a remedy for some problem 21:38 or some pain they're trying to escape. 21:40 Even alcohol... 21:43 You can take alcohol to the limit, to the extreme, 21:46 and have alcohol intoxication and that will kill you. 21:48 And that WILL kill you. 21:50 Now let's talk about, you know, even though being in OB/GYN 21:54 and now dealing with all case management, 21:57 men tend not to want to go to a doctor, 22:01 especially African American men, is it men, women or is it 22:06 ALL people? 22:08 I think people in general and I think the more people become 22:13 comfortable with "you're your own best advocate," 22:16 your health is your priority, without your health, 22:18 you really have nothing. 22:20 You don't have the ability to obtain all the wealth 22:22 in the world if you don't have your health and most of the 22:25 concerns, I think, are fear of what they don't understand 22:28 or fear of something they've been told by somebody 22:30 that has less accurate information. 22:34 Most exams are quick and not painful; sometimes things are 22:39 a little embarrassing or a little awkward, but again, 22:41 it just depends on the physician you go to - who can kind of 22:45 break down those barriers and just make it an 22:48 interaction that's necessary and doesn't have to be 22:51 awkward or uncomfortable, but I think it's our own 22:54 fears that keep us from doing anything... 22:56 And the most important thing is pursuing and advocating 23:00 for your own health. 23:01 Let's talk about your educational program. 23:03 God put a burden on your heart and Arthur and I 23:06 was involved in the beginning, I'm still involved with it. 23:10 I was with you last year, it was right after his passing, 23:14 and I didn't have the courage or the energy and you called 23:19 and said, "Kim, I need you," and I'm so happy I did come. 23:24 Let's talk about your program that you're doing now. 23:27 I started a nonprofit organization 501c3 23:31 called, "Each One Teach One," and again, I think, 23:33 going back to 1990s, you actually offered to 23:37 be our fiduciary when I didn't even know what that was. 23:39 We had the name, we had the designation, 23:42 but actually we were trying to get the designation and 23:44 our vision back then was to try to create a supportive 23:49 environment to empower and equipped and encourage 23:55 and inspire young people to prepare themselves for success, 23:59 and we chose academics and education as that vehicle, 24:02 and some 10-15 years later we started to have workshops 24:09 like in the local school district where we would have a 24:12 one day or 3 hour events. 24:14 We did an event called "Meet the People Behind 24:16 the Professions" where students actually got to meet 24:18 judges, lawyers, teachers, doctors, VPs of corporations 24:22 who told who they were, not what they do, 24:26 and how who they were enhanced and brought 24:30 what they did to a new job or new opportunity... 24:32 Like there was an undergrad chemistry major who didn't 24:35 know what he could do with a chemistry degree... 24:37 He wound up working in an automotive plant for a summer, 24:42 and because of his chemistry background and aptitude, 24:44 somebody took an interest in him and helped him discover 24:48 a patent for the soundproofing in luxury vehicles. WHAAT? 24:51 He holds the patent for the soundproofing in Jaguar. WHAAT? 24:56 He went on to become vice-president of 24:59 "Lear Corporation, North America." 25:01 So he came, told his story and just to find out who he is, 25:04 these kids were just like on the edge of their chair, 25:06 like WOW! 25:08 So it's not so much what you do, it's who you allow 25:12 yourself to become and in that process 25:15 you bring it to whatever job. 25:17 And so, by last year we had, like yourself, we had some 25:22 people from other communication, radio broadcast, 25:25 we had Pam Perry from Branding. Yes 25:28 She spoke to students about how important it is 25:30 to have a strong, personal brand; 25:32 how important social media is - good and bad. 25:36 We had Dr. Jay Marks, he is a consultant to the 25:39 Oakland schools, raised the significance of education. 25:43 This year, we're going to have Gail Perry-Mason 25:47 talking about financial literacy, 25:49 and Heil Perkins was our MC. Yes 25:51 So the goal is to, again, expose students and their 25:54 family - we want parents to become involved so we can 25:57 show them how to advocate for themselves, 25:59 how to, you know, strategize and position themselves 26:03 to succeed. Yes 26:04 So it's coming up and it's going to be in 26:06 Birmingham City home, but it touches the tri-county 26:08 area - Macomb, Oakland and Detroit. 26:12 We've been in touch with the superintendent for 26:14 Southfield schools, DPS and I have a contact in Macomb, 26:17 but it's just in the development stage for this year. 26:21 So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. 26:23 I just think what it all came down to is trying to help 26:26 somebody else. Yes 26:28 Well anything you know that you need me to do, 26:30 I'm there for you, Pat. Thanks. 26:32 I think that it's important, and one thing I've learned 26:35 is to pace myself, to hold myself accountable 26:40 so that I can extend myself more... 26:43 I may have to stop a few days during the week or take a week 26:47 and reassess my body, eat well, exercise, 26:52 get plenty of fluids and make sure that I'm resting. 26:56 And, it's so good to have my own personal 26:59 OB/GYN anytime. Well thanks for thinking of me. 27:03 Oh definitely, I think it's important for us to be able 27:06 to have resources available, to have people that we can 27:10 turn to, networking is crucial. Um hm 27:13 And you're such a help... 27:14 My last question, we have 42 seconds... 27:17 God, what is His role in your life? 27:19 God is central and I think when you say, 27:23 "How do you find a balance," if He is the center, 27:26 and you listen for Him and truly seek Him, 27:29 and that's what I'm learning to do and I think I've 27:31 learned more in the last few years. 27:34 When you seek His purpose and you are at peace with Him, 27:37 He answers a prayer, then He'll direct you 27:39 in what you need to do, then it becomes 27:41 doable - not easy, but you know 27:44 you're working in the right direction. 27:45 It's important, pray and keep seeking Him and He will 27:49 let you know what He has for you to do. 27:51 I'm so excited about all the wonderful things 27:54 I've learned here today on "Live to be Well" 27:56 Remember good health is in your hands, 27:59 and you are responsible for it. 28:02 I want YOU to "Live to Be Well" 28:04 I'm Dr. Kim, God bless. |
Revised 2018-02-28