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

TC:  What kind of procedures do you find yourself doing?

LA:  We assist in C-sections, we do a lot of stitching or taking stitches out. We do joint injections where we'll inject them with either steroids or lidocaine or Novocaine to help numb them up a little bit for patients to feel better, or a mix. We do a lot of women's healthcare, put in IUDs and remove IUDs and, I'm learning. This month I'm learning how to do pulposcopies for women that need them. We do a lot in terms of joints, casting. If anybody needs a cast or a splint, we learn how to do that. You can learn just about anything you want to do in an office versus a surgical ward. And we can learn all that. The only thing I am opting not to learn is circumcisions. I've specifically chosen not to learn that. That's just a personal decision that I made.

TC:  Do you see mainly female patients?

LA:  Yes. I love working with Native women. So many of my patients are such strong and beautiful women. Historically, we have struggled through so much and yet we are still here. I think that my self-confidence as a physician has really grown. I mean, there is no higher compliment when your patients come in to you complaining because they can't see you often enough. That means a lot to me as a physician. And it's not just one or two patients. It's like almost every single one of them are like that. And it's gotten so bad that I'm actually probably going to have to add clinic hours beyond what I'm expected to do just to meet my patients' demands. And I love and adore my patients enough, and it's important enough to me that I want to try and do that. I love my clinic. I love my patients. I feel really, really honored to be able to work with them. And I think that what's medicine is about, is working with them. I don't heal them alone. I work with them in healing themselves. And I think that's a big difference. I think a lot of healthcare today is chronic health issues, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, COPD, which is a lung disease due to smoking, substance abuse. And unfortunately all of those problems are due to lifestyle. And there's only so far that allopathic medicine can go with those issues. And a lot of the healing in chronic healthcare today has to come from the patient themselves. They have to be willing to increase their activity level. They have to be willing to adjust their diet. They have to be willing to take their medications. Otherwise I can't do anything.

And so, part of my job, I would say a huge portion of my job is trying to work with the patient to get them invested in taking care of themselves. And that's really satisfying. That's a wonderful aspect in terms of healthcare. And patients, when they start seeing those first steps, they become more self empowered, and they become more self confident, and for many of them it may be the first time in their life that they have developed a sense of control over their life. By walking around the block twice a week, all of a sudden they're doing something for themselves, and they have control, and they're being successful. And that is so wonderful. I remember this one time this patient came in and I asked her if she exercised. And she said, "No, I can't exercise. I can't afford a club membership and I don't have the right clothes. And, you know, it's hard for me to do that." And I started talking to her. And I said, you know, you can sit down in front of the TV on the floor and you can just start stretching, or you can stand in front of the TV in your own home and start marching or jogging in place. And that counts as exercise. And she was so surprised. "You mean, I don't have to have a jogging outfit? And I don't have to go to a spa?" I said, no. All you need to do is give yourself a goal. When you're watching the news at five o'clock, instead of sitting on your couch watching the news, stand in front of the TV and just march in place for that half hour that the news is on. You can still listen and watch the news, but now you're moving. And she got so excited about that concept. She said "It just never occurred to me that that would count as exercise, as moving." And I'm supposed to see her back in a little bit, and I'm anxious to hear how she did. But little things like that can make a huge difference in peoples' lives as to how they perceive things.