Stages: @DrConnieTheOB

In this week's episode we continue our Stages Series with Dr. Constants Adams (@DrConnieTheOB), who recently completed her OBGYN residency. We talk about her path into medicine and the why behind her practice. 

Victoria explains some of the different terminology found in England vs America in this week's interlude.

Welcome to our Shift Yall!

Follow her on IG and Twitter @DrConnieTheOB  and follow Delirum on IG @NightShiftDelirium and Twitter @DeliriumShift.

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Transcript

Victoria (00:05):

Hey, y'all welcome to night shift delirium, a podcast about junior doctors and the world that surrounds them. I'm your host Victoria, a junior doctor based in England. And on this week's episode, we're going to continue our stages series. Our stages series looks at various medical professionals at various stages in their career. This week, we're talking with Dr. Constance Adams and obstetrician gynecologist, who recently graduated from her residency program. We talk about her journey and her experiences and the things that motivate her to continue serving her community. I'm sure you're going to love this week's episode. Welcome to our shift. Y'all

Victoria (00:47):

So welcome to the podcast. Um, thank you so much for joining us today. We're talking about stages in your medical career and now is a really exciting moment for you. Uh, you have just completed your residency in obstetrics and gynecology, I guess before I didn't say all of that, I should introduce you. Your name is Dr. Constance Adams. Do you want to just give a brief introduction about who you are and what it is that you do? Yeah.

Constants (01:19):

So my name is Constance Adams. I am officially an OB GYN and I just completed residency at Northwestern, um, on Friday, actually. So pretty recently, and I will be working as a general obstetrician and gynecologist here in Chicago. I'll be working with one of the private groups affiliated with Northwestern, Northwestern, OB GYN consultants. I am passionate about working with women of color and kind of addressing issues that affect morbidity and mortality. Um, I'm also really passionate about medical student mentoring and getting underrepresented minorities into medicine. So that's why it's kind of perfect to be on the night shift delirium today.

Victoria (02:00):

So let's start at the beginning. Why did you choose medicine and more specifically, why did you choose obstetrics?

Constants (02:08):

Yeah, so I actually decided to go, I decided I wanted to be able to come in doctor when I was pretty young. Um, my mom actually started Emery in a home for women, women who had HIV, who were battling substance abuse and like the early nineties, this was a period of time when not a lot of focus was being held on women. It was, it was mainly focused on men. And so ultimately that left like a large group of people that were impacted without resources. Um, so it was pretty amazing to kind of see her start the home, um, and run it. And we actually live there. I'm an only child and a single parent. So we lived in a home where my mom went. I went and she spent a lot of time in there and we had a nice little room in there. And then during that time period, physicians would come in and out because they'd be treating in different residence.

Constants (02:56):

And it was so, you know, I remember being a child and it being so cool to me that you had these people who had this kind of vast, fund of knowledge who were able to answer questions. They were able to answer questions to the residents. They were able to answer the questions with this little four or five-year-old who was just super inquisitive. And it was really inspirational because you could also see how you could see how the women were comforted and just made to feel secure and safe despite, what at that point in time was kind of a death sentence. Although we know that's not the case anymore. So that was pretty inspirational for me, which is what initially got me into medicine. Um, and so with that background in HIV, when I went in medical school, I was like, I'm going to be an HIV doctor.

Constants (03:46):

I'm going to work with people who like adults and children and HIV. This is what I was most passionate about, but kind of in that timeframe, leading up to me, going to medical school, it was almost like a foreshadowing because I've always done a lot of work with adolescent girls like their mentorship. Um, I, in my year off, I actually worked for a program called upward bound and I got to talk to high schoolers about STDs and condoms and talking to people about why it was important to have pap smears and mammograms and things like that. And so I did that before medical school came to medical school thinking I was going to do HIV, um, or infectious disease specialty. And then what I realized is that the thing that actually made me want to go into medicine was more so the effect that it had on these women who were a vulnerable group.

Constants (04:35):

And so as I kind of went through my, my third year rotations as a medical student, I realized thing one actually found, um, a lot of like chronic diseases and illnesses and people who were sick and dying with every rotation I was on. I found, I found it to be pretty demoralizing. Like I remember being pretty sad going home, like leaving my like wards rotation, internal medicine. Um, I fell in love with surgery. And then I, um, did obstetrics and gynecology my OB GYN rotation. And it was amazing like day one, I was on labor and delivery and we're talking to ...walking a woman through her first miscarriage. Then the next day we delivered this baby, like we do a C-section for a woman who had had like a bicornuate uterus, which is a heart shaped uterus. Um, then I got to go into the clinic and you're talking to people about preventative care and medicine. You're doing all these cool surgeries. You're you're like, take it out the uterus of people who have had abnormal bleeding, et cetera, et cetera. And, um, lo and behold, I was like, oh, this is what I was meant to do. This is where I was meant to be. So it's kind of a, long-winded answer to tell you how I got there, but it was a little bit of a kind of winding road for me to find my passion.

Victoria (05:54):

Yeah.

Victoria (05:54):

I love that. Um, in the U K I there's so many differences here, but in the UK, there's a specialty that is specifically sexual and reproductive health. Like as in, it's not a fellowship, it's a straight, direct sort of training program, which is really interesting. Um, so that's where you get all of the, like HIV, all of, any sort of sexual health sort of, um, case, which I think is interesting. I think it's interesting that we don't have that as a specific specialty, which, I mean, does it really need to be, or can we just include it in other things?

Constants (06:31):

I mean, that's actually kind of interesting cause it could be because sexual health is such a big part of people's lives. That's not talked about often, um, power. We know it can impact you in so many different ways. I mean, even when you, when you think about men, sometimes the earliest signs of, um, like vascular disease is when they start having erectile dysfunction. You know what I mean? So, but they're not going around just kind of advertising it to the world. So I think that it's kind of interesting to have a full spectrum designated, so it's kind of cool.

Victoria (07:08):

Um, so I find it all to be very interesting, everything that you've just mentioned. Um, I know I saw you recently did an interview about, um, your mom's story and things. I'm sure she's so proud of you now. Um, do you have anyone else in your family who has sort of gone down the health route or were you the first of? What's the family background there?

Constants (07:34):

So, um, I'm not the first one in health. I am the first one to go into medicine, but to be a physician though. So both of my aunts were actually nurses. Um, and one aunt, mind you, they were nurses kind of in like the sixties and seventies. That's an interesting story by itself, but, um, one worked primarily on the psych ward and the other one, um, I think mainly did geriatrics if I'm not mistaken. Um, and then my mom is a substance abuse counselor, which is how she got interested, like, how she ended up working, with the women in that home.

Victoria (08:11):

Nice. That's good. I mean, I certainly think with myself, my dad's my dad being a doctor, my mom being nurse absolutely led me down the path of medicine. Um, but on the flip side I have like a twin sister who's doing law and like wants... Not nothing to do with medicine, but in a practical sense, she's not interested at all. So I always find it to be interesting when you kind of, you know, are influenced by your surroundings. So you've done medical school, which is so for the people that don't know you did undergrad, which is four years, then you went into medical school for four years and then you've completed your OB GYN training, which is four years. So it's long time. Um, when you think back about sort of your most impactful moments, do you have different memories at each stage that sort of reaffirmed your journey or changed your journey in each stage? So like from undergrad to med school to residency.

Constants (09:25):

So, I think the path or the timeframe between undergrad and medical school pretty much tested my resilience and my desire to become a doctor. Um, and I say that because I think undergrad, if I'm being honest, it, I found it a lot more. I had a hard time getting from undergrad into medical school, not as hard as, not, not as difficult as everybody's story because everyone has different stories with their path to medicine. But I feel like that timeframe, um, there was a lot of doubt and a lot of questioning on whether or not I really wanted to pursue this because I knew how long the road was and kind of with the hurdles that I was going through. So my freshman year of college... I've said it before, I'm the only child of a single parent. My freshman year of college, while I had scholarships, I still needed money to live and to eat into do basic life functioning things.

Constants (10:24):

And knowing that I didn't really have like, you know, mom or dad's kind of fall back on, although let me, let me not say that. I knew that my mom regardless, we'll find a way to make it work, but after spending 18 years of her watching her struggle and sacrifice, I was not gonna allow myself to like kind of deplete my mom for resources to help. Right. And so I worked two jobs all throughout my freshman year of college. So I was working 40 hours a week as a full-time undergraduate student. Um, and when I made that transition from high school, you know, from high school to undergrad and high school, you know, I feel like you don't really have to study that much. I remember being a high school student like, oh, I can cram for this. So I don't really know.

Constants (11:07):

I just, I feel like I wasn't really doing as much studying, but all of a sudden I'm in these college courses and I'm like, wait, that's taking a lot more work. And between working and just not knowing how to study and not really understanding what it was going to take my freshman year, I think my GPA was like a 2.5 or something like that. Um, I also didn't have anybody who was really kind of guiding me in this direction in medicine. I knew I wanted to be a doctor, but I didn't, I didn't know when I was supposed to take the MCAT house was to take the MCAT who I was supposed to talk to. It was, it was pretty difficult. Um, and finally I met my advisor at the end of the year. My advisor told me that I probably should seek out a different field to go into because, um, as he put it, he didn't know if I was going to make the based on the, based on my grades.

Constants (11:55):

He didn't know anything about my background. He didn't know anything about me working. All he knew was that on a piece of paper, my grades didn't really match up with somebody who was going to be able to be competitive for medical school. So when I realized that I needed to get those grades up, um, I still had to work, but I ended up learning, learning how to study. So this is when kind of the support of other people of color just really came through. Like, you know, there were seniors who had had these classes before and who started passing down notes and who would, who I would go to tutoring. I would go to extra office hours. Like I, luckily I had, um, some professors who were willing to kind of just work with me and, um, tutor me. And I ended up just kind of taking more hours somehow some way still managing it, um, and getting my GPA up.

Constants (12:51):

But then the summer between my junior and senior year of college, um, I actually went and did a research program in USC medical university, South Carolina, which ultimately is where I went to medical school, but I did a research program and this is the timeframe where someone told me I was supposed to study for the Mcat. Now, do I know how to study for this mcat? All I knew was that this was, this was this test that I was supposed to take in order for me to go to medical school. I thought it was going to just be like SATs. I honestly, because I had no idea nobody was talking, no one was talking to me about this. I didn't have any doctors in my family. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. So the way I studied for the mcat was kind of how I had started studying for all my, like my science classes.

Constants (13:39):

I literally had old textbooks that I was reading through. I had set myself up a little, you know, curriculum where I was like reading through all these old textbooks and chemistry books in biology, et cetera, um, while doing research. And so I took the mcat at the end of that summer and I did awful, did a horrible job at again, mcat. And it was pretty frustrating for me because at this point I had gotten my GPA up. I was like doing extra curriculars. I was balancing working. And like I was, I was pretty much trying to do everything I could to make myself competitive, but I had this one exam that I really couldn't get through. And I remember talking, there was, there was a woman at NUSC, when I took the MCAT and she was telling me, she was like, it's really about, it's not just the material, it's how you take the test.

Constants (14:37):

Um, and how you approach the questions to the test. And of course, I don't know what that means, whatever. Um, so I applied to medical school. I don't get in, um, because of course not, like I said, my uncapped score was not competitive, but in USC had a program called the summer Institute where they actually took people who were strong in other areas, but we could be impact. And it was a free program where they gave, they pay for housing and they paid for, um, textbooks and it was run by, um, some of the MD-PhD students. So these are the people who actually taught me how to take the test, like how to actually apply the knowledge and take the test. I ended up taking it the MCAT a total of three times. And after that third time, um, after finishing the summer Institute, I had it high enough for me to go to medical school.

Constants (15:21):

So the reason why I say that this was the hardest time of my life was I had, I hadn't really struggled in high school. Like I didn't, I didn't struggle with grades in high school. I was an honor student college, you know, college was hard. And then in particular, that one test made it even more difficult. And I remember being clinically depressed my senior year of college, like I think I got down to like 98 pounds. Like I wasn't eating, I wasn't taking care of myself because I was so, um, just hurting to find, you know, to, to have this goal. And I have this dream and I have not figured out how I could actually get over this hurdle to achieve it. So that was a time period where I really had to kind of question like, do I really want to do this? Is there anything else I'm interested in? Is there anything else I can see myself doing? And I really couldn't, I didn't really find anything else that interesting. I didn't really see myself being able to be happy in any other career choice. And so luckily, you know, perseverance..mcat came up, went to medical school, but in medical school is tough by itself. Um, but I'd say undergrad was like the hardest period. Sorry. I have really long answers.

Victoria (16:43):

No. That was great. I relate to a lot of what you've said. Like, I mean, I think, and we will talk about it, but I think especially like people of color, black people specifically, um, mentorship is so important because a lot of people don't take the time to know and learn about your journey and like, what, why is it that things aren't necessarily working out? Like it's disheartening to hear that your advisor was just like, you're not going to cut it without asking and exploring why, because the whole point of an advisor is to guide you. You know? And I think often, especially black people, men and women are not given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to especially like academic pursuits, you know? Um, yeah. I mean, I, I definitely have countless stories and I mean, I'm abs I'm privileged. Like my father and mom are both in the medical field and trained and studied in America and, you know, so I absolutely recognize my privilege, but at the same time, there are many, uh, people who are just like, you're just not going to make it.

Victoria (18:05):

Like I remember when I was in high school, I did IB, which is like basically international baccalaureate. Um, and I decided it's very stupidly to take a higher level course, which is a two year course in physics. But I started, I took a two year course starting at my senior year and I was like, well, whatever, I'll get my physics credit. It's fine. Very stupid because you have end of course, exams that you have to pass in North Carolina. And so I only technically had covered half of the year's material. And I STRUG-GLEDin that class, like is a story in many aspects of my life. But, um, I struggled and I remember I had a month. It was like the start of may, or I don't even know when the school year is in high school, but I had one month from the time my teacher, um, uh, sat with me and the time that I had the course exam, end ofcourse exam, and I had basically a year's worth of material to go over. And she was like, yeah, well, I've seen, you've been struggling. So, you know, good luck. You're probably not gonna make it. And I was like, all right, cool bet. Guess who got a 90 something on that test?

Victoria (19:16):

But like, it's just it, I don't know. It's disappointing that black people and black women, especially have to be resilient, have to push through in ways that many of our peers simply do not, and it's not due to their own intentional, you know, like it's not always a conscious thing, but so many people don't have these sorts of stories. And one thing that I've seen, especially in this podcast, interviewing so many women of color and black women, that there's always an element of resilience there. And I'm not saying that other people don't have that. Other people definitely jumped through a lot of hurdles, but the benefit of doubt is not often, you know, we're not often given the benefit of doubt ultimately. And I think that's rather unfortunate

Constants (20:03):

If anything, it's not only that we're not given the benefit of the doubt, but we are also just courage in a way that not everyone is. And I think that, um, subsequently you end up seeing less of us in medicine. I I've, I've made this argument multiple times. Um, I even argument I've made this proclamation multiple times that medicine is not designed to encourage all classes of people to be successful. It's not designed that way. It's not set up that way. It's set up where if you are rich and white, you are and put in a position where you were going to be more successful. Like the end cap, we'll start there. Like as, as the first actually we can even go further back. We'll go to SATs. We know that traditionally, the SAT and ACTs are tests that people of color don't perform as well on.

Constants (21:06):

And it's actually been studied that it's because there's racial bias all throughout the exam. And then you go on to the MCAT. You are competing with people who can spend thousands and thousands of dollars on these prep courses, the resources and the materials that are needed to apply to medical school is another, what four or $500 at a minimum, just to apply to medical school. You get into med school, then you're in a position where let's just, let's just take, you know, take a step and kind of take away all the other struggles people may have dealt with. But the first step one, another thousand plus dollars. And that's just step one. That's not including the Q bank you needsto buy, to pay for step one. I know step one is now pass, fail, but in step two, I don't know what they're doing with it right now, but I think it's one of those parts is pass fail. But back in the day, step two CK, it's another thousand plus dollars plus to Q bank, another couple of hundred dollars. Step two CS, another thousand plus dollars. Then you fast forward to apply in the residency. When you want to have a competitive application for residency, that's a minimum of five to the 500 to a thousand dollars. Plus having to travel across the universe to interview for programs, thousands of more dollars get into residency and other thousand plus dollars to take step three. And they wonder why there's not more of us.

Victoria (22:35):

It is. It's something that I feel so strongly about because they always say like, don't be cheap, invest in your education, this and that. But like that investment comes at a cost. So if you're encouraging people to like go for it, you know, everything is possible, blah, blah, blah. Don't be surprised in my opinion, when things don't necessarily, when you, you can't necessarily have the best grades because you're working or you have other stresses that you have to deal with. And, you know, I mean, there's a lot of things. So certainly the financial barriers are there. And then also there's the obvious, uh, implicit bias that we all deal with from superiors colleagues, patients, and anyone and everyone in between. Um, but you know, still we rise, I suppose.

Constants (23:26):

Maya Angelou.

Victoria (23:30):

Americans versus Britts, English and medicine edition in the medical world, there are many ways to describe the same thing and just like everything else. It's often country and culture specific looking broadly at England and America, there are three main categories of differences, spelling, nouns, and the no rhyme or reason category speaking as an American under spelling, there are seemingly completely unnecessary insertion of vowels by the Brits, commonly an O and a E for example, esophagus, it starts with an O here and pediatrics has an extra, a thrown in there somewhere. And then there are the nouns when going to the hospital, you'll go to a and E in England or accident and emergency. This is commonly known in America as the ed or emergency department. If you need surgery, you'll go to theatre, which is not a place of thesbians. It's the OR or the operating room before going for surgery. If you're in America, you'll have your labs drawn or in the UK, someone will bleed you. You'll be assessed by a resident or a registrar who will report to their attending or consultant. Your doctor might be bleeped or paged depending on which country you're in and the nurse or a sister will give you the meds that you need, like a Tylenol or paracetamol. And lastly, in the no rhyme or reason of it, all a consultant surgeon is called a Mister or a miss. Instead of maintaining the doctor title, your doctor's office in the UK is called a surgery, not the doctor's office. And there are loads of conditions which are colloquially known, like piles, also known as hemorrhoids. There are 1,000,001 additional examples, but I'll save that for another time. o

Victoria (25:35):

So, we've spoken a little bit about, um, mentorship and how it's been important and sort of having your community of even just mentors. Who are your peers? Are there specific people that you, um, feel, you know, grateful for and on this journey?

Constants (25:53):

Oh, absolutely. So, um, every single my answers is so long. I'm so sorry. Um, so I'll say like my mom already, one from an inspiration, I had a middle school science teacher, Ms. Selena Latimer, um, Ms. Latta, Maura was my science teacher. And I remember having a hard time in middle school. I might actually relocated from the Midwest to the south. There was feeling I hadn't, I had never been called the N word in my life before I got called in welfare. First time when I was a middle school student, I had never been, um, truly in a position to be a minority to before, um, where I was the only black person, these groups of white class, like white classmates, which is when I got called the N-word. And I remember feeling very isolated and alone. And Ms. Latimer was a black woman who she would take me aside and she'd spend time with me.

Constants (26:53):

She might tutor me in science. She just uplifted me and encouraged me. Um, so Ms. Latimer, I think was like one of the key people in middle school to help me high school. I had an amazing guidance counselor. I was type of high school student where I wanted to be in with the in-crowd. I wanted to hang out with all the cool kids and the cool kids were trying to be in these AP classes, honor classes. That's not, that's not what they were doing, right. Um, well, it's not all the cool kids. And so my, um, I remember purposely trying to put myself kind of in, um, different courses and not really challenged myself cause I wanted to be around the cool kids. I was tired of being the nerd and like the kind of geeky, little black girl and Dominique Pageant was my guidance counselor.

Constants (27:40):

And he worked with my mom to encourage me to get into these AP courses. They actually, I don't even think they were that he, every time I would try to register for a class that was not advanced, he would call my mom. That's what, that's what he would do. He would call my mom. He was, he was snitch on me and here we are. And so like, he encouraged me throughout, um, that entire period of time and even, you know, getting up, even taking the SAT twice. Cause I didn't say the first time I took, because I didn't want to take it. He was like, take it again, see how you do fine, whatever he told my mom, when I had said I would want to take it again. And between between my mother and Dominique Padgett, they got me into college, um, in college, um, there was a good network of upperclassmen, like, like black upperclassmen who continued to look out for me.

Constants (28:34):

Um, the list is so long. I honestly wouldn't be able to go through it right now. I'm so sorry. But, um, then in medical school, one of my, I remember the very first test in medical school. I had given myself almost an anxiety attack because I was dealing with all kinds of, um, all kind of issues with not feeling like I was smart enough or good enough to be there. I struggled to get there. I, I was freaked out. Didn't think I was in there, what I was doing. And then I in a panic burst into somebody's, um, um, study room and that person, her name was Victoria Libran. Victoria was in the same class as me. And she was like, it's okay, this you crazy girl. You can sit here with me and study. And Victoria, um, became one of the closest people in my life.

Constants (29:27):

She, I actually feel like her support as well as when my friends more in tally. They, we studied together. We supported each other. We advocated for one another. And those people got me in the medical school. One of the ultimate, ultimately one of the deans at the college, Dr. Dees was a mentor Meyer, Henry Singleton. Like there, there, there are so many people. Anyway, there's so many people that it'd be hard to like identify one specific person. But um, also had upperclassmen in medical school who looked out for me like Pete, to people who went to OB GYN in particular. And one was, um, now Dr. Candace joy. She used to encourage me when I thought I was gonna fail. Step one, ha you know, tell me how to study for different, um, different block exams and how to study for the different, um, what are the name of, I can't remember the, the test that you take after each third year rotation shelf exam.

Constants (30:21):

It hasn't been that long. Um, and then the, even the chair at OB GYN department at, um, NUSC, she, she had a similar background to me and she encouraged me and even call turns out. She called Northwestern and told them the baby lucky to have me. And when I told her I was interested in Northwestern, um, so even that was amazing. Residency came and our good friend, Dr. Amaka Onwuzurike was my senior resident and she helped me get through, even now I'm texting her about board questions and she's answering me like we, we we've had, and we have such an amazing group of black women at Northwestern that every single one of these women, as a mentor and somebody who encourages me. So again, a long winded answer, but I've had lots of mentors,

Victoria (31:15):

I think it's so, you know, because the narrative is, and the, the reality is that, um, it's obviously very difficult for black people to achieve at the level of becoming, you know, doctors and things like that. But there are so many people that do feed feed us and make sure that in a crowd of people that might not support us, there's always one or two people. And I think it's so important to find that person or people and not just automatically sort of be on the defense, like, oh no, one's gonna support me because yeah. A lot of people are not rooting for you. That's just a fact, but there's always someone that, um, that is, or that can be a support. And sometimes you just have to find that community. And I, I would similarly say there's not been a single stage in my very long winding journey through medicine that I've not had someone to turn to. Even though there were like maybe four or five people that are like full on haters for every four or five of those there's one or two other people who are like, you know what, let's focus. Like, let's bring it back in Victoria.

Constants (32:29):

I got you.

Victoria (32:30):

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, yes, I think that is really important now. So have you had any experiences with patients that you feel like, you know what, I'm so glad that I'm doing this, or similarly, any experiences where you're like, you know what, today? I don't know that I'm enthusiastic about my job.

Constants (32:53):

I I'll say yes to both. Um, one of the most inspirational things about being a black woman in medicine is the look on patient's faces. When they see you walking children, I've had reactions that have ranged from a patient jumping out of bed and doing a bit of a praise dance. When I walked into the room, um, I've had patients crying. I've had their family members crying, people who have grabbed him, grabbed my hand and bless you. I'm so proud of you or people who, um, they'll tell you, like, I feel comfortable, you know, like I'm so happy to see you here or just watching people where they take a sigh of relief. You know, when I say like, Hey, I'm your doctor, that's taking care of you today. And those are those moments where, you know, you're doing the right thing or when you can advocate for patients who otherwise are not being listened to.

Constants (33:45):

I think one of the biggest frustrations I have as a black woman and as a black physician is how people can misconstrue how we respond or like terminology that we use, or pretty much label us as having attitudes or being upset about something when we actually aren't, you know, or if we are rightfully so, you know, I it's, it's, it's been any, it's been everything from, you know, advocating on patient's behalf when people are disregarding their pain. Um, I think, I mean, that's, that's a huge, huge, huge issue in medicine because the perception of pain is so subjective. And when you take people who culturally are not like you, they're less likely to believe that you actually are in pain. So when, when I, when I have a patient, tell me, Hey doc, I'm in pain. I need something else. I'm going through. I'm seeing what they've gotten

Constants (34:44):

I'm seeing, is there anything else that we can give them or identifying, Hey, I wouldn't expect you to be in this much pain. What else is happening? Really making sure that I'm looking at them and able to see, is there something else contributing to this pain or when people are disregarding symptoms? Preeclampsia, I think is one of the main symptoms, like not symptoms. One of the main diseases were not listening to people when they tell you about their symptoms is so incredibly dangerous, right? Like if I have a patient telling me that she has a headache and it's not going away and she's on Tylenol and this headache is getting worse and her vision is changing, that's preeclampsia until proven. Otherwise, maybe everything else is taking time to catch up, but I'm not going to disregard that. Um, and then you asked me if there were times where I thought like, this is a bad day and this isn't for me, there hasn't been a time, um, in the aspect of patient care that I've thought this wasn't for me.

Constants (35:43):

Um, but I do work with women in some of the most vulnerable and sometimes traumatic times of their lives. You know what I'm talking people through, losing a baby at 38, 39 weeks, you know, talking to them and giving them that diagnosis and talking to them about the management of it. Um, older patients who come to me in clinic where maybe they had a little bit of bleeding here and everybody thought nothing about it. We did a biopsy today and it turns out they have cancer. And he hadn't explained to them what that is, what that means in the future and what it, what it could mean down the line. And so those days are tough, you know, because at the end of the day, I'm a human being. And so as much as this is my profession, I genuinely care about people and I do care about my patients.

Constants (36:36):

And so it can be difficult sometimes not to take that home with you. Um, there, there have been times where I've been traumatized by patients, um, outcome, you know, I, I had, I had a situation like that. Um, a couple of years ago in residency where, um, there was a really, really bad outcome. And to this day, I think about it, you know, I wasn't at fault, but I think about this patient, I think about this patient's family on a regular basis. And so those are the times where it can be tough and those are days where I need to go home and watch my cartoons and eat some sweets and try to make myself feel a little bit better. But, um, all in all I know I'm in the right field and I'm in the right specialty because even in those bad days, I'm grateful that I can be there to support people.

Victoria (37:27):

Yes. Everything about that. Like first your, the good things of it, I think are exactly why we need doctors like you and specifically black OB GYNs, because we all know the stats that are out there regarding, um, maternal mortality in black women. We've seen all of the, like the headlines and all of the press, but it is so important because as you said, like cultural competency is not something that is taught often. And it is so important. Like I had a patient, um, I'm working in, um, the ER right now in emergency medicine. And I had a patient yesterday or sometime who, um, I was working on the pediatric side and their kid, like, it was kind of a long wait, you know, this happens. And the mom came and was like, I'm about to have a pain crisis. I just need to go as quickly as possible.

Victoria (38:27):

And I was the only black healthcare provider, you know, only black doctor, um, the nursing staff, the sort of nursing assistant staff, all of them were white or not black. And, um, they were all very ignorant of what a pain crisis is. And they were like, oh, do you want to check in and asking her to check in and go through the process here, which is quite long, you know, there's also a wait time on that side when she's in crisis. And all we really need to do is like, assess her, assess her daughter as quickly as possible because she wants to go home. She, she didn't want to say it. And she has her own reasons for that. I understand that. And half of them just rolled their eyes and completely disregarded the fact that this lady was physically, she was moving as someone who was in extreme amount of pain.

Victoria (39:18):

And I was, I was, I told them, I'm going to go on to quickly assess the patient and then come out and, you know, let's move quickly. Like, let's get the prescription ready, let's get all the things that they need to go home. Um, and they just sort of dismissed it. I mean, eventually we did get her home as quickly as possible, but people would have been moving, I think with a little bit more fire under their feet. If her expression of pain looked like someone from here, she, you know, she also wasn't from England, but someone who's from here who might, you know, be acting differently. If they have an acute abdomen, for example, they would have been moving very differently, but because she was, um, not reserved, but she wasn't like crying out in pain because she knows what's going on. And also she knows how to sort of move about her day and in a significant amount of pain, they just disregarded it. So I just think that having, um, you know, black providers and just a wide, wide diversity of, uh, medical care providers is so, so important because we don't learn these things. You don't learn that, you know, a Nigerian woman might not be as vocal as, you know, whatever you don't learn those things. And the only way we're going to get sort of the appropriate care is by seeing the people reflected in, um, those that are providing for them.

Constants (40:37):

Yeah. I mean, cause I think even when you think, when, when you can see yourself in someone else, when you can see yourself in this patient, you were going to be much more likely to pay attention and to intervene. You, you are like, I don't care how good of a person you are. Like when I look like you, I'm, I'm going to think about that. Like, I'm, I'm going to understand that even when I'm in pain, sometimes I'm just kind of, I kind of just sit in silence. I might like just sit, not say anything about anything and you know, or I'm okay. Or it hurt. It does hurt, you know, but because I'm not giving you the reaction that you expect for me to give you that doesn't mean that you need to discount the symptoms that I'm telling you, that I'm having. Because at the end of the day, I know my body much better than you do because I was spending much more time with it than you have at this point in time.

Constants (41:38):

Um, and I, I even tell people as a black woman, I'm also afraid when I get pregnant. Like I like I have the same, if not, maybe more fears about being pregnant that other black women have because mid black, maternal morbidity and mortality doesn't care. If your doctor doesn't care, if you are Serena Williams tennis player, it does it doesn't, it doesn't care if you're Beyonce, this worldwide superstar, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Like either way we are at a higher risk and I know what some of those risks are and what they look like. And ultimately I'm going to want to have a baby one day, but I, but when I'm working with patients and I can see the fear in your eye, I can understand with them and connect with them on that level because I'm, I'm scared too. So I understand why you're afraid because you, because it's something that I deal with too.

Victoria (42:36):

Yeah, absolutely. And I think as we've spoken already so much about what is required of a black woman in general, like this, um, resilient energy or resilient spirit, I should say, um, it's also what is weaponized against us, right? Like you are told to be the best and the strongest and to not, yo u know, show your vulnerability and weakness and all of these things because otherwise will be used against you. And at the same time where you see it in a real way, um, in medical settings or really any setting it's weaponized against you because you're the strong black woman, you know? So whenever you are getting to a point where you're expressing yourself, it's not really, um, taken seriously. So I mean, baby steps, all we can do is, is advocate continues to sort of advocate for our patients and ourselves and other sort of young, um, uh, people interested in medicine, really. So I don't want to take too much of your time, but I'll ask just a couple more questions now that you're done with everything. What is your theme song that is, that you're feeling right now? Like you've you finished everything. So what song would it be?

Constants (43:58):

Oh, man, that was a good one. I feel like it's always, it's always going to be some type of Beyonce. Always. I am a Beyonce stan. I am the president of the beehive. Not really, but, um, I would say Shining by Beyonce.

Victoria (44:30):

That is such a happy song isn't it? Like, such a celebration.

Constants (44:36):

I feel it right now. Like all these, all these winnings. I know.

Victoria (44:40):

Excellent.

Victoria (44:42):

So, one sort of last question, but it's kind of a two part question. So what advice would you give to constants 15 years ago? And then what advice do you have for Constants 15 years from now?

Constants (44:56):

Hmm, that's an excellent question. So Constants 15 years ago, um, I would tell her not to give up, not to get, not to get discouraged, um, because she is good enough. I think, I think, I think that'd be the biggest piece of advice I could give myself. Cause I think so, so much of my struggle has had to do with imposter syndrome that having, like, seeing my, if I could have seen as a future, I see myself now and spoken to myself, then it would have been incredibly helpful to know that I'm good enough, if not more than good enough, I'd say that. 15 years from now, I would want to tell myself to remember how it started. Remember every step of the journey and not to lose, focus on why I'm here and what drove me to get to this point.

Victoria (46:08):

Very, very good. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today and I know only good things are coming to you because you earned it. You deserve it. And you know, what's for you is for you.

Constants (46:23):

Yes. Look at you speaking life!

Victoria (46:28):

Thank you so much for doing the podcast. Of course, this was fun. We're going to tag you in everything. Where can people find you online?

Constants (46:39):

Well, those are great questions. So I'm online. You can find me at @DrConnietheOB and that's my Instagram handle. It's also my Twitter handle. Um, and you can find me in the office at Northwestern, OB GYN consultants located in the Archies pavilion, 6 76 north St. Clair street. Um, and so if you are in Chicago and you were looking for an OB GYN, please find me. I'd be happy to have you and take care of you.

Victoria (47:07):

Amazing. Yay.

Victoria (47:14):

Hey, y'all I hope you all enjoyed this week's episode with Dr. Constants Adams. Make sure you follow her on Instagram @DrConnietheOB, and also on Twitter at Dr. Connie, the OB. She shares a lot of really interesting information about obstetrics and gynecology, and I'm sure if you're in the Chicago area, looking for an obstetrician gynecologist, she is available. If you've been enjoying our season so far, make sure you share like subscribe review with five stars only. Y'all on every place where you stream the podcast. We are on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Google, apple, anywhere, and everywhere that you can find podcasts and make sure you follow us on Instagram at night shift delirium and on Twitter at delirium shift, we'll be dropping information about the merge that we'll be selling in the next couple of weeks. See you on our next.

Guest: Dr. Constants Adams, @DrConnieTheOB
Host: Dr. Victoria Kyerematen

#obgyn #maternalmortality #residency #premed #doctors