By Oly
I tend to think in conversation…
It takes time and empathy and artistry to connect… I read, I write, I work, I do family with
a rigor like very few. So, when I fell in love with literature it became a compulsion. I do
not know why exactly but the first topic was vampires, remember I was a kid, so I read
everything by Anne Rice. Somehow that segued into Lord of Rings and anything
fantastical which segued into the Grimm Fairy Tales. I got my hands on Shelley’s
Frankenstein and that spiraled into an obsession about madness. I read Bell Jar and
Cuckoo’s Nest – if it was set in an asylum, I read it. Later in high school I was suddenly
knee deep in Gatsby and I became totally obsessed with Fitzgerald. Hemingway came
soon after and then an odd fascination with Zelda Fitzgerald. Of course, I got my first
bachelors in English Literature and minored in creative writing so I read the literary
canon – everything from Chaucer to Maya Angelo. I have more books than people have
… I do not know what people have, but I have a lot of books.
THE POINT: I was once told that reading fiction makes you perform better on
empathy and social intelligence tests and I believe this. Perhaps it helps when you have
gone through something traumatic but who knows? Maybe trauma does not help. In all
fairness, I really think it is the fiction that has made me more whole – as Clarissa Pinkola
Estes writes, “a deeper life, a full life, a sane life.” I am more inclined to kindness, better
guided by my moral compass, quick to smile and share laughter. I have no regrets: I do
not regret the things I did do and certainly do not regret the things I did not do – so it is
funny I find myself in medicine – deeply entrenched in fact not fiction. It is interesting that
I left the arts to pursue a career in medicine – in nursing. It is odd that I find myself here
at Neinstein Plastic Surgery but here is the kicker, it is not. It is making sense. Plastic
surgery too is an art. All the surgeons here are artists: Dr. Neinstein is the sculptor. Dr.
Funderburk is the artisan. Dr. Anna is the helper. They make beautiful things more
beautiful, and what better canvas – the body so truly interconnected with the mind that
one could not exist without the other. The profound effect each surgeon has on the
whole person’s sense of wellness is nothing short of a miracle. I have people tell me all
the time, “I wish I had done this sooner. I have never felt so much like myself.”
I did not know medicine was where I wanted to be, but the moment I heard Dr. Neinstein
quote Shakespeare, I knew I was in the right place and there is something very
profound about being in both worlds. Being able to transcend and blur the boundaries
because everything we do here is science based. This is medicine backed by data. This
is evidence-based practice coupled with decades of specialized higher education, but it
is also art. The arts can speak to us, touch that which needs mending, make us whole
again. It is such a beautiful catalyst to use medicine to achieve that.
There is something profound about becoming the best version of yourself. Finding just
what’s underneath, what has always been there all along. I think that what we do here,
we help bring the best parts of oneself to surface – mind and body and I think
empathizing with each person’s story has a lot to do with that.