I am currently part of a phenomenal team of APPs and surgeons in Pediatric Ear, Nose and Throat- Head and Neck Surgery who address Pediatric ENT issues from as simple as recurrent ear infections to complex congenital issues that require multidisciplinary care. Presently, aside from seeing the abovementioned patients, I also perform upper lip and lingual frenotomy procedures at the Tongue Tie Clinic for patients up to 14 weeks old with breastfeeding or feeding difficulties.
Dealing with Pediatric ENT patients is a whole new realm for me despite being an ENT surgeon in the Philippines. Removing foreign bodies in the ear and nose, doing nasal endoscopies and flexible laryngoscopies require a different approach to gain the trust of a Pediatric patient. I was so happy when a 4-year-old patient hugged me after I scoped her. Also, in Pediatrics your patient is not only the child but the caregiver as well. It is so fulfilling to see a mother able to nurse without pain or difficulty right after releasing the tongue tie. The conversations are long as well, this becomes more complex when you are dealing with an interpreter to translate for you. One of the opportunities I see that I can do to alleviate this is to learn another language like Spanish. I think this will not be too difficult for me as my native language Tagalog already has a lot of Spanish words.
My desires to do more in my profession are driven by personal experiences. I had monthly anaphylactic shocks when I was 16 after an encounter with a jelly fish. I realized early on that I am alive because God allowed me to, and He has tasks for me. Since then, I “don’t follow a road, I make my own road.” Reflecting, many times I had defied stereotypes, been creative because I just followed what was in my heart. My experiences around doctors and nurses in the hospital inspired me to become a doctor myself. I love to write, and currently editor of the ENT journal in the Philippines. Having breast cancer at 38, made me stop and reflect about life outside my profession that led to getting married to my loving husband and live in TN. We had a daughter; she lived for 19 days and was in the NICU at Vanderbilt. This experience around amazing doctors and nurses made me decide to go back to school and become a nurse practitioner. About 2 years in practice, I was tasked to write the Tongue Tie Protocol for APPs of which I am proud of. My dream for APPs in my division is for us to be able to perform minor procedures such as I&D and small excisions. My dream for nurse practitioners in TN is to have full practice authority and have a compact nurse license. I would like to be part of a team that works on these in the future.
In our spare time, husband and I love traveling. I enjoy gardening and writing.