The Making of A Doctor: An Interview with Dr. Lise Alexander

TC:  Why did you choose medical school?

LA:  You know, an educated Indian is not an oxymoron. I think it's key to our survival. There's no way as a culture and as a community we can continue to survive without becoming smart and educated and learning to fight our own battles. And I want to be a part of that. I don't think I had a choice in medicine versus any other career. My Indian name means Trillium, which is a white flower that grows in the Pacific Northwest here. And it is the plant that our native women used to induce labor way back when. And I worked in labor and delivery for many years before I went to medical school as a childbirth photographer and as a doula. And medicine just kept coming back to me, and my great-great-grandmother was a healer in her community.

And so, in many ways I don't think I had a choice. I think it was something that just kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me. And I always wanted to be a doctor, but I didn't feel I was smart enough. And so I put it off and did other stuff for a while, which, in retrospect, I think, was really valuable. And when I finally did commit to going to medical school, I was totally prepared. And I didn't have a whole lot of compassion as a young adult. I needed to get beat up by the world a little bit. And I did! And, so now, as an older person, you know, with my struggles that I had to go through, I know why people turn to drugs and alcohol. I've experienced the despair that one can feel when life is really beating you up. And I could see really clearly why people turn to drugs and alcohol to escape your problems. And so, when I deal with my patients today, I'm able to be a lot more empathetic with where they are with their struggles and challenges.

Native women come into my clinic and tell me their stories. And I'm just humbled by what they've been through and how strong they are that they're still here and they're still trying and they're still struggling and having children at a young age, having abusive partners, getting involved in substance abuse, being homeless, trying to raise young children. There's no way I personally could have survived what they've been through. And they come into my clinic and they're trying to make their lives better and they're trying to make their health better. And it's just powerful to me. Powerful that they have that strength to go on in spite of all the setbacks that they've experienced. And it's humbling to me. I'm honored that they come see me and are looking to me for help and guidance.