I’ve always been interested in medicine, and I’ve been drawn to surgery most of the time. One of my aunts is an OBGYN PA, and she let me shadow her in high school. Her sister-in-law was an OR nurse, and she got me into observing surgeries. I really liked it. I was in the Air Force Academy, and throughout my time in the military, I tried to reach out to the hospitals and tell them that I was interested in medicine and planned to go to medical school. I got a chance to shadow at a lot of different places. Then, I deployed to Afghanistan as a communications officer. My boss knew I was interested in medicine and encouraged me to volunteer at the hospital. It wasn’t a high-level medical center, but soldiers were brought in from the field to be stabilized for transfer to Germany. They had 3 ORs where they could do fasciotomies after patients were airlifted from the battlefield. I started out volunteering and I was so genuinely interested in learning that the techs and nurses took me under their wing. When you’re interested in what other people do, they love to teach and show you what they do. They helped me learn how to start IVs and let me practice on them even when I was really bad. The surgeons taught while they operated and gave career advice. I also talked to an army PA on that deployment, and she gave me insight into the PA profession. Being a PA was in the back of my mind, but I had always wanted to be a doctor.
After Afghanistan, I took the MCAT and applied to medical schools while in transition back to civilian life. My husband, Quentin, and I got married, and we moved up to Boston. We were waiting on medical school interviews and acceptances, which never happened. It gave us another year to think about things and play around with the PA vs. MD route. During that year, we found out that we were expecting twins, and ended up having a complicated pregnancy and delivery. They were in the NICU for three months with a lot of scares at that time. We learned a lot about premature complications, and fortunately neither baby had to undergo surgery to correct any of the issues. Once we were out of the danger phase, I got to soak up the medical knowledge of it and learn more from a medical student perspective. Being a parent in the NICU brought me a lot of personal background, even though I’ve never worked as a nurse or MA/tech. Once the boys came home, their lungs were still very weak and we were told to quarantine for a year, so I stayed home with my boys. After that, they were cleared by a pulmonologist and able to go to daycare. I went back to work as a caregiver and started taking more classes. At that point, my husband and I thought it was best that I lean more towards the PA field because we had these young children, and he was planning to stay in the military long-term. It would be hard to manage a career with the time commitment of medical school for 4 years and subsequent residency. That was the beginning of my decision to apply to PA school.
An important piece of advice that I have for current PA students is to enjoy the journey! Getting into PA school is obviously a goal, as is graduating from PA school and becoming a certified PA, but there is a lot of time in between those happening. Work towards those goals, but don’t let them just be stepping stones. You can forget the process of working towards something while you are working towards it. Look around while you’re doing it. Going through PA school, I’ve had a blast. My family and I set attainable academic goals that still allow us to have family time and workout time. It helped me to stop and breathe, and enjoy each day. Experiencing things outside of your immediate day-to-day life is important. Enjoy the journey. Don’t feel like your life is on pause while you’re in PA school. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget that you are on a journey. PA school is not just a goal; it is an experience. Even though the pathway changed, I never doubted I would end up in medicine. I don’t think anybody’s path is straightforward.
Even in PA school, sports are an important part of my life. I played basketball and track/field in high school. I was on very successful teams and performed well as an individual. Sports also gave me the opportunity to go to the Air Force Academy and compete post-collegiately as an Air Force officer training for the 2012 Olympic Games. Therefore, I want to help patients incorporate being active into their daily schedule, and work with them to find solutions around the barriers that people may feel towards getting healthy.
Mental health is another deep passion of mine because I’ve struggled with anxiety, depression, and PTSD in the past. Pride stood in my way of pursuing treatment. Through the VA, I have healthcare benefits, and they have a really excellent mental health program. I started out with counseling, but I still felt the same anxiety and feelings of being unsettled. I felt that I was not able to focus and be present for my family and not as happy as I would like to be. I then sought out medication. It took a couple of tries, but my doctor found a medication that works for me and it helps immensely throughout PA school, coupled with daily exercise and healthy eating. Clinical rotations have given me the opportunity to see how each specialty can address and improve mental health.
My first rotation was in orthopedics surgery, and from an orthopedics standpoint, the biggest mental health thing was definitely tailoring each patient’s treatment and rehab to that individual. When my receptor referred his patients to physical therapy, he would ask, “Where do you live?” or “Would you like to do PT around your house?” The patients were so grateful, and they would be much more likely to have their care optimized, rather than if he only sent them to one place. I also saw how mindsets play a role in different people. Some people who seemed younger or healthier were more depressed and not as motivated to rehab themselves. Others were fighting off cancer or other difficult diagnoses, yet stayed positive and believed they would get better. This is just the orthopedics side. We are there to treat their orthopedic problems, and don’t always have time to address primary care with them. When you’re seeing these patients, you can recognize that there is something else going on here. Show each patient that you know who he/she is and that you see him/her as an individual, not just a record number. Remember something that he/she told you at the previous visit. Remember to ask about his/her children or his/her mom. Show them that he/she matters, because that is a way we can play into mental health as well.
My family is also a core part of my life. School has taken a lot more time in the past year, but my husband and I had been talking about it for a long time. We understood that my time with the family would be cut much shorter, but I’ve always been one to multitask and prioritize things for different stages of life. We’ve gotten good at scheduling, coordinating, and communicating. My husband has been amazing. He cooks most of our dinners, and in the past year, he’s taken over a lot of the household duties. For the most part, I try to spend dinner with my family and help with getting the boys into bed. I try to get much of my homework done during the week, so we can do things as a family on the weekends. We’ve also had my sister-in-law and my parents to help us. I don’t think we would’ve been able to get through anything on our own. Building a village or finding a support system is important. You should never feel like you are doing anything alone.
Sara Lyons is a second-year PA student at UTHSCSA. She and her husband, Quentin, with their two boys, Tahj and Remy, reside in San Antonio. In her free time, she enjoys playing sports, gardening, trying out new foods, and reading.
Story: Janet Li, Photographs: Claire Schenken