Seva Med Care Episode 4

Michelle: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Interviewer: Absolutely. You work with Oklahoma Pain and Wellness and you, I understand, are like a superstar– the superstar in the office.

Michelle: I don’t look at myself as that at all. I’m just part of the team.

Interviewer: Yes. You help the clinic run though and you have a variety of different capacities and responsibilities. Why don’t you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about you.

Michelle: Okay. Well, like you said, my name is Michelle Loeber. I’m a nurse practitioner. Originally, I’m from the state of Maine, way up North, North East. Beautiful country, if I might add. I’ve lived in Tulsa, though, for 22 years. I’ve been married 30 years. I have two kids, both are married. And then I have three of the cutest granddaughters that you’ve ever seen and they really have me wrapped around their fingers. As far as my medical background goes, I actually started way back in school a long time ago, I want to say that. I got my RN through TCC. I got my bachelor’s through OU and I got my master’s of Nursing for my advance practice RN. Basically, it translates to a certified nurse practitioner through Saint Louise University. They have a really rigorous program. I don’t remember those three years of my life. I’ve been in the medically [sic] here in Tulsa, practicing for about 15 years in the medical field.

Interviewer: So, 15 years and you’ve seen the growth of Tulsa and all the practices in Tulsa.

Michelle: Oh, yes and the huge change in healthcare and what that’s done. I’ve always wanted to be a nurse since I was — I was actually a candy striper. Since I was like 10 years old, I knew that I was going to be a nurse. It just took me a little longer. I have my kids, stayed home, and then went back to school later. Finished it all out and worked my way up. I started out working with cardiology. I loved it. I did a stint in wound care while I was going back to get my bachelor’s. Schedule wise, that worked out better. I went back to cardiology and then when I was getting my master’s, I worked in oncology for a while. After that, I did internal medicine, I got really immersed in the fire of learning a lot about everything. I feel very comfortable treating patients.

During that internal medicine, I actually took care of nursing home patients, I go to different nursing home every day, took care of a variety of ailments, including pain. Then a friend of mine called and said, “Hey, we have an opening. I’d loved for you to come.” I thought, I was on call basically 24/7. I was like, “I need a break.” I wanted to spend more time with my family. Fortunately, for me, Dr. Patel over at Oklahoma Pain and Wellness had an opening for a part-time and I worked three days a week. That’s how I got into Tulsa pain management.

Interviewer: Oklahoma Pain and Wellness, they do Tulsa pain management?

Michelle: Yes.

Interviewer: For you, why do you feel like you’ve always gravitated towards becoming a nurse practitioner? What about it do you really like? That’s the first question. The second question is, “Why do you like Tulsa pain management?

Michelle: As far as becoming a nurse practitioner, I probably see myself sometimes more as taking on a leadership role. It’s like I’ve always gravitated to that. I felt that the capacity that I wanted to provide the type of care that was the best avenue for me to go. I loved nursing. I just wanted to expand my role in it, basically. With Tulsa pain management, it really was not something on my radar. I really didn’t know a whole lot about it because I’ve always managed acute pain of patients throughout my nursing career. I thought that was just part of my everyday. Then with internal medicine and working with nursing home patients, I got more of a taste of the chronic pain world. I felt like, for me, it was a way that you can really make a difference in someone’s life.

I didn’t realize to the extent until I really started working with Oklahoma Pain and Wellness. After starting to work there, I’ve had some pretty unique experiences. I feel like sometimes that population is — How do you say it? — May be cast aside because of the negative connotation associated with chronic pain and because of the whole drug crisis in our country that automatically, if someone is a chronic pain patient sometimes they get the negative association of, “Oh you’re an addict.” This has enabled me to really be able to come and bring those patients. I try, anyways, to give them more of, “You’re normal”, “There’s nothing wrong with you other than you do have a disease which is chronic pain”, and “How can we best take care of you?”

Interviewer: You deal with patients that have a variety of diseases or ailments or pain-

Interviewer: – existing pain, chronic pain. Let me ask you. For you, do you go into the office knowing what your typical day is going to look like everyday or does that change quite a bit?

Michelle: For me, it does not change so much. In other words, I usually have a full load of patients I can see. I start at eight in the morning and I’m pretty much not done till five. Normally, I see patients pretty much — boom, boom, boom — but the reason I see them is different for everybody because there is no one that is alike. I can have the patient who has migraines for years, to a patient who has had 11 back surgeries and they failed, to a patient who had a crushing leg injury from a fall. It’s like every injury is unique and every injury to that patient is unique and their pain is what they say it is. I think a lot of medical professionals sometimes tend to judge, “Well, that shouldn’t hurt you because I’ve had that done before”, “I know somebody who lives with it.” Perception of pain is different for every person, you’ve got to look at it like, “This is an individual and how they say they hurt is how they hurt.”

Interviewer: Sure. In understanding that, that is something that some of the other physicians that we’ve talked about on the podcast have mentioned as well. Pain is very relative to the patient.